# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/61 "2020-05-14T13:19:18Z")
> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > According to what I read in the other thread on this, he was banned after _seventeen_ warnings and four suspensions, apparently. He was given a far, far longer leash than **Shodan**. Which kinda proves my point. Along with other warnings, Shodan had three separate warnings for trolling. That’s two more than most posters are allowed. The leash was long but not infinite. ---
**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 14, 2020, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/62 "2020-05-14T13:20:50Z")
Damn, now we’ll never know what ‘Regards’ meant. Perhaps it referred to a childhood toy like a Big Wheel or a two wheeler without training wheels… CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/63 "2020-05-14T13:23:11Z")
My vote, and I know I don’t have one, is to have him reinstated, with stern instructions that this is the last chance. He was often a good poster in the non-debate forums and he’s been around a long time. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/64 "2020-05-14T13:26:34Z")
Shodan’s not my favorite poster, and I’m sure I’m not exactly his either. But maybe a one-month suspension would do the trick?’ ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/65 "2020-05-14T13:28:08Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > On the other hand, people are assuming that the four warnings/notes prior to the one week suspension were his first. Did he have other warnings over the years on top of those? Many. Checking, he had eleven warnings since 2012. Three of them were later reversed on appeal. He had warnings in Great Debates, certainly. But he got them in IMHO, ATMB (Nice trick, that), and The BBQ Pit (another nice trick, that one). There were also endless notes. But what’s really indicative to me is that he was always in trouble of one sort of another. He’d get a warning, appeal it and maybe get it walked back. But he never changed. Even with the warnings being reversed he never seemed to take the lesson of ‘Maybe I’m breaking rules and should dial it back’ or even, ‘I wonder why I’m getting all these warnings?’ other than to blame it on moderation. It’s akin to Nixon blaming his tsuris on the liberal media rather than his own sense of persecution and overreaction. Another concern was the acceleration of warning he’d been accumulating. The count went: 2012: 2 (1 reversed) 2013: 0 2014: 0 2015: 1 (reversed) 2016: 0 2017: 1 2018: 1 2019: 5 (1 reversed) 2020: 1 It’s as if he decided - as the current administrations fortunes seemed to falter and Democrats took the big win in 2018 - he decided - whether intentionally or not - to step up his game at riling up his political rivals. It’s not a good look and it sure isn’t conducive to long-term success. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/66 "2020-05-14T13:38:18Z")
If for some reason Shodan were reinstated, then in my not very important opinion, it should be with a long ban (1 year?) on political threads. Because as others have noted, when not discussing politics he could be ok. But like a lot of other Republicans the election of Trump seems to have broken them as it is difficult to separate Trump’s cons, crimes, misbehaviour, and incompetence from conservative views/policies (which can be valid viewpoint). They have to support the One Carrying the ® due to the amount of tribalism in politics but Trump isn’t logically supportable. Just my two copper pieces. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/67 "2020-05-14T13:38:32Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > I’d agree that it wasn’t the flame out that I’d expected would come but his resume was long. I didn’t care for his posting style nor his opinions so this is not a hill anyone should die on. That’s one of the things that gets me about last-straw actions, sometime you wind up scratching your head like _“really, man, he finally stepped over the edge over THAT?”_ But I too had observed that his posts had recently become more and more often just ever worse reactive putdowns, and he could be better than this. Wish it had not been like this but it is what it is. I am not delighted, but yeah, I could see it coming, didn’t realize it was so close. > [@](#): > > Whoa… that took a dark turn. Right, I get it where people may say _“wait, there are REAL atrocities happening out IRL and you are arguing being safe from words in a Web Board #FirstWorldProblems #PC”_, but addressing the one does not preclude (_or relieve from_) addressing the other. > [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > On the other hand, I’m pretty sure most posters could call Sarah Palin a cunt and get away with it. > [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Me, I’ll admit I don’t much care for her, yet I somehow can refrain from name calling to make a point (well, outside the Pit, anyway). Which is true. I’m fine with the Pit for ranting and raving and using rude words w/o regards for people’s sensibilities when the frustration mounts. (But OTOH, enough pushback on that, and what will most likely happen? A reinstatement of the flat ban\* on a specific word\*.) The recently departed decided to use a targeted deprecatory term in the wrong place for the wrong purpose. To reiterate what \*\*Chronos \*\*stated, “harpy” is specifically gendered \*and \*about the person’s temperament, not her ideas. As mentioned earlier by \*\*UltraVires \*\*he could have said ivory-tower, egghead, or I might add SJW, and it would have been no problem, but that is exactly the point. “SJW” would communicate objection to the person’s inferred agenda, "ivory-tower"would be a challenge on how connected she was to real-world experiences. “Harpy” OTOH simply refers to a shrill, hateful female creature. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/68 "2020-05-14T13:40:40Z")
