This thread is going along nicely - without, I might add, any threadshitters stopping in - and suddenly it’s closed.
What the fuck?
I’m just guessing, but I think it would have been fine without the mention of According to Pliny. That could have been seen as too confrontational for MPSIMS.
It does seem that some justification for closing the thread should have been given. Mods, what’s going on here, please?
Mods *have *edited titles before.
I hope that it was the According to Pliny part. Definitely chickenshit if it wasn’t.
You have a point. I just figured they thought that baiting Pliny was the primary purpose of the thread.
Well, if people are going to get their writs in a tinger about whether or not they have to open threads that state they are anti-anti-gun, they’re certainly going to have to open threads that have their user-names, or the user-names of people they don’t like, in the title.
Unless, of course, they have the latest model tinfoil hat, which shields them from the Thread Title Mind Control Rays.
No, that was definitely secondary. 
A reason was posted now. Though, it seems the mere fact that it was a gun thread pissed off the moderator as well in addition to the “Pliny” part.
Full disclosure: if it were not for the fact that I like the Bill of Rights even more than I hate guns, I’d be pushing to ban the sale of anything smaller than a rifle, and to restrict ownership of those. But, though I don’t share an enthusiasm for guns, I can recognize an appreciation for them as historical artifacts, as mechanical virtuosity, as triumphs of design and engineering, as objects of art. This thread’s topic was not “I love guns, how 'bout you?” It wasn’t “Do the scientific advances brought about by arms technology justify the costs of its misuse?” It wasn’t even “tell me about your favorite gun,” which would have opened itself up to the answer “imaginary” with an attendant screed. Well, okay, it was that last one, but I still wouldn’t hijack a gun-appreciator’s thread that way. The weird thing is that this thread was apparently closed, apparently, for one of two reasons: in anticipation of a hijack that never happened, or for its needlessly provocative title, which could have been changed or moved without closing it.
Holy cow. And he called Airman a jerk. Damn. Just plain damn.
I disagree with your “mere” given the previous thread mentioned by Cajun Man; TPTB don’t like it when locked threads are restarted. Airman’s thread probably would have been fine as-is in the Pit, or in IMHO without the dig at Pliny and/or others in the gun control camp.
Yes, the mods can edit thread titles, but it was created in spite of According to Pliny, in MPSIMS of all places. That’s not the place to start shit right off the bat with that kind thread title. It may have worked in the pit.
I also feel that According to Pliny shouldn’t have trampled on the orginal thread that caused all of this. It seems simple. Open a thread about something that is perfectly legal and request that if you don’t like it, stay out, and don’t troll… What is so hard about that? IMO, it would have been a different story if it were in Great Debates or IMHO and you told someone to stay out, that I don’t think should fly.
I suppose I can understand Cajun Man getting a little torqued over **Doors’ **reference to According to Pliny in the title. In that case, though, Cajun Man could have changed the title, given **Doors **a warning in the thread (or by email) and let the discussion continue.
But that bit about opening a gun thread “mere hours” after he’d closed one? * That’s *bullshit, plain and simple.
I saw that thread as having been locked as a result of the thread-shitting hijack. Opening a similar, non-hijacked, shit-free thread shouldn’t be forbidden.
Boy, will I feel silly if I end up getting banned defending a thread about guns, which I detest. However, I’m inordinately fond of people getting together to talk politely about things in ways that do not threaten, defame, or otherwise harm others. The reasons given for the thread closing, in three words, suck pond water.
“You open a gun thread (just hours after I had closed one)…” Uh-huh. But gun threads are not forbidden. Cajun Man didn’t close the previous thread because of the topic, he closed it because the animosity level was rising too high for the forum. At least, I think that’s what he said. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5891050&postcount=26
Then, “as a blatant sideswipe of poster According to Pliny.” Okay, the title was, maybe. It stopped short of insulting or demeaning or saying anything at all about AtP, but it did mention him/her/them/it in a thread the topic of which AtP was recently on record as an adverse poster. But the thread’s OP wasn’t about AtP, nor were any of the subsequent posts. The content of the thread was as polite and benign a conversation as one could expect among a bunch of bloodthirsty gun nuts (just a joke, folks!). The title alone might have been seen as objectionable. Titles can be edited. Threads can be moved. Ill-advised “formal warnings” can also be retracted. I’m a dedicated gun-hater, and I hope one of the foregoing can be accomplished.
The thread may not have contained posts about According to Pliny, but it was started as a slap in the face to him in MPSIMS.
I’d bet the thread would’ve been fine if it hadn’t been a blatant swing at another doper.
If it was closed for being a jab at Pliny, than that’s what the moderator should have said when they closed it.
But closing it because it’s “another gun thread”, well, that’s just bullshit.
No way he closed it because it was a gun thread, we have tons of gun threads all over the place that don’t get closed. The other one wouldn’t have closed except it was brewing up to be a flame fest on Pliny.
It was a blatant swipe at Pliny, and should have been in the Pit. Anyone here think that Airman got up and said “Gee, I wonder what everyone’s favorite gun is.” then happened along Pliny’s stupid post and decided to change the title in his honor?
Neither do I. The intent of the thread was to slap Pliny’s face. Want to do that? Take it to the pit.
Changing the title isn’t the point, it was not an “accidental” bad title, it was a bad thread topic to begin with.
Which I why I said it probably would have been fine in another forum, especially minus the Pliny snipe in the title.
Harborwolf, you may be right. That isn’t something I say often, but I think it a lot when I read what you have to say. But many threads in mpsims have been moved or otherwise amended without being shut down, and I’d like a better reason than has been given. The thread *could * have been started as a “slap in the face”, but it did not begin so in the OP or continue that way. Except for the title, and there’s nothing there to make me upset other than the fact that someone takes issue with an mpsims hijack and titles a new thread to reflect that, without making the actual argument. There’s another thread in the mpsims forum right now that has more potential to change the regime. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=304522
Me, I don’t care, except that neither the OP nor the SDMB authorities have resolved this. I doubt that they’re about to, and this type of waffling on the part of both the OP and the Board Authorities makes me awfully nervous.