In other news …
GailForce BANNED - SOCK
So, that happened.
I did not see that coming. At all.
IMO/IME they were a mildly tiresome sort in some topics, and completely sensible in others. Seemed an odd combo of smart & clueless. Certainly not a shit-stirrer in the traditional mold.
Makes me wonder who or what flagged them for scrutiny? Now that they are dearly departed I suppose any ordinary poster with suspicions could enlighten us. I also expect the mods have some sleuthing tools or procedures they’d rather not reveal.
Sockety sock sock … it to “her”. 
They were a returnee who behaved much better this time, but it was a sock and troublesome enough overall. The prior incarnations we are aware of were bigger problems.
I’m pretty sure, despite the name, they mentioned being male. I think the punny name was just that and not a gender ID.
Honestly, they’ve been watched lightly almost since arrival, but as I said, they behaved much better this time. This came as no surprise I think to anyone on the Mod staff.
Also I was watching a little Laugh-In last night, “very interesting.”
Not sure who, if anybody, else did, but … me.
As seen upthread, the Roger_That/Sliced_Alone juju was strong with this one.
Very strong.
And kept getting stronger.
I don’t think s/he is/was in “burn it all down” mode so much as truly wanting to rejoin the community to get his/her own needs met.
But recidivism isn’t quite the ingratiating quality that s/he thought it was.
“But stupid.”
Thanks for the backstory / insight. Somewhere I’d gotten the impression they were female. Not from the name, but from the contents of some post. Or so I thought. Although if they’re socking, they could have been trying to be misleading in that too.
[aside]
It’s interesting to me how much the choice of a gendered username can influence how one’s words are interpreted. One of the things I found fascinating about SDMB when I first discovered it 20+ years ago was the number of people with genderless usernames. And how both odd and refreshing it was to read posts not knowing whether the poster was male or female.
I think by now there are few long-time posters whose gender hasn’t been outed by things they’ve said about themselves. But I also bet there are a few users whose gender I think is established, but I’ve got it wrong.
[/aside]
Separately …
This bit confuses me:
I was under the impression that socking was an insta-ban offense. Shoot upon detection, then ask no questions.
Or is there some procedure for an IRL person to approach the mods saying in effect: “Hi, I used to be UserX, and I got banned. I’ve learned my lesson and want to come back. Can I be PosterY? Please … I know I’ll be on double-secret probation, but that’s OK. I promise to be good this time. For sure.”
We didn’t have enough at first to determine it was a sock. Last night the scales tipped to certainty.
Honestly, we looked into this one twice before, once because of this thread, but nothing was conclusive and they weren’t causing problems.
I mentioned somewhere recently, we don’t keep a master list, all we have are some notes and prior flags to check when warranted.
We probably have some active socks of banned posters that don’t cause any problems at all. If they don’t trigger a check, we’ll never catch them and in the end, it probably makes no difference.
Anything you can put in a post here, you can put in a report, too. More, actually, because in a report, you’re free to link other threads.
Theoretically possible, and we’ve done it a couple of times in the past, but it’s never ended well. Since then, we’ve instituted temporary week-long or month-long suspensions as a step on the road to permanent banning, which serves much the same purpose, and so now we’re even less inclined to let someone back after a “permanent” ban.
We’ll also occasionally get someone whom we haven’t banned, but who comes to us and says “I’d like you to suspend my account for my own good, because I’m not in control of what I’m saying, and I think I’ll get myself into trouble”. In those cases, if they later ask to come back, we generally let them.
I’m not sure I agree with strong, but there was a distinct whiff from the outset. But (to kinda pick up on earlier discussions), I’m firmly of the view that I’d rather give a trock too many chances than risk discouraging a genuine new member.
Conclusion: no great harm done, and our guys nailed them in a timely manner anyways. Thank you, mods, as always.
j
ETA - thanks for the heads up in the “fooling around with dosage instructions” thread, @LSLGuy - in fact I wouldn’t have had much to add to what had already been said.
Except that the reporting tool interface is very limited, especially on mobile. Frankly, it sucks and fighting with that thing while trying to go between different tabs to get info from multiple posts/threads sounds like some kind of torture that international law probably outlaws. I couldn’t possibly do in a report what I can in a post. That’s a technical limitation.
On the other hand, a private message to the moderators as suggested earlier sounds like a reasonable alternative to posting in a public thread and it’s something i’d keep in mind if I need to make a case that is too complicated for a standard report.
Yaaa, another ‘Why aren’t the insert race here people like the White people?’ thread!
“Ever noticed how the “racial ratio” of a place changes overnight?” in MPSIMS
I don’t think that guy’s a troll. He’s just a dummy who probably posts selfies to Facebook wearing aviator shades in the driver’s seat of his pickup truck.
I also think if they are posting in sincerity they have some problems that need to be addressed. I don’t mean that in a judgemental way, I mean that in a “I hope they get help” way.
See the thread in the Pit they started where they gripe about the night security person at a casino chastising them for screwing around with the elevators in the middle of the night. MW was convinced that the elevators were malfunctioning based on, I don’t know what, and out of fear of their life felt it was important to send them all to the top floor, inconveniencing everyone who wanted to use them next. The security guard asked them to stop which led to an argument, and MW posted here thinking we’d all take their side.
A mentally healthy person does not think that way and doesn’t do that sort of thing. I think this person’s posts are best looked at through this lens.
(lucky)
Thanks for sharing that Simpson’s clip, smatpi. That was funny as hell.
Ok, in that racial ratio thread, I was actually more curious about the whites. Because it is the whites who are mostly absent after 10pm on weeknights. If you dont believe me, go out there and see how demographics change the later it gets. And Im excluding employees, im talking about random people out and about.
You guys need to make up your mind. Am I SDMB’s village idiot, a troll, or a college student taking a creative writing course? Oh God, the last one really made me chuckle.
I say Im none of the above. Im just a guy who likes to keep it real. Hell, I just admitted to having a gambling problem and possibly an addiction. That was humiliating as fuck.
Don’t feel humiliated.
Admitting you have a problem is the first step.
I think you’ve passed the troll sniff test. IMO
All other comments are just that, comments.
“If I was a troll, why would I post these sensational, heart-on-my-sleeve deeply personal tales of woe?!”
You must (not) be new around here.
They’re not mutually exclusive, you know.
Thanks! ~tips hat~
Because real people can’t have real emotions?