You are right, but your average non-reader doesn’t know that. Someone START’s age might know John Stewart, the African-American Green Lantern from the JLU cartoon, but that’s about it.
Some people have been reinstated after a banning. However, I think most of those were a case of someone being banned because they were known to argue a lot, and had gotten themselves so worked up they could no longer be reasonable. The reinstatements were granted after a cooling-off period.
I don’t know if the same generosity would be extended to a puppeteer. There’s a difference between someone who just has trouble controlling their emotions, and someone who yanks other posters’ chains for the fun of it. Furthermore, the “no socks” rule is pretty cut-and-dried, not as open to interpretation as “don’t be a jerk”.
WhyNot, you think START and Skewbald were one and the same? Veddy intarhesting…
I hate comics - they do nothing for me entertainment wise - yet I have a pretty extensive understanding of characters past and present. I’m a teenager and have picked it up solely from these boreds and pop culture. If I was so inclined, I could pick up a ton more just through a few hours of research.
Yet and still, you make a fine point - he really did go far and beyond a basic knowledge of comic books. However, with all else pointing against him, it seems little more than a shitck that one would pick up to diversify himself from the past. Perhaps in doing so be shielded from the large comic book fanbase we have here.
Then again I might just be a hopeless romantic.
Mebbe, mebbe not. I wasn’t here when **Skewbald **was, so never got to know his style. The white pajama girl thread someone linked to recently, and I read that. Seems a similar: “I was a jerk, was that wrong?” kind of attention whoring. Seemed better writing, technically speaking, but still didn’t play true.
Frankly, all three feel to me like a young writer (20’s, 30’s), playing with “voice” and seeing how convincing s/he can be with it. Whether it’s the same young writer or not, I couldn’t really say.
I see your argument as legitimate on one level, however, I think the key here is your assumption that the START persona was legitimate. If START were really what he represented himself to be then your arguments are logical. If, on the other hand, START was just a fictional persona, then there’s no basis for making assumptions about what someone his “age” would or wouldn’t know. We really don’t know his//her age or interests, only what was presented in the character of START.
To cast my own opinion on this, I think Skewbald’s Pyjama Girl tale was vastly superior and more interesting than anything START or the late, alleged sock have ever written.
I was sorry when Skewbald’s story ended. Even though I thought it was probably fiction, it was still an interesting and neat little tale. The drivel that START and the recent sock write is a torture to read, not a pleasure.
There are some differences between START and the sock, particularly the comic book slant that BBVL mentions above, but they could well be the same writer.
My opinion is that Skewbald couldn’t write that poorly if he was trying to.
Am I alone in hoping that START actually *was * just pulling our chains?
The way I look at it, if he was just trying to get a rise out of us, then I don’t have to feel bad for wanting to slap him upside the head so often… which is something I did feel awfully guilty about when I was giving him the benefit of the doubt and assuming he was just a very emotionally and socially immature teen. 
No, it would be sad if someone 15 years old actually was that clueless and unfortunate.
Evidence suggests it was just someone trying to screw around with us.
That assumes the human behind START was, in fact, a teenager. He/she/it/them could have really been any age/sex/religion/whatever.
Hesheit is having a blast.
wild crazy brainstorming hat on
A thought: Is it possible that the incidents related by START (and by whatever other personna might have been used) were true, but that the first and third person were reversed? That is to say, that perhaps the person writing the posts was the ill-treated young lady in question, and that she was trying to understand the young man in question by exploring the situation from his point of view? This might explain a lot.
But then again, it might not. That sort of thing happens when I wear my wild crazy brainstorming hat.
No no no – that’s a thought shower hat, or didn’t you get the memo? 
That’s a good theory, but no. By the time he posted the Laura stories, his pattern of “I was a jerk do you think that was a bad idea and why” was well-established.
I don’t know why, but I never come across threads where someone has earned a banning until I see their name in ATMB. And the nosey part of me always needs to know why someone was banned too 
I seem to recall one of the mods once saying that they could ban guests, but it took an admin to ban a member.
Yep. From what I gather, he claimed his parents wouldn’t let him use a credit card online.
No, Bites When Provoked, you’re not the only one. If only because it means that at least “Laura” and the guy buying underwear at the Goodwill aren’t real and haven’t been horribly humiliated.
Kind of off-topic, or maybe not, but does anyone remember that thread where the OP talked about his ‘feeyonsay’? - anyone got a link (the searches they do nothing)
Well… I am not sure whether KR was START or not. If KR was a board lurker for all of these years he could have possibly known of START and his stories, but if they traced both IPs back to the same computer it would mean that KR would have to be one of START’s siblings, friends, or START himself.
…or (not very likely) that KR and START used the same ISP with dynamic allocation of IP.
To those who aren’t sure whether KR and START are the same person, it’s possible that he confirmed it via email. At least that’s the assumption I’m making. The mods and admins aren’t going to violate his privacy by telling us that, though.