Why didn't these posts in the Pit warrant any mod notice at all?

[Snowboarder_Bo]

@Lord_Ashtar

It’s amazing how many of your posts start off with something like this.

Yes, I agree that twice in one thread is amazing.

@Lord_Ashtar

Why do you think it is that virtually everyone keeps misunderstanding you?

Frankly, I don’t think “virtually everyone keeps misunderstanding” what I wrote. And the only reason I think A Monkey With a Gun is misunderstanding what I wrote is because he keeps posting that he doesn’t understand what I wrote:

@A Monkey With a Gun

What is his question, though?

@A Monkey With a Gun

I don’t even know what he is asking.

Or posting that he simply doesn’t believe that the words I wrote are truthful (in other words, he thinks I am lying):

@A Monkey With a Gun

I just want the guy to admit that the only reason he started this is that he feels he got insulted regarding his annoying, but legal, catchphrase. And not to dress it up by claiming he’s fighting the good fight.

@A Monkey With a Gun

I don’t buy for a second that he even cares about the language rules (which are complete bullshit in my opinion), but the guy only grasped that straw when he got backed into a corner and was looking for a lifeboat.

It’s curious to me that so much of my last post to A Monkey With a Gun was ignored by him. If I wasn’t bothered by the dozens of insults in hundreds of posts berating me 7 months ago, why does A Monkey think I’m so bothered by 2 of them now?

The only evidence to back up his opinion is his preconceived notion of me and the fact that this thread exists, and he keeps using one to reinforce the other in his reasoning.

Look here:

@A Monkey With a Gun

Bo, you just proved my point. None of what you just wrote is about the language restrictions. It’s about you thinking the moderators can get a pass for insulting you. It was never about the damn language rules, was it?

That’s what he thinks, even tho it directly contradicts what I wrote. Even after I patiently explained that the insult doesn’t matter, he chooses to believe that it does. I doubt anything I could write would sway him from that opinion, but I don’t see any harm in trying.

Let me ask you, Lord Ashtar: why do you think that people like Knorf and Banquet Bear are telling other posters that I have a valid question?

[Autolycus]

Maybe they feel sorry for you?

[Snowboarder_Bo]

@A Monkey With a Gun

Let’s go to your first post. Nay. Before that. You reported two other poser for violating a rule that you don’t agree with. Why? Why did you do that?

Post #108

@Snowboarder_Bo

But as long as the rules are there, they should be enforced.

I get that you choose to believe that I don’t really mean that; that you think I have an ulterior motive. As I said, I doubt that anything I could say at this point would convince you otherwise, but there it is. Again, if you simply aren’t going to believe anything I write, just let me know and I’ll try and learn to live with it.

And the reason I think they should be enforced? Well, I don’t want to think I can say something only to find myself on the wrong side of the line. And yeah, it bothers me when a poster says something that seems to have been fine under the rules and they get a Mod note or warning anyway.

Here’s the next two sentences from post #108:

@Snowboarder_Bo

If the Mods are unwilling to enforce them, they should say so clearly, so that what is and is not going to be permitted is clear to all of us. Having the plain meaning of Ed’s post tacitly ignored by the Mods (which seems to be what they are acknowledging they engage in) isn’t good enough, IMO, as it still allows selective enforcement.

Okay, I answered one for you, now you answer one for me: why do you think that I am suddenly monumentally bothered by these two insults, when I wasn’t bothered by the dozens and dozens last winter?

[armedmonkey]

I’m sorry, buddy, but that’s my point here. You seem to have a disconnect. If those posts cited in your OP had gotten a mod note, you would not have posted this thread. Admit it. This thread would not exist if those posts got mod notes.

But you claim that that is not your point. You claim you are trying to ask a deeper question, but all you are really doing is claiming that you specifically are persecuted by the mods. If this was a complaint about the cops selectively enforcing the rules, why ask them to enforce said bullshit rules? What the fuck are you doing?

[armedmonkey]

Let me put it a better, simpler way. As you well know, I’m an asshole. I have been called all sorts of things in the Pit. I have even been told literally “fuck you”.

I didn’t report it, because I disagree with the rule.

[Banquet_Bear]

@A Monkey With a Gun

What is his question, though? When he’s asked to clarify his question regarding mods, he talks about the language rules. When he’s asked to clarify the question about the language rules, he talks about the mods. I don’t even know what he is asking.

