START has been banned for violating the “one account” rule and creating a sock.
I’ll miss the guy. It seemed similar but not quite the same to me. There was something very teenagerish about both, but not in a way that would be unique to one person. I hope there was behind-the-scenes evidence, although I admit it was suspicious that he referenced START in that last post (seems a bit too stupid, even for him/either of them).
Viola - all due respect, there’s no way that wasn’t START. The style is enough for me (and remember that there’s plenty of teenagers who post the same sorts of messages - teenage drama and melodrama - who don’t do the same sort of “I was dumb, what now?” kind of crap that START did in every post. His writing style was very identifiable and did not sound like, say, dare_devil007_, who is also a teenager.) But if that’s not enough for you, the reference to START cinches it - if he was new, chances are slim he’d know who the guy was. Even if he did, it’s real unlikely he’d realize how similar they sounded. Even if he did, why would he slyly suggest he was START? If he had lurked long enough to know names, he certainly woulda known the “no socks” rule and why he shouldn’t be tempting fate.
There’s no doubt whatsoever, even aside from the Super-Secret Mod Tools[sup]TM[/sup] that they use to figure this stuff out. They do use behind-the-scenes information, you know.
I thought only Admins could wield the Banned stick. Hmmph, learn something new everyday…
Skip Magic he can unsuspend himself and ban using it. Are there no limits to his powers?
I think he’s just the announcer. Their policy requires multiple people to agree on a banning, and I think it requires at least one admin.
For once I am shocked by a banning. START seemed like a promising doper.
Too bad. His threads were getting a bit stale but all in all I liked the guy. Really stupid move on his part, though. Really really stupid.
Am I being whooshed? 
Are you certain that an imposter wasn’t imitating START?
Um, what do you think he was promising to do?
Because you can’t possibly be using the usual meaning of the word “promising.”
START starts many threads that are pretty similar. A pit thread is started where the vast majority believe he made it all up just for the attention. START lays low for awhile. A thread that is almost a facsimile of his style surfaces under a different name.
That, coupled with the fact that they probably have done pretty extensive IP traces, would leave one with the conclusion that the only thing not real was his story.
Now who’s going to tell him that being mean to people is mean?
I admit I was probably very selective in the threads of his which I read. I may have missed many in which he came across in a bad light to the dope community. But in the ones I did read I saw START as naive and young, and therefore a candidate for moulding into a moral knowledgable upstanding adult.
Prison terms are finite… Shouldn’t banning terms be? Shouldn’t the crime of creating a sock be one forgivable with an un-banning somewhere down the line?
I don’t think so. I think one of the benefits of this board is that it’s filled with people who are intelligent, respectful and play by the rules. If you don’t, you’re done. Overall, this means that the people who stick around are those who show those qualities. Those are the kind of people I WANT (and pay) to associate with, not people who don’t play by the rules.
Not to mention the fact that, IIRC, one of the members here (I forget who) forked over the money for his membership. I think I’d feel…used. And especially so if he was allowed back.
Yeah, and by the time we got to the Laura stuff, it became clear that he was just posting the same story over and over. This time he did it under a new name. What, you think his stories (assuming they’re true, which is a leap in itself) were suddenly going to change?
He got banned, uh, today. I don’t think we need to talk about parole yet.
I have to say that even though I always thought START was a dumbass, I think this Kyle Rayner is a different person. For one thing, his name is a Green Lantern reference, and he made several comic book references in the thread where he was banned. He knew about the different Green Lanterns, Jade, and the Question, all of whom are relatively obscure characters. START never made any mention of reading comic books, and from what he had listed as his interests in the past (hip-hop, breakdancing, going to church), he didn’t strike me as the kind of teenager who cared about comics. In fact, START seems like the kind of teenager who might relentlessly tease comic book fans, or at least roll his eyes at the childishness of it all. It seems like Kyle Rayner used a lot of extraneous details START wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of adding if he was just posting under a new ID.
Please give that a thought, mods.
In fact, rereading Kyle Rayner’s posts, his use of slang is reminiscent of the character Jay from Kevin Smith’s movies such as Clerks, Mallrats, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. These movies are well-loved by comic book readers due to writer/director Smith’s many comic book jokes and references, and Smith has even made forays into writing comics himself. I understand the Jay and Silent Bob characters have become cult heroes for teens, and their style of dialogue is very easy to lapse into.
START once mentioned his religious parents not allowing him to watch the offensive cartoon South Park, so I would be surprised if he was familiar with Kevin Smith’s movies, themselves known for lots of profanity and sexual humor. Just one more exhibit I present.
Voodoo, the mods do investigate these things more technologically. Aside from the guy openly and unsubtly hinting that he was START, the mods no doubt have IP traces and stuff. Besides, your arguments all depend on START having been honest about all those claims he made earlier. I don’t know that we can assume any of it was true.
BBVL, I am not a comics expert, but isn’t the Green Lantern vaguely unique in comic lore for being not one superhero, but many people? A succession, if you will, of people continually taking up where the last one left off?
Sort of like a sock following the falling out of an online persona?
I think it was a clue in favor of START, Kyle Rayner and who knows what other banned posters of the past (white pajama guy?) being a succesion of personas held by one person: a reverse Green Lantern, if you will.
Or maybe I’m overthinking it.