I think this thread demonstrates how **Shodan** changed over the years: [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=881909](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=881909) He made a snarky one-liner that was quite obviously deprecating against black culture and education. Clearly trollish, IMO, and rightfully warned. But then, in post #8, a bit of the old, thoughtful **Shodan** shines through – he makes a reasonable and thoughtful attempt to lay out his feelings on the subject in a non-trolling way. I disagree with his points in post #8, but it wasn’t snark or trolling in any way, and would have been a good post in the thread in which he got warned. It didn’t explain or excuse his trolling post that received a warning, but it shows that he was still capable of reasonable discussion. Why he chose to abandon that so often and resort to one-liner drive-by snark and trolling is a mystery. ---
**Author:** ![Cephkiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cephkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cephkiller)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/69 "2020-05-14T13:58:00Z")
The homogenization of the board continues. Nothing to see here. I post so rarely I’m sure no one knows me so my opinion means absolutely nothing. I have, however, been lurking on here and a faithful reader for many, many years. ---
**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, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/70 "2020-05-14T13:58:54Z")
Remember when he made a breast cancer joke in the thread about Women’s Day? I also remember he made a rape joke in a thread about misogyny here on the Dope. Fun guy. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/71 "2020-05-14T14:03:09Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/72 "2020-05-14T14:08:01Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > The recently departed decided to use a targeted deprecatory term in the wrong place for the wrong purpose. To revisit this, the real tragedy here is that he used it in a subordinate clause. It wasn’t subject or predicate of the sentence. Without the ‘Harvard Harpy’ phrase the sentence would have made his argument just as clearly - and, frankly, more concisely. But no, he had to take the sexist shot in there that served no language nor argumentative purpose at all. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/73 "2020-05-14T14:26:48Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Another concern was the acceleration of warning he’d been accumulating. > > The count went: > > 2012: 2 (1 reversed) > 2013: 0 > 2014: 0 > 2015: 1 (reversed) > 2016: 0 > 2017: 1 > 2018: 1 > 2019: 5 (1 reversed) > 2020: 1 > > It’s as if he decided - as the current administrations fortunes seemed to falter and Democrats took the big win in 2018 - he decided - whether intentionally or not - to step up his game at riling up his political rivals. > > It’s not a good look and it sure isn’t conducive to long-term success. Have you considered the possibility that his accelerating level of warnings is related to changes in moderation policy at around that same time that his warnings began to increase? Though it’s more likely that while these are not coincidental, they are only indirectly related. What’s really happening is that the board as a whole is getting more and more hard core left, and less respectful and tolerant of dissenting and non-PC viewpoints. This dynamic creates a situation where those of dissenting viewpoints will tend to have their posts interpreted as trolling (and themselves as trolls) and also a heightened sensitivity to transgressions of PC standards. [On a semi-related note, I notice in [this moderator action](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=22301280&postcount=57) that ECG conflates anti-feminism with misogyny.] On the other hand, I once signed up to the Stormfront (white nationalist) message board with a similar unapologetic attitude and got banned on my very first day. So I guess the SDMB is more tolerant of dissenting viewpoints than Stormfront. Always look at the bright side of life … ---
**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 14, 2020, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/74 "2020-05-14T14:33:52Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I think this thread demonstrates how **Shodan** changed over the years: And that’s the only reason I can see people defending him as some providing some conservative perspective. They are thinking of old **Shodan** , which, as you admit, sometimes shines through. But this is the guy who recently attacked a mentally ill veteran for being mentally ill, then came in and said it was “too late” to apologize once he got a Warning, not even seeming to care about the person he hurt. Someone who acts like that is not a good choice for arguing that the board is attacking people for being conservative or thinking differently. I get arguing that the procedure should have been followed, if only to avoid people thinking it was unfair. But not arguing that this was about removing a great conservative voice from this board. And, honestly, that argument makes it where I think rescinding his banning would send entirely the wrong message to him–that the mods just hated conservatives and had to reconsider, and that the way he’d been posting lately was acceptable. Arguing about the variation in procedure is the better argument. At least, it’s the only one I find remotely persuasive. