# The Banning of Shodan **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 14, 2020, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763 "2020-05-14T02:33:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/201 "2020-05-14T23:36:06Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I don’t know what point you think you are making (obsessively). I’m finding this out in real time in this thread. I was unaware of either comment until Shodan’s banning and then the post on this page about the Melania comment. It sure seems you’re trying to distract and shutdown convesation that makes you uncomfortable. Obvious answer to repeated query is obvious. You keep asking “Why wasn’t _that_ poster punished?”, and the answer will be the same. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/202 "2020-05-14T23:37:15Z")
Believe me, when I saw he was banned, I was glad and I think he’s a troll. I do however think that misogyny is an ugly problem here and needs to be addressed better than it has been. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/203 "2020-05-14T23:38:18Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Obvious answer to repeated query is obvious. You keep asking “Why wasn’t _that_ poster punished?”, and the answer will be the same. Then maybe shut up and let other people talk? And I’ve reported it. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/204 "2020-05-14T23:40:54Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Then maybe shut up and let other people talk? And I’ve reported it. 1. No. 2. Good. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/205 "2020-05-14T23:44:19Z")
I’m seeing how you got to nearly 64k posts, each one a gem. Anyway, I think that cunt is an incrdebly ugly and sexist rap term and ought to be considered hate speech around here. ---
**Author:** ![Falchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Falchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falchion)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/206 "2020-05-14T23:54:07Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Did you report it? Because that seems way out of line for MPSIMS. I’ll report it now, I guess. I don’t know. I tried to report it when I found it today and go so many errors that I either did not or reported it a dozen times. In any event, I would have ordinarily opened that thread and quickly determined that there was nothing in there of serious interest and moved on. > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I’m pretty sure it would rate a warning if someone reported it. As I understand it, mods don’t hover over threads looking for trouble. I personally would expect a warning for doing that in MPSIMS. I guess we’ll see. This searching is kinda fun. Here’s a good one from 2017: [Poster A](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb///showpost.php?p=19983436&postcount=1023)refers to Betsy Devos as a “bitch.” (That won’t be tolerated!). [Poster B](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb///showpost.php?p=19983564&postcount=1050) calls out Poster A as being a misogynist. (Good job!). The Mods arrive to . . . [warn Poster B for personal insults](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb///showpost.php?p=19983608&postcount=1059). (Oh.) Well, maybe the warning is later in the thread, I only looked a few pages. Within the past few months: the mayor of Las Vegas is a [stupid cunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=22265666&postcount=7). A woman in a pro-Trump ad is, of course, a “[fat bleached blonde tRump cunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=22096769&postcount=1548)”. I don’t know. I’m now bored with the searching (but still I didn’t spend much time). But, suffice it to say, that I’m not sure I share your 100% certainty that gendered insults directed at conservative women would result in a sanction. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/207 "2020-05-14T23:56:57Z")
Well, it’s your message board. You’re the mods. You can do pretty much whatever you want. It all goes back to winning the Internet, though. Congratulations, you won the argument. A longtime poster is carted to Reboot Hill on the Island of the Banned, because you looked at the word “harpy” and decided that such _language_, such _insolence_ was conduct unbecoming on a forum which regularly curses out conservatives and hopes that Trump dies of COVID-19. Truly you are unbeatable in the war of words. So, congrats . . . I guess. If only it were that easy to win elections and arguments in real life, right? But then, I guess you can’t ban the electoral college for putting Trump into the White House. Oh, what you could do is actually hear the other side out, analyze and assess their arguments, and _then_ formulate arguments against them, but why do that when you can just tilt the balance of judgement against the views you don’t like and ban the people WHO MIGHT ACTUALLY HELP YOU WIN THE NEXT ELECTION BY SHOWING YOU WHAT YOU’RE UP AGAINST AND ALLOWING YOU TO DEBATE THEM IN REAL TIME for using words like . . . “harpy.” Harpy, huh? Well . . . I guess I know where I should hang out the next time the real world and reality in general give me the vapors by doing things it _knows_ I don’t like it doing. Well, I mean conservative things. As has been amply demonstrated in this thread, no one cares about the rules when no-no words are used against the people we disagree with. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/208 "2020-05-14T23:59:49Z")
> [@saucywench](#): > > The straw is weak in this one. I’m quoting myself for clarification. Someone had referenced Obi Wan previously in the thread, I played off that. My comment “the straw is weak” meant that the straw that broke the camel’s back in Shodan’s banning was weak. It was not a dig on Manson1972’s comments, whose post preceded mine. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/209 "2020-05-15T00:03:27Z")
> [@Chingon](#): > > A free market solution will undoubtedly appear. If this was so important of an issue, a board will be created to absorb the massive number of posters being oppressed here. HA! 😛 > [@tricoteuse](#): > > Oh for fucks’ sakes, he wasn’t banned for saying harpy. You’re missing the point by miles if you think that’s it. He was banned for making a misogynistic threadshit after getting lots of warnings and a suspension so he was walking on thin ice the way it was. exactly ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/210 "2020-05-15T00:10:22Z")
