Ugh, I hope I was never fooled by one of his socks.
Wait, it’s cowardly to be open about PMs, but it’s not cowardly to scold people in PMs rather than an open forum like the Pit? This must be what the other side of the mirror feels like.
Technically that’d be the savannah where the long nekkers congregate.
Every conversation with him feels like being talked at by a character from Wonderland. There’s zero chance I want to have those conversations in private.
He’s one of the posters where I can have perfectly interactions in Cafe, but as soon as anything turns even vaguely political, he turns into this Mirror Universe dick, like you say.
I get that it’s often because we have diametrically opposite views on things like e.g freedom of speech or Whiteness, but I disagree on that with most people, and yet only have that kind of antagonistic vibe from some.
So glad I’m not the one getting PMs from him, though.
The Shadow, d’uh!
Oooh… I’m intrigued! Can you share?
WE said there was only one disappeared sock post before he was smitten. So sounds like limited opportunity for sock trickery.
I think you misread - I’m not getting PMs from him, LHOD is.
Oops, my brain inserted an “only” in there, for some reason.
Well that’s good to know. Thanks.
I feel bad for any new posters we might get. They’ll be suspect for awhile.
I’ve only ever taken a disagreement to PMs a few times, and I can’t say it ever ended well. In some cases I thought it would be better to approach the person rather than call them out in public - they were no more willing to listen than if I had just posted on the board. A couple times someone would just send me something angry, unprompted, and nothing I said mattered. But I try not to share the content of other people’s PMs with the board at large; it’s kind of a separate realm.
I don’t use PMs very much at all. When I’ve used them, they’ve fallen into a few categories:
- Most commonly, someone sends me a kind word about something I said, or asks a question about something I said. Those are real nice to get.
- Sometimes, someone wants to clarify something–maybe we seemed to be in a big disagreement, and they’re like, “Hey, let’s bring it down, can we chat?” These have generally been productive, and we’ve been able to resolve things.
- A few different weirdos have decided to harass me. One toxic alcoholic retired teacher would periodically PM me with something like “Hey princess, panties in a twist again?” or whatever. Another got real mad when I doubted some of his stories about his mom and got all chest-puffy and ordered me never to doubt anything about his mom. (These happened 10+ years ago so I’m working from memory here).
It’s that last category that I feel fine talking about in public, because it’s not an attempt to have good communication; it’s just a weird harassy/bully thing. I think it depends on happening in private, so I’m happy to take it public.
The two PMs I got aren’t completely in the “Hey princess” category, but they’re a lot closer to that than they are to an honest attempt at exchange of ideas–especially the second one. I have no interest in that nonsense, nor in protecting the privacy of anyone who engages in it.
Yes, I get those too. It is always nice to hear from people. Especially when I’ve done something to stick my neck out, I’m feeling a bit insecure about it, and they are like, “Hey, thanks.” Totally makes my day. Mostly good people here.
I’ve used PMs 2-3 times, but specifically more along the lines of the reason I created the thread - seeing someone that looked like they were heading over the edge in a thread and wanted to pull them back.
The first time, was relatively early in my posting history, and a few months later, the poster I was trying to save was revealed as a trock. Something I can more clearly see in hindsight. Mea culpa. The other two times were with posters that I like and felt were getting too damn heated in the threads in question (both threads were contentious and there was personal emotional involvement) and I was worried that both were going to type something that would do them no favors. And both replied with words along the lines that they had just reached the point of exiting the threads for the exact same reasons anyway, but appreciated the note.
Of course, they may have just been nice to me as an annoying busybody, but, hey, I’ll take fake kindness! 
But overall, the only PMs I have with any regularity are the ones from the Mods from my hideous flagging habit!
I’ve said it before, but in case insecurity’s popping up again: you’re one of the most reliably insightful posters here, smart and levelheaded and more interested in discussion than fighting. Even when I don’t always agree with you, I know I’ll learn something from what you write. I appreciate your posts!
FYI, Sam_Stone’s ban has been lifted. Very little explanation in the official post here but a lot of it was hashed out on the Giraffe Boards. Long story short: Sam’s son, who lives in the same household, made the account that made the one post and conclusions were jumped. Presumably that account (@burn) will be unbanned as well.
You couldn’t say that in a PM ? You heartless bastard !!!
What can I say? I’m a coward.
What’s up with the first-time poster trolls who revive a years-old zombie thread with some random pointless and stupid comment? It seems like it’s happening more and more often lately. Yesterday I flagged a comment in a ‘Battlestar Galactica sucks’ thread dating from 2011. It was from a username reading something like ‘WillCleanCumOffLater’ and just said “OP you’re a stupid dumb dumb with terrible taste”.
Is it just teenagers surfing the web who come across old posts by chance, and decide to do a drive-by trolling, or is there something weirder or more insidious going on?
It was kind of funny seeing the Discourse auto message: “This is the first time WillCleanCumOffLater has posted - let’s welcome them to our board!”. I declined to.