Actually, if anyone deserves a warning for the use of “stupid” it is Czarcasm. Shodan described the post as “Too stupid; didn’t read” just like people describe posts as “Too long, didn’t read” or “TLDR”. Czarcasm is the one who turned that into a witty but personally insulting retort.
And no, I didn’t report that post, because it didn’t come up until now.
So far I’ve been giving you the benefit of the doubt, both because I’ve seen posters making unfounded accusations before and because Shodan seems to be reading in bias. But comments like that lend credence to his position.
IMO, none of these are personal attacks, really. They’re all attacks on arguments. Not necessarily *good *attacks or *reasoned *attacks or even *productive *attacks, but there’s nothing in there about the posters. Which, unless I’m mistaken, is the rule. And I also think there’s a big distinction between “your post is a lie” (i.e., you are lying) and “your post demonstrates a belief that is based on lies” (i.e., someone lied to you and you believed them). The way I understand the rules, the first would be disallowed but the latter should be fine.
I don’t care for **Shodan **a lot of the time, but fair’s fair.
Well, what if someone’s positions really *do *demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of the underlying issues? It’s snarky, certainly, but a certain amount of snark has always been tolerated here.
I guess the difference to me is what can be argued. “ur a dumb” isn’t going to get you anywhere; what’s the possible response, “No I’m not?” But if someone asserts that you don’t understand the issues, that’s not name-calling, it’s saying your positions don’t have a solid footing in reality; and *that’s *something that you can potentially disprove. (And if you *can’t *disprove it, then the person’s right, and they may as well get to call a spade a spade.)
The text of post #191 from that thread:
*
You know what I believe, and what my beliefs are based on?
That certainly qualifies you to apply for [Randi’s challenge].
Edited to add: Sorry boss, didn’t see the warning. *
So, you apologized to the Moderator, not to the person you insulted. The apology was for not following instructions, rather than apologizing for the insult. And you cite this in response to a comment about an entirely different insult.
You asked: “You mean the iffy one I immediately apologized for?” The answer to that is, no the other one that you pleaded Nolo contendere, and for which you did not offer any apology.
And Shodan was not threatened with a Warning for the use of “stupid.” He was told to stop the personal attacks. Telling another poster that his “beliefs” are “based on lies” when that poster has not even expressed any beliefs in the thread is a personal attack. Posted just following a Mod note to reduce the name-calling, (even if the name-calling note was too specific), is a red flag.
Shodan always reads in bias. After multiple years of being his target, it gets a bit wearying.
When I scanned the thread and found excessive hostility, I told everyone to tone it down, using the word that popped up most often as an attack. I just found it ironic that Shodan’s evidence for bias was the fact that he was the only one who had used that word, when I had not even noticed that connection, so when he made it a centerpiece of this thread, I committed the cardinal sin an SDMB Mod can commit and made a smart-assed remark.
Because I immediately complied with the (rdiculous and arbitrary) rule that you imposed.
Which brings us back to the question in the OP - why was I told to stop personal attacks when several other posters made personal attacks on me? Why are you ignoring those?
I think we have gone a good long way in establishing that, in this case at the very least, I am not reading in the bias. Others can see it. Can you?
Please do not try and change the subject. No one is objecting to your smart-assed remark. I and others are objecting to the fact that you are ignoring personal attacks made against posters you dislike and concentrating all of your mod attention on reasons to act against me.
He’s got a point. You didn’t say “The next person to make a person attack will get a Warning.” You said, “Shodan, the next personal attack will receive a Warning.”
If your intent was to raise the general level of discourse in the thread, that was not remotely clear. The Note appeared to be directed at one poster and one poster only.