I don’t think you can distill it, either. This thread has touched on a lot of points, true, but c’mon. There was never any specific question posited by Snowboarder Bo. He didn’t even come up with the language rule thing till I asked him specifically. And even after that his question wasn’t clear. This is not an occupy SDMB sit in here, this is a guy kvetching.

I just want the guy to admit that the only reason he started this is that he feels he got insulted regarding his annoying, but legal, catchphrase. And not to dress it up by claiming he’s fighting the good fight.

…Bo doesn’t need to admit anything. Why do you think he should? What does he owe you? The forum isn’t called “About Snowboarder Bo”. He doesn’t actually need to answer your questions at all: in fact he is being particularly respectful in answering your question considering how rude you’ve been. I know that I wouldn’t.

The questions he asked were spelled out in the OP. There is no need to parse out the question again: you can simply goread it. The various mods and admins responded with what they thought the rules were and waited for a pit mod to respond. Miller responded here. Snowboarder Bo’s request for clarification is here. There has so far been no official response to that request for clarification. Your claim that there is no question is incorrect: simply bothering to read the thread would tell you that.

Here are the questions asked by Bo:

How do you explain the word “variants” being used then, when Ed only listed one possible variant, or even no list of variants?

There are no listed variants for “suck/lick my dick/cock”, so are you saying that only the 4 possible permutations listed are forbidden? Doesn’t that deliberately obviate the part of the rule that says “and variants”? I mean if your stance is that any variant not listed is not forbidden, then why did Ed bother to say “and variants”?

Or is just your stance that you (the Mods) are not going to follow the rules that Ed has laid down?

If the plural of “variants” is a fiction, if the need to be reasonably civil is so much a fiction that “go fornicate yourself with a cactus” is not the same as “go fuck yourself with a cactus”, then what does the rule actually proscribe?

How on earth can you parse it that these are not questions? Do you really not understand what these questions are asking? I asked virtually the same questions in my post: how come you aren’t questioning my motives at all?

Since that request for clarification: here is a summary of some of the posts in response to Bo’s question:

Wow. You’re still doing your stupid catch phrase?

Snowboarder Bo, you’ve made it abundantly clear you don’t care that others are annoyed by your catchphrase. Given that, I have a hard time getting worked up about you getting called out for it, especially as the mods have explained that what was posted wasn’t against the rules. The “fighting a good fight” argument is a strawman: why do you keep persisting in it?

Maybe nobody wants to go to bat for you on this issue because you’re wrong, and the catchphrase you’re defending is annoying? It’s worth asking yourself.

“Hey, I’m acting like a jackass and people are calling me a jackass! How are they allowed to do this?”

One of the great mysteries of the Universe.
In a Pit thread titled Fuck Cacti, there’s a fair chance someone will be told to go fuck a cactus. If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the desert.
This may be the stupidest thread ever.

(Sigh) Fuck you Ed. You cunt.

Now it’s the stupidest thread ever. Five words.
Nah, the quarry thing is far more stupid, you should have gone with that.

I agree though. I’d be embarrassed on behalf of my ancestors had I started this thread, its pretty retarded.
No shit. And the OP got off easy. Colibri shouldn’t have told him to go fuck a cactus, he should have banned him.

Oh my God. Dude. Be for real.

And seriously, your catchphrase is not “innocuous,” it is fucking annoying. It is functionally equivalent to your little brother holding his finger .00000001 millimeters away from you and saying, “I’m not touching you!” “I’m not touching you!” and then you complain to your parents and he says “WHAT! I’m not touching her! I’m not doing anything wrong!” And then you tell him to go fuck a cactus.

Maybe because most people would take a hint that it’s incredibly annoying and not funny, which you haven’t done? It was suggested you use it as your signature instead. But that wasn’t good enough. Well, you annoy enough people, they tell you to piss off, and you whine about it.
You don’t seem to understand the difference between “annoyed” and “thin-skinned”.

It’s more of a “Oh, not again, Jesus, is he ever going to shut the fuck up with that thing?” rather than, “SHUT UP, BO, YOU SUCK I HATE YOU FOR THAT DIE DIE DIE!!!”
Children latch onto the strangest things.
My god, man. If this thread isn’t about the insults it means that your entire purpose for starting this is to argue for stricter language rules in the pit. Is that really what you want?

You are responsible for the your own incivility.

Okay, either you’re as autistic as some of my students (they have absolutely no ability to draw cause-and-effect between their actions and consequences). Or you’ve crossed the line into asshole territory.

You can not honestly be saying “I want to be a jerk to everyone else, and then call them on ‘incivility’.”

