# Why was MSWAS warned? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 26, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781 "2009-08-26T16:22:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/61 "2009-08-26T19:06:41Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > It’s amazing that you cannot comprehend any idea but that. You had two reasons for doing what you did. > > 1. You have problems with me for insulting a living liberal on your board. (That I didn’t actually is immaterial) > > 2. You have problems with me bringing up something that doesn’t make a dead liberal look good. > > In both cases your moderation was spiteful and purely out of partisan malice. There is no other rational explanation. If you don’t want others attributing motives to you, you should probably avoid attributing motives to others. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/62 "2009-08-26T19:13:33Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > You have problems with me for insulting a living liberal on your board. (That I didn’t actually is immaterial) Your insistence on blaming every problem you have on the moderators, and their political partisanship and their hatred for you personally, is not going to help you avoid similar problems in the future. Since this is turning into a recurring issue for you I think you should consider your own role in these events. For whatever it’s worth, I got your parody, and while I wouldn’t say it was offensive, I thought it was poorly communicated, and in the wrong forum. And no matter what you think of **twickster** ’s politics - whatever her politics are - your MPSIMS thread today was redundant. And somewhat like the Obama-Hitler thread, it also didn’t communicate your point very well. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/63 "2009-08-26T19:17:01Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Your insistence on blaming every problem you have on the moderators, and their political partisanship and their hatred for you personally, is not going to help you avoid similar problems in the future. Since this is turning into a recurring issue for you I think you should consider your own role in these events. The bottom line is Twickster claims it wasn’t a parody. That is an extreme minority viewpoint. > [@](#): > > For whatever it’s worth, I got your parody, and while I wouldn’t say it was offensive, I thought it was poorly communicated, and in the wrong forum. And no matter what you think of **twickster** ’s politics - whatever her politics are - your MPSIMS thread today was redundant. And somewhat like the Obama-Hitler thread, it also didn’t communicate your point very well. Yeah, as I said, the first thread was poorly written satire, and the second thread I much prefer the more concise IMHO version. I also disagree with you that it was redundant as it was not about Ted Kennedy. Mary Jo Kopechne was a real person. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/64 "2009-08-26T19:18:37Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > If you don’t want others attributing motives to you, you should probably avoid attributing motives to others. Ok well, if you admit that the first one was a parody and that you viewed it incorrectly then that’ll be a good step toward that. I’m even over that you moved it. I admit corrolation is not causation. ---
**Author:** ![Tenebras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/65 "2009-08-26T19:18:46Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Actually a tally was done in my Pit thread as to how many people didn’t think my post regarding meeting Barack Obama was a parody. It was less than six. Only you and like three other people thought it was anything but a lame parody. I can post a cite if you like. Did you think it was a parody? Because if it was you should have put it in the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/66 "2009-08-26T19:21:45Z")
> [@Tenebras](#): > > Did you think it was a parody? Because if it was you should have put it in the Pit. Oh? I didn’t realize. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/67 "2009-08-26T19:23:52Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > The bottom line is Twickster claims it wasn’t a parody. That is an extreme minority viewpoint. I said I couldn’t tell if it was a parody or not, because it was so ham-fistedly done. Although I gave up following the various threads in the Pit on it (the stupidity, it burned), my understanding is that there was a fair amount of support for that position. Since we’re voting about it and all. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/68 "2009-08-26T19:28:23Z")
You having fun, **twickster**? I’m glad I’m not a mod. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/69 "2009-08-26T19:30:40Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > I also disagree with you that it was redundant as it was not about Ted Kennedy. Even in your revised OP, you mentioned Ted Kennedy in the first sentence, and you only posted it today because Kennedy died today. Your statement that the thread isn’t about him is half-true at best. She is no more dead today than she was yesterday or than she will be next week. And her death was being discussed aplenty in two other threads - and has dominated the GD thread in particular, to my frustration (as a poster). > [@](#): > > Mary Jo Kopechne was a real person. I didn’t know this was in dispute. But again, we’re not having that debate in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/70 "2009-08-26T19:30:50Z")
> [@bup](#): > > You having fun, **twickster**? I’m glad I’m not a mod. Yeah, me too. **twickster** So you Obama being a German who wants to revivify our teutonic heritage is ambiguous to you huh? Fair enough. I thought maybe that putting in all the ways he is NOTHING LIKE Hitler might be a tell. Oh Poe’s Law, how you taunt me. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/71 "2009-08-26T19:48:00Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Oh Poe’s Law, how you taunt me. I think this is more like an inverse Clarke’s Law, applied to humor: sufficiently bad parody is indistinguishable from advocacy. In fact, bad parody is often barely distinguishable from foot fungus. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/72 "2009-08-26T19:51:56Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I think this is more like an inverse Clarke’s Law, applied to humor: sufficiently bad parody is indistinguishable from advocacy. In fact, bad parody is often barely distinguishable from foot fungus. Poe’s Law makes the clear point that it is hard to tell parodies of fundamentalism from the real thing, since they both seem equally insane. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/73 "2009-08-26T20:16:08Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Of all the moddings I disagree with. I think this is the most unfair. > > I’m not satisfied that the thread is still closed. > > It sucks, it’s partisan bullshit. It sucks. > > I want to know what forum I can post it in other than The Pit or Great Debates. You might try a forum devoted to posting opinions about things that aren’t great debates, but will be allowed to be discussed civilly. Like, oh, I don’t know… In My Humble Opinion? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/74 "2009-08-26T20:19:36Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > You might try a forum devoted to posting opinions about things that aren’t great debates, but will be allowed to be discussed civilly. > > Like, oh, I don’t know… In My Humble Opinion? :dubious: Heh you’re a bit late on that. It’s going on in IMHO right now. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/75 "2009-08-26T20:19:51Z")