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/75 "2020-05-14T14:41:04Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > He was not banned for insulting a person on the board. He was banned for insulting members of the board, approximately half of them. The gender of the professor was completely irrelevant to what she was saying, and to what members in good faith were debating. By using an inherently gendered insult, **Shodan** was asserting that her gender was relevant, and made her in some way unqualified to hold opinions or make decisions. That’s what we weren’t putting up with. > > And yes, I get that the SDMB, like most venues online, can be something of an echo chamber, and that’s not something we want. But we ban people from both ends of the political spectrum when they get too obnoxious. If obnoxious conservatives getting banned is causing a problem, then the solution is non-obnoxious conservatives. We welcome non-obnoxious participants of any political stripe. Sorry, but I disagree that calling a specific woman a “harpy” somehow insults all women, everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/76 "2020-05-14T14:43:42Z")
He was consistently and unambiguously dishonest in his paraphrases of his opponents’ arguments, to such an egregious extent that he was on my list of posters I tried not to engage with. I wish he’d have been banned for that, but banning him for his casual misogyny works, too. The “echo chamber” complaints are as silly as ever. It’s perfectly possible to make odious arguments in favor of, for example, homeschooling without being a sexist jerk about it, and while I find a lot of those arguments odious, I don’t think they’re bannable. But as always, it’s easier to blame The Man than to accept responsibility for misdeeds, so folks will keep doing that. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/77 "2020-05-14T14:43:49Z")
> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > The problem is that the threshold for “Obnoxious conservative” is **Shodan** but the threshold for obnoxious liberal is **Huey Freeman**. And yet **Huey Freeman’s** Living while black in America thread is still out there generating useful content. Show me where one of **Shodan’s** drive-by turds in the punchbowl has ever generated anything beyond a gag reflex. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/78 "2020-05-14T14:45:32Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Sorry, but I disagree that calling a specific woman a “harpy” somehow insults all women, everywhere. That’s not how identity-based epithets work. There was nothing in her behavior that led to the charge, except: 1. She advocated positions Shodan disliked, while 2. Being a woman. It looks pretty clear that any woman who takes a position he disagrees with is, in his opinion, a squawking filthy monstrosity. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/79 "2020-05-14T14:47:38Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > And that’s the only reason I can see people defending him as some providing some conservative perspective. They are thinking of old **Shodan** , which, as you admit, sometimes shines through. > > But this is the guy who recently attacked a mentally ill veteran for being mentally ill, then came in and said it was “too late” to apologize once he got a Warning, not even seeming to care about the person he hurt. > > Someone who acts like that is not a good choice for arguing that the board is attacking people for being conservative or thinking differently. > > I get arguing that the procedure should have been followed, if only to avoid people thinking it was unfair. But not arguing that this was about removing a great conservative voice from this board. > > And, honestly, that argument makes it where I think rescinding his banning would send entirely the wrong message to him–that the mods just hated conservatives and had to reconsider, and that the way he’d been posting lately was acceptable. > > Arguing about the variation in procedure is the better argument. At least, it’s the only one I find remotely persuasive. I don’t care if he was conservative or liberal or whatever. He had opinions that differed from most others on several topics, including my own, and it made the threads interesting to read. I mean, do you personally find starting a thread and having everyone agree with you to be interesting? Hell, I’m sad that 9/11 conspiracy theories are banned, since those posters were highly entertaining. ---
**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 14, 2020, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763/80 "2020-05-14T14:50:43Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > I don’t care if he was conservative or liberal or whatever. He had opinions that differed from most others on several topics, including my own, and it made the threads interesting to read. I mean, do you personally find starting a thread and having everyone agree with you to be interesting? Hell, I’m sad that 9/11 conspiracy theories are banned, since those posters were highly entertaining. I completely agree with this POV, especially now in stressful times when a little laughter can be therapeutic. Its not just ideological differences that are important but personality differences as well. Some folks just cant stand the difference in others. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banning-of-shodan/853763.md?page=5)