# Unpopular opinions forbidden? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [June 24, 2002, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615 "2002-06-24T00:18:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Uekte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/919ad9/32.png) [@Uekte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uekte)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/1 "2002-06-24T00:18:06Z")
I made a non-insulting, totally by the rules comment in [GQ](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=121727), was immediately insulted, and then I was ordered not to comment **at all** in the thread anymore, and was in fact admonished more severely than the guy that insulted me in the forum that doesn’t allow insults. Excuse me? I don’t see anything in the rules that says “if your post disagrees with us, you’ll be excluded from further comment in that thread.” Special rules for posters that don’t hold the same “yes men” opinions as everyone else? Nice tolerance there. Nice forum for diverse opinions. Can someone email me with the special “Uekte only” rules please? I’d like to know when I’m not permitterd from defending myself in the future. ---
**Author:** ![SoulFrost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@SoulFrost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoulFrost)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/2 "2002-06-24T00:32:50Z")
I would imagine that it was because of your earlier comments [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=119743), which started out fine and well… a question, a bunch of answers, more questions, more answers, then _this_: > [@](#): > > Personally, my “situation” is none of your business. Personally, I don’t think getting rid of old people is “tragic”. Personally, I’ll be calling every nursing home in my area and seeing if I can find someone who DOES want the business. Personally, my neighborhood will be ten million times better once I get the ball rolling. > > Thanks for nothing. > > Oh, and Mangeorge - so everyone that chooses to live in Texas should be hauled away? Nice attitude. 'Nuff said. -David ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/3 "2002-06-24T00:37:06Z")
Unpopular opinions are, by definition, unpopular. Therefore, posters who express unpopular opinions get insulted at a much higher rate than those whose opinions are popular. This is the reason why you, **Uekte** , are insulted so often. As to who got the harshest punishment-- I think that if you had some facts to add to the thread and not just your unpopular opinion things would have gone differently. But you were brewing for a fight and didn’t like how the fight turned out. Too bad. I hope you won’t take it as an insult when this gets moved to the Pit. Complaints about administration of the board go there. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/4 "2002-06-24T00:40:00Z")
Well, to be perfectly frank, GQ is not the place to promote your opinion that the elderly should be sent off to concentration camps, and pretty much anything you say on the subject is going to piss people off. Rather than hope in vain that you could participate in a GQ thread about old people in a civil manner, **manhattan** acted preemptively, and told you to keep your opinions out of that thread. In any event, I’d say a case could be made that jumping into a thread about how older people feel cold more often than younger people to claim that it provides evidence that all old people are senile and should be sent away somewhere could be considered being a jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/5 "2002-06-24T00:42:14Z")
Just for the record. The only comment that Ukete made in the thread in question was, “The evidence just keeps growing and growing…” That was in response to GQ question about elderly heat tolerance. A reasonable question one might ask about Ukete’s line is, "The evidence keeps growing and growing _for what???_ As far as I can tell, Ukete’s line is, at best, more or less devoid of content. At worst, it’s a bizarre slam on the elderly. Either way, I can’t see how it would be a post that one would want to defend in General Questions. At any rate, since this is a complaint about message board procedures and not a request for clarification, it would appear to belong in the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/6 "2002-06-24T00:56:48Z")
Why don’t you just go away? ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/7 "2002-06-24T01:34:39Z")
> [@](#): > > As far as I can tell, Ukete’s line is, at best, more or less devoid of content. At worst, it’s a bizarre slam on the elderly. Yeah, by itself. However, as far as I’ve seen, the only subject **uetke** has posted on here is his opinion that all old people are senile and should be locked up for the good of everyone else. Sure, it’s possible that he meant something else by his comment, but the administration here is really under no obligation to pretend that they don’t know what he was referring to. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/9 "2002-06-24T02:00:42Z")
Did anyone lose a sock? ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/10 "2002-06-24T02:14:50Z")
Socks don’t have a long lifetime here. Here’s hoping all the handles involved get banned. ---
**Author:** ![Uekte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/919ad9/32.png) [@Uekte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uekte)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/11 "2002-06-24T04:12:32Z")
Are you implying **Reeder** that I need to create another ID to battle the mighty, imposing yes men? Hilarious. I don’t suppose anything will happen to you either, suggesting that another poster be banned, which is against the rules also. No, more likely another mod will arrive forbidding me to respond to **this** thread anymore. And so it goes. Easy to fight ignorance when you ignore the rules when it suits you, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/12 "2002-06-24T04:21:34Z")
Exactly what rules do you feel are being ignored, Uekte? Are you trying to claim that you were _not_ making another slam on elderly people? ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/13 "2002-06-24T04:25:22Z")
What a crock. Unpopular opinions get posted around here all the time. Check out any of the abortion threads, drug use threads, or threads on US foreign policy. Opinion is tolerated less in GQ than in other forums because GQ is supposed to be about giving factual answers to questions. It isn’t posting an **unpopular** opinion which will run fouls of the GQ rules, it’s posting an opinion, period. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/14 "2002-06-24T04:30:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Uekte \* > \*\* > No, more likely another mod will arrive forbidding me to respond to **this** thread anymore. And so it goes. > > \*\* I don’t think that’ll happen, but it would be sooooo funny if it did. I can just imagine \*\*Arnold]/b] coming in here posting something like “We, the yes-men have decided that the answer is “no”. Due to the fact that your opinion is _so_ unpopular we decree that you may no longer post in this thread unless and until your opinion of the administration changes.” ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/15 "2002-06-24T04:36:38Z")
Actually, you might get your wish **Biggirl** , given that this thread should have been started in the Pit. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/16 "2002-06-24T05:18:08Z")
I see no problems with Uekte posting random jabs at the eldery, its no different to me than the Clinton or Shrub jokes that bog down the server. Uekte needs to learn to not to respond to peoples jabs and he’ll just be another poster that a few people don’t like. We got a bunch of those already, one more won’t kill us. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/17 "2002-06-24T09:55:30Z")
And remember, the mods are not machines. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/18 "2002-06-24T09:56:32Z")
Reeder Have you had a good BBQ sandwich lately? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpopular-opinions-forbidden/115615/19 "2002-06-24T12:44:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Uekte \* > **No, more likely another mod will arrive forbidding me to respond to this thread anymore. And so it goes.** More like _preventing_ you from responding to it, since I’m gonna close this one. **Uekte** , we value our forum descriptions very much. That means no off topic jabs in GQ, and no complaints about the administration in ATMB. _Questions_, yes. But complaints go in the Pit. There, you can start a new thread about how unfair the world, and specifically the SDMB, has been to you.