To Snowboarder’s credit he hasn’t risen to the bait and has avoided responding to these posts. But they clearly aren’t on topic and borderline pit material and IMHO shouldn’t be allowed in this forum. Of course my opinion isn’t the one that counts and if the mods think that these kinds of posts are appropriate as part of their plan of “peer pressuring” Bo to change his posting style then so be it.

Considering how uncivil these posts have been: its actually quite laughable that this was the post that was “deemed off topic” by samclem:

I thinking you’re missing the point, which is to use this opportunity to get rid of the current pointlessly and arbitrarily banned expressions. The fact that comparably offensive statements are peachy, and only (maybe) the literal use of “fuck you” is not, is potentially a lever to pry up that stupid rule once and for all.

Bo does not owe you an answer to your question and is best placed to simply to continue ignoring your questions as they aren’t relevant to the OP or the thread.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

@A Monkey With a Gun

I’m sorry, buddy, but that’s my point here. You seem to have a disconnect. If those posts cited in your OP had gotten a mod note, you would not have posted this thread. Admit it. This thread would not exist if those posts got mod notes.

That is correct. If those posts had gotten any mod notice at all, I would not have started a thread asking “Why didn’t these posts in the Pit warrant any mod notice at all?”

@A Monkey With a Gun

But you claim that that is not your point. You claim you are trying to ask a deeper question, but all you are really doing is claiming that you specifically are persecuted by the mods. If this was a complaint about the cops selectively enforcing the rules, why ask them to enforce said bullshit rules? What the fuck are you doing?

No, I am not claiming that is not the point. I’m saying that there is a tangential point that one of them may not have gotten any mod notice because it came from another mod, and asking if that is the case. Why do you insist that it is one or the other, and not one that is related to the other?

As I just said in the last post: if there are rules, they should be followed, and followed clearly and consistently. Since it doesn’t appear to me that the rules as written are being followed, I am asking why they are not being followed.

I’m baffled by what seems to be your inability to understand that my preference is for rules to be clear and enforced consistently, even when I disagree with them.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

@A Monkey With a Gun

Let me put it a better, simpler way. As you well know, I’m an asshole. I have been called all sorts of things in the Pit. I have even been told literally “fuck you”.

I didn’t report it, because I disagree with the rule.

Ah, so the fact that I don’t think like you think, or like you think I should think, makes me a liar. Is that an accurate summation of what you think of this thread and what I’ve written?

[armedmonkey]

I never called you a liar, I hinted that you are too quick to play the victim.

I admit it. I do not buy your pot-hoc rationalizations for starting this thread. I’m not saying you are a liar, far from it; I’m saying three things:

1.) You think you were insulted. Fine. I get that. But you need to admit that it’s about you.
2.) Rightly or wrongly insulted, you didn’t think this thing through. Pick a point you want to change and stick to that.
3.) You’re better than this.

[Banquet_Bear]

@A Monkey With a Gun

I never called you a liar, I hinted that you are too quick to play the victim.

I admit it. I do not buy your pot-hoc rationalizations for starting this thread. I’m not saying you are a liar, far from it; I’m saying three things:

1.) You think you were insulted. Fine. I get that. But you need to admit that it’s about you.
2.) Rightly or wrongly insulted, you didn’t think this thing through. Pick a point you want to change and stick to that.
3.) You’re better than this.

…I don’t buy your pot hoc rationalization argument. To be polite (but way politer than what others have written so far in this thread): its a load of bollocks.

You are intent on getting answers from Bo: but you never actually answered any of my questions. So I’ll ask them again:

Why does his intent for asking the question matter so much to you?

The question is still valid, is it not?

And he is asking it politely in the correct forum?

If you are really that disturbed by his intent, why don’t you start a pit thread for him?

Why this compulsive need to confront him here?

[Banquet_Bear]

@PlainJain

Bo has asked this a couple of time. But only when he was insulted. I’ll ask again, If his interest is in just in pit language why isn’t he also choosing from one of the many similar examples that happen almost daily?

…well duuuhhhh. People normally notice when they are insulted. He doesn’t owe a duty to the board to report every insult. But if he is insulted in a manner that he thinks breaches the rules, then ATMB is the correct place to raise it.

There have been similar borderline calls where people have been given mod notes and those have been pointed out. In this borderline case, mod notes were not issued. The correct thing for Bo to do to find out why some of those insults got mod notes but the ones against him were not is to open a thread in ATMB. He followed the correct proceedure. Why is following the rules so “suspect?”

