# Why was Opal's MPSIMS thread removed? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 15, 2011, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267 "2011-12-15T02:06:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![splatterpunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@splatterpunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/splatterpunk)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/101 "2011-12-15T04:42:48Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Other people’s inability to maintain a reasonable ethical standard doesn’t mean I shouldn’t. That’s nice. But you are not the internet. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/102 "2011-12-15T04:46:15Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > In my opinion, Opal is the victim of an extremely rude and offensive act. She did not voluntarily publish adult pictures. Someone with a grudge against her went out of his way to locate those pictures and published them without her knowledge or consent. Opal is not my favorite poster here, but no one deserves to be treated this way. **Oakminster** , please answer this for me; what does that have to do with mods disappearing a thread that she started on the subject on _this_ board? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/103 "2011-12-15T04:49:15Z")
Complaining in public that your privacy was violated and **describing what it was that you wanted to be kept private** isn’t something a healthy, balanced individual would do. It wouldn’t surprise me if concern over Opal’s emotional state was a big part of the reason the thread was deleted. She has a blog, a message board, and a website. This place is the only one where she posts with negative results, yet she continues, and the deleted thread is the worst (best?) example yet. It looks as if she’s using the Dope as a scourge (or whatever you call those whip things the monks used to flog themselves with). Why do the mods allow it? If she doesn’t have the good sense to take a break, a mod should do it for her. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/104 "2011-12-15T04:49:34Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I never said it was wise and it appears that Opal has learned a lