You are quite an idiot because I have always distanced myself form Aldebaran’s views and I resent your calling me “anti-American”. I am very much opposed to the policies of the present government but only an idiot would mistake the present government for America. Oops, I forgot we had already determined you are an idiot. And a misinformed idiot at that because I do not think I have a history of supporting Aldebaran’s views.
And it is bad form for you to bring here grievances you may have with me from other threads. I have no idea who you are and do not remember telling you to fuck off. I have no recollection of where I may have told you to fuck off because I generally answer the content of the post and easily forget who posted it. So I have no idea where or when I told you to fuck off but I am sure I had a good reason and if you want to remind me where it was I will go back and review it and see if I have changed my mind. But judging from your idiotic post here I think I will reaffirm it. In any case, my admonition for you to fuck off was limited to that post I was answering and that thread and it seems pretty childish to bring your petty grudges from thread to thread.
So, fuck you. (This “fuck you” is only valid for the purposes of this post and this thread and may not be redeemed in other, non-participating threads. Void where prohibited. TMMV.)
No. I do not accuse you of anything numerous people, myself included, have not already done by posting complaints in here in the past. Maybe I should have said “unless drawing attention to oneself…”
I actually have no interaction with you, and have had none. Since you did not explain that you HAD tried contacting Lynn already, all I wanted to say was that you should consider that respectful communication, especially where there are language dialect differences, can be a resolution to the conflict. And that said resolution should be done privately unless it clearly involves the Board as a whole.
This is not the Appellate Court system, and every Staff ruling on every single item need not be public.
You didn’t say that in your OP, nor in any other post until now. Forgiveness, please.
Why not wait until the mail came before explaining? Or asking the Staff to explain their ruling? I know people (in general, not YOU necessarily) get a sense that message board time means RIGHT NOW, but let things wait! There is plenty of time to discuss with the Staff, then return. This place isn’t going anywhere.
Then try MPSIMS as others have.
That sounds honourable.
That is your loss. I think you are making too much of this. Allow me to quote a famous contemporary Western philosopher who says:
It is a real stretch to claim Aldebaran threatened anyone. If there have been previous examples I am sure someone can dig them up and put them on display. I actually think he supplies a much needed voice to the board, though I almost always disagree with him. It would be a shame to see him booted as a result of garbled syntax.
I think the problem may come from misunderstanding some of his posts. I must admit that sometimes I can’t decipher the meaning of certain passages he writes. I think, like many who speak English as a second language, that when writing quickly his responses can tend to look like they have been sent through Babelfish a few times. I am inclined to hope that he is given a break. Even if he was threatening, however obliquely to nuke someone, that can’t possibly be taken seriously.
OK, sorry for the delay but I had to work very late and have been struggling though hundreds of Alde’s posts, the majority of which, I must say, seem to consist mainly of telling one person or another to learn how to read.
The ‘threat’ that is the subject of this thread has already been dealt with adequately, I think. Some consider it a threat, some not; the Mods obviously felt it did. Are there any others though? I’ll leave it to readers to decide.
Thread: Viva Espana ! I’m impressed by your courage and determination.
Message 21, response to Mehitabel:
Alde later claimed that this was a joke. Read Mehitabel’s post, #9, which provoked this response, and see if you feel the ‘joke’ was at all warranted.
Thread: Will People EVER Be Enthusiastic About War Again?
Message 39, response to New Iskander:
Warned by Gaudere for using Pit-like language. Granted, New Iskander’s post (#28) was a bit harsh as well.
That’s just in the past two months alone. I distinctly recall a thread where Alde threatened, in unambiguous terms, to physically attack a poster who he deemed had insulted his mother, but couldn’t search back far enough to find it.