Regardless of that: why are Bo’s motivations for posting the thread relevant? Why, out of all the threads posted in ATMB: this is the one where people are questioning the motives of the OP?

[armedmonkey]

@Banquet_Bear

Why does his intent for asking the question matter so much to you?

How can it not? Questions have meaning. Even the act of asking can imply a viewpoint. “When did you stop beating your wife?” is a question. Just a simple question, but I see how it can be mis-construed. Let me rephrase it: “Why did you stop beating your wife?”

He poisoned the damn well. Questions have meanings. You should know that. I stand by my opinion that this was never about the language rules, and Snowboarder Bo has done the exact opposite of what posters need to do to change those bullshit rules.

[armedmonkey]

Here’s a question, Banquet Bear: If you want to see a rule gone, do you privately report it to the authorities when that rule is broken and ask for it to be enforced? Do you do that twice? Do you then complain in an open letter that they didn’t enforce it?

Please explain to me how that could possibly help to change the bullshit rule.

[Banquet_Bear]

@A Monkey With a Gun

How can it not?

…yeah, but how can it? That was my question. “How can it not” is a pretty lame answer.

Questions have meaning.

So do answers.

Even the act of asking can imply a viewpoint. “When did you stop beating your wife?” is a question. Just a simple question, but I see how it can be mis-construed. Let me rephrase it: “Why did you stop beating your wife?”

Yeah, but how does that apply to the questions that Bo and myself and Knorf and many others want answered?

He poisoned the damn well.

Nope: that would be you.

Questions have meanings. You should know that. I stand by my opinion that this was never about the language rules, and Snowboarder Bo has done the exact opposite of what posters need to do to change those bullshit rules.

Lets pretend that this wasn’t about the language rules.

Congrats, victory for you. Now: what relevance does that have to the questions that many of us are waiting for the answers for? I’ll give you a clue: absolutely nothing.

Now thats one of the questions I asked answered: albeit with an incredibly lame answer. Considering how insistent you are that Bo answered your questions: why aren’t you answering mine?

[Banquet_Bear]

@A Monkey With a Gun

Here’s a question, Banquet Bear: If you want to see a rule gone, do you anonymously report it to the authorities when that rule is broken and ask for it to be enforced? Do you do that twice? Do you then complain in an open letter that they didn’t enforce it?

…the problem with your question is that it bears no relation to anything we are discussing.

Bo followed the rules in posting his question in ATMB. He is following proceedure. This is where he is supposed to query mod decisions. What on earth are **you **talking about?

[armedmonkey]

@Banquet_Bear

…yeah,

Well good! You agree with me.

@Banquet Bear

but

My butt is exceptional, that’s true.

@Banquet Bear

how

Well, I work out. Not much really. I Just make sure to do some lunges every now and then.

@Banquet Bear

can

Shit man, don’t call my ass a “can”.

@Banquet Bear

it.

Ok, now my ass is an “it”. That’s sexual harassment. If I wasn’t overparsing your post so it loses all meaning, I’d be stupid enough to take umbarge with your post.

I do have a nice butt, though.

[Banquet_Bear]

@A Monkey With a Gun

Well good! You agree with me.
My butt is exceptional, that’s true. Well, I work out. Not much really. I Just make sure to do some lunges every now and then.Shit man, don’t call my ass a “can”. Ok, now my ass is an “it”. That’s sexual harassment. If I wasn’t overparsing your post so it loses all meaning, I’d be stupid enough to take umbarge with your post.

I do have a nice butt, though.

…I didn’t really think that you had a point: glad you decided to admit it.

Have you finished with your completely irrelevant hijack yet? Maybe we can get back to the question posed in the OP.

[VinylTurnip]

Now that the “Paper Towel Paterno” fiasco seems to be mercifully winding down, I guess the board needs a new Dumb, Pointless Thread that Deserves to Die. I nominate this one.

[armedmonkey]

Second!

[Chefguy]

@Nzinga_Seated

I don’t know how the mods don’t just blow their fucking brains out. Between trying to uphold rules of Ed’s that they know in their hearts are fruit-loops bananas and enduring the soul sucking pedantry of posters with a whine glass that is never empty, I don’t know how they just don’t eat a bullet.

Tell it, sister. These are stupid rules, created because somebody was in a major pout. The problem now is that to retract them would be to admit that the response was childish. So the mods generally (and properly) tend to go easy on people who occasionally slip up. That said, the idea of shutting things down over this is unthinkable, so most of us just grit our teeth and acquiesce.