**Shodan** enjoyed his garden. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/211 "2020-05-15T00:18:25Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > **Shodan** enjoyed his garden. Now his Abandoned Garden [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/AWuCHhivljo/maxresdefault.jpg "Michael Franks - "Abandoned Garden"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWuCHhivljo) ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/212 "2020-05-15T00:26:35Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > {…} Anyway, I think that cunt is an incrdebly ugly and sexist rap term and ought to be considered hate speech around here. “Rap” term? Do explain! CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/213 "2020-05-15T00:42:20Z")
**Moderator Warning** > [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > This logic is silly - a false dichotomy. (To illustrate - Emmett Till “had agency”, and “no one made him” whistle at a white woman.) The fact that someone had agency in doing some action doesn’t contradict the notion that the reaction to that action was inappropriate. > > [Interestingly, there’s another thread at this time in ATMB in which several posters - including some Board Certified Liberals - are expressing considerable confusion over just what is or is not acceptable in terms of “misogynistic” terms on this MB.] I try not to issue warnings in ATMB so that everyone can say what they feel, but comparing a moderator to a famous lynching is taking it way too far. If you want to complain about moderation that’s one thing, but you don’t get to insult and attack the moderation staff while doing so. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/214 "2020-05-15T00:57:47Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > The SDMB can set its own rules, but it doesn’t get to change the meaning of words. A “sincere racist” cannot, by definition “deliberately troll” the board. The sincere racist is not trolling in any sense of the word. > > So whatever it is the board is trying to stop there, it needs to spell that out more plainly instead of misusing the word “trolling.” They aren’t, though. This it he definition of Internet troll [from Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll): In internet slang, a troll is a person who starts Flame wars or upsets people on the Internet by posting inflammatory and digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses and normalizing tangential discussion, either for the troll’s amusement or a specific gain. No mention is made of whether or not the troll believes what they are saying, just the style in which they post and their intent. And it wouldn’t make sense if there were. How many times have you heard of the term “liberal troll” for someone who goes to a conservative site and starts calling the conservatives racist and shit. They entirely mean it, but their purpose and style is to stir up trouble. You can debate whether Shodan was trolling, but the one criteria you cannot use is “did he actually believe what he was saying?” Such has never been an actual requirement to be a troll, just one of many indications of not posting in good faith, which suggests trolling. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/215 "2020-05-15T01:18:16Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > What does “public figure” have to do with it? This isn’t an invasion of privacy tort. I thought the standard was that you could insult any non-poster. > … > > It is telling that nobody felt the need to report calling Ivanka Trump a “cunt” but everyone called out Shodan for “harpy.” It is the weakest of weak sauce. You seem to be addressing quite a bit to me for some reason? Because a Public Figure has chosen that role, and thus if I want to call Senator Foghorn a fuckwad for his last political discourse, then that is OK. But Non Public figures should not be insulted like that here, IMHO. Not just because, anyway. That was a low visited thread in MPSIMS. Did _you_ report it in a timely fashion? Why not? _Because you didnt see it._ Nor did I. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/216 "2020-05-15T01:20:27Z")
I don’t know if this contributed to the punishment, but as a quirk of his posting style I always found **Shodan** ’s posts to be hostile. I never could tell the reasons for his views because he would rarely defend them and simply favoured using dismissive quips about disappointment/resignation of on-going persecution (of him or other right wingers), even during serious political or ideological discussions. It always left me feeling that he had disdain for everything, like everything. Even having to explain or defend his ideological stances were beneath him. Everything was parting quips and inevitable persecution from the left. I’m sure I’m not being charitable enough to **Shodan** , but this was my impression. Maybe this was the impression of others too, and maybe this contributed people’s attitude towards him (including mod action). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/217 "2020-05-15T01:20:49Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Then maybe shut up and let other people talk? And I’ve reported it. Too late\*. Really. If you didnt see it in the first place, then you are reporting it for political reasons, not because you were offended. \*In my opinion, of course. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/218 "2020-05-15T01:22:03Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > … > > Anyway, I think that cunt is an incrdebly ugly and sexist rap term and ought to be considered hate speech around here. Didn’t you just use it?😛 Perhaps you should report yourself? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/219 "2020-05-15T01:42:39Z")
> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > And different rules for different women, apparently. Don’t see where it was reported. We cannot read every single post on this board; it’s physically impossible. We cannot react to what we do not see. If you see something you consider a problem, report it. Jenny your humble TubaDiva Administrator ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/220 "2020-05-15T01:50:04Z")
I have fond memories of the days when the SDMB embraced, or at least tolerated, unpopular speech. It was hard to offend anyone with anything. How things have changed. It’s like walking on eggshells around here now… ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763.md?page=12)