If you have to explain the joke for people to get the joke, you should get new material or a different audience. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/76 "2009-08-26T20:25:22Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > If you have to explain the joke for people to get the joke, you should get new material or a different audience. Thanks you’re right! It’s totally the audience’s fault! ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/77 "2009-08-26T20:29:41Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > And now I’m off to shoot myself. > Without getting bogged down in the definition of “memorial,” yes, it was. It wasn’t a tribute in the sense of “Name your favorite John Hughes movie” would be a tribute to John Hughes, but threads announcing the death of a famous person are often full of remembrances of that person as well as reactions to the news. The MPSIMS thread definitely falls into that type. > Mary Jo Kopechne was already being discussed in the MPSIMS thread devoted to Kennedy and in the GD thread devoted to Kennedy. So from where I sit, there was no need for a new thread. This is just pure bullshit. Absolute stupid nonsense. Jackbooted thuggery of the almost worst kind. (I’m being hyperbolic on purpose, I hope everyone realizes this; never sure about that around here any more…) ☹ Taking aside the for the moment the issue of whether writing something that is really an opinion is better suited for MPSIMS or IMHO, there simply is NO way to take the thread **mswas** started and call it a memorial thread devoted to Ted Kennedy. It was an ANTI-memorial thread, and it made no bones about it. It should have been allowed to proceed in whatever forum is appropriate for that, either MPSIMS, which I don’t see it as violating the rules of, or IMHO, where I think it probably better fits if **mswas** wanted some discussion of the central issue of Mary Jo Kopechne, as opposed to just some “yeah, what he said” responses. And the idea that we have to avoid multiple threads about something as large as the Ted Kennedy death is ludicrous. We are not so resource poor that we have to consolidate everything we do on a topic into one thread. Remember, we don’t consolidate threads for the purpose of following a RULE, we do so to make it convenient to the members of the board so that cross-purposes discussions aren’t occuring. If someone wants to discuss something as broad as the issue of Ted Kennedy’s death, press lionization of him, and the relevance of Mary Jo Kopechne in a seperate thread from, say, discussion of Ted Kennedy and his good works for society, or whatever OTHER threads on Ted Kennedy may have been started, that’s FINE. Face it: the reason that this was done was that **mswas** is living on borrowed time from other activities here lately, and **twickster** simply had a trigger finger. Fortunately, she’s realized that fact, and rescinded the unwarranted warning. Frankly, the thread should have been reopened, and if it was deemed to be more a discussion about opinion than a simple maundering about the unfairness of things, it should have been shipped off to IMHO. It should NOT be the subject of after the fact rationalizations engaged in in an attempt to once again circle up the wagons and justify admittedly incorrect actions by staff. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/78 "2009-08-26T20:59:55Z")
On a board where most (all?) mods are of the liberal persuasion great care should be taken to avoid even the appearance of political bias. I think the mod concerned should ask herself whether she really would have acted in the same way if the thread had dealt with Rush Limbaugh’s past. I have serious doubts as to whether such a thread would have been closed. At the very most I think it would have been transferred to the Pit. As for **TubaDiva** ’s comment that **mswas** was ‘fomenting argument’, that quite took my breath away. Of course he was fomenting argument and long may people do so on this board. Unless she was accusing him of trolling, and I think she’d have a hard job selling that to many members of either political complexion. I’m pleased the warning was lifted, **mswas** , you deserve an apology too. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/79 "2009-08-26T21:11:33Z")
Thanks **aldiboronti**. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781/80 "2009-08-26T21:40:17Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > Taking aside the for the moment the issue of whether writing something that is really an opinion is better suited for MPSIMS or IMHO, there simply is NO way to take the thread **mswas** started and call it a memorial thread devoted to Ted Kennedy. It was an ANTI-memorial thread, and it made no bones about it. I got crossed up: the original thread, posted at 2:22 a.m., was what I meant to call a memorial thread. If only I could go back in time and save all the people who were killed in this avalanche of hyperbole. > [@](#): > > And the idea that we have to avoid multiple threads about something as large as the Ted Kennedy death is ludicrous. This is a rebuttal to something nobody said. I think one “Ted Kennedy just died” thread _per forum_ is pretty reasonable. Multiple threads about different aspects of his life and achievements would definitely be allowed; and in GD there is now a thread about potential successors to his spot in the Senate. At the time **mswas** posted his OP, we already had two threads that were essentially identical. If **mswas** had raised a topic nobody had discussed, the thread might have been allowed to stand on its own. But the “Ted is dead” thread contained a bunch of comments about Kennedy’s personal shortcomings, including **Clothahump** ’s post that said “He killed a woman and got away with it because of his name and influence.” That comment was posted four hours before **mswas** posted his OP, and it was in the same forum. So there was zero need for a new thread in MPSIMS specifically devoted to Mary Jo Kopechne; the topic was already covered. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-mswas-warned/507781.md?page=5)