Look, I don’t treat any of the linked comments as real threats, as in the OP clearly stating his intention to harm a poster, and don’t want to see Alde banned more than anyone else does. Nevertheless, the above goes well beyond what I understand to be allowable in GD and there is, IMO, no excuse for his ceaselessly aggressive, rude and obnoxious behavior. I personally believe the Mods have given this particular jerk considerably more leeway than most. No one is censoring him, nor has anyone told him to stop posting his inflammatory nonsense, or even, really, to stop with the insults directed at other posters. Seems to me as though Alde needs to do one simple thing: stop suggesting posters he disagrees with may be subject to physical violence. I’ve got no problem with that.
In his OP, Aldebaran asks Lynn what post(s) Lynn is referring to when she said that he has been warned twice before. So Lynn was referencing “past history” and Aldebaran in this thread was inquiring about what she was referring to. So I thing past history is up for discussion.
It is difficult for me to take anything Aldebaran says as a threat when he ends his posts with a word which means “Peace.”
I have not been under the impression that Aldebaran claims that he knows how to trace us. I understood him to say that if he ever intended to trace us, he certainly wouldn’t talk about it here. That is altogether different.
I’m not as certain as some of you that Aldebaran has “total contempt for our culture.” I think that he sometimes uses an unusual teaching technique to get us to think about ourselves. It is his own way of fighting ignorance.
Aldebaran speaks English much better that I can speak any of the languages that he speaks, and judging from his background, I suspect that he speaks several. He does quite well, I think, and ridiculing his abilities without being able to match them reflects poorly on us.
I think he fills a unique role here even if sometimes he makes me want to pound my head on the desk.
One more to the defense of Aldebaran (who’d a thunk it?!).
Coupled with his difficulties with the English language, his sarcasm can get difficult to pick up for someone unaccustomed to his posts. But c’mon people, after almost a year of reading his posts, is it that hard for so many people not to catch it?
I caught on to the sarcasm in that thread, didn’t think it was a threat.
I also caught the sarcasm in Airman Doors thread, didn’t think it was racist.
I love this board. But this “zero tolerance” thing is laughable. Not laughable “haha”, but laughable in a shocked laugh kinda way, that they got reprimanded for posts like that.
Aldebaran may have posted rather ominously at some point in some other threads somewhere (hypothetically speaking—I’m not recalling any but of course that doesn’t mean he didn’t), but if his behavior in the Dogface-meltdown thread or the “I’ve got swords with Crudader blood on them” thing constitute a threat, then by the same token the “fuck you’s” that got tossed around earlier in this thread do too.
I mean, they could be read as intending rape of the person to whom they were directly, see?
I do think Aldebaran should give it a rest now that he’s made his point, but he has made his point and he’s right.
I don’t think Aldebaran’s comments in the 3rd Worlder thread can reasonably be interpreted as a threat. I read it as ‘If the US were to take the violent, bloodthirsty action you suggest, we would defend ourselves. If you go begin the mass killing of innocents on our side, we will respond with the mass killing of innocents on your side. Things will get worse and worse until the earth is a lifeless cinder.’
Some of his comments in other threads are questionable. But I that deciding whether or not those are threats would be tough calls if they had been made by a native speaker. Since English is not Aldebaran’s native language it’s always possible that what’s an obvious joke in Arabic, or Belgian may be unclear or even threatening when translated.
Aldebaran If you’re not banned (and I hope you won’t be.), consider posting more in IMHO, and MPSIMS. I used to think rather poorly of you. But a post on who has authority in your household began to change my mind (From memory ‘Yes, I have total authority in my house. I always get my way. As soon as I leave the house in the morning, my wife and two adult daughters begin conspiring to decide exactly what my way will be. As soon as I get home, they tell me what my way is and that I had better get it soon. My youngest daughter will be an adult soon. Then, it will be four against one.’ Only the way you said it was alot funnier). That post made me see you as a person. A few of your other posts mention your family, or that you play the violin. When you changed your sig to the current ‘My post is my cite[sup]tm[/sup]’ it was clear. I disagree srongly with your views on politics and culture(and I’m sure you have problems with mine), but as a person, I like you. Posting in forums besides GD and the pit would let you show Dopers a different side of you.
Shouldn’t people know that anyway? I fell in love with West Wing for its artistic excellence — far and away the best writing, the best acting, the best editing on television. As a matter of fact, it is one of the few TV programs where directing is as important as in the movies. Usually, when you think of television, you think of the producers. When you think of theater, you think of the actors. But when you think of movies, you think of the director. In terms of artistic control, I mean. But West Wing shows that liberals can be not only decent people, but wonderful people, with a depth and goodness of character that is downright astonishing. There are just plain people behind most of the posts here, even if they are liberal or from some other culture or advocate voluntary segregation, or whatever.
Personally I think Ald is a bit of a tosser but then again some of the “threats” he makes are so ludicrous you guys must be kidding yourselves if you can for one minute take any of it seriously. Shit how many of you have never shown one ounce of anger towards another member of this board? I’m sure if I looked hard enough and applied enough stupid logic, I could probably come up with some thing on everyone of you. While this board is predominantly English language for some English isn’t their first language. Shit I live in a place where they don’t speak English and if I felt the urge I could take a lot of what is said to me to be threatening if I didn’t understand what sarcasm was. I think zero tolerance if fine and dandy for thin skinned nutters but for crying out loud this is getting rediculous. Shit if some one gives me a hard time here, big deal I’ll get over it get on with life and move onto the next thread. I just see so many people here and all they have time to do is cry about the lack of tact that some poster have, well guess what we’re all different so get used to it.
The more I read here the more I get the impression that if your not a Member in “good senior” standing then you are an open target. Thin skinned AOLer’s(a bad generalisation, oh well) who should never have migrated to the open internet, where you might find people with opinions that differ from your own. Well welcome to the big wide wonderful world. If we can’t get on and live with each other here what hope is there for the real world.
I guess the message I’m trying to get across is that since going pay to post, what we are permitting people to post is becoming very one shall we say censored. Where are we going to draw the line? We must decide where we stand there and be firm. Ther are plenty of threads going around about Moderation and fuck this and it’s all bullshit! And I mean it’s all bullshit!!!
If we are going to be so strict then we should be up front so every onel knows where we all stand, ambiguous rules don’t help anyone because everyone interprets them differently. And the same goes for “threats”. Even within the English language basic interpretation can cause confusion and hostility so let’s at least agree on what we can disagree about. Then we’ll all know.
No one takes the threats themselves all that seriously, far as I know. I think it’s more his method of ‘debating’ by by posing loaded questions while consistently refusing to answer any questions posed to him, and his incessant insulting and browbeating of anyone who disagrees with him. Doesn’t strike me as GD-worthy, that’s all.
Naw, you’ll have to try much harder than that, I reckon.
Ever had a really annoying itch that just wouldn’t go away? Ever remember how the itch finally stopped? More often than not the best way to get ride of an annoying itch is to just ignore it.
I mean honestly people piss me off all the time, sometimes I’ll get riled enough to say something I’ll end up regreting but so what doesn’t mean I’d ever do anything. Just the same as if someone said something to me, sure I’d be pissed off but go away come back an hour, maybe two hours later, maybe even a day later. I don’t know but how could anyone take anything said to them in a forum like this as a serious threat is beyond me.
I think every one needs to take two steps back and think seriously what they are looking for and if this is the community that they want, remember it’s your community now your paying for it. If you restrict the speach of those around you because you might take offence then your going to end up with a forum of one or two posts per week because everyone will be too afraid to post. Wow what a concept pay your five bucks to keep quiet, in a community that now is only going to survive by the members co-operating and deciding what the standards are, or else there will be no member to argue with.
And frankly after I read the thread that got Dogface banned I was a little shocked. The guy might have been an ass but for crying out loud, He apologised, some of you couldn’t except his apology and walk away. Oh he didn’t mean it, oh poor fucking you get over it he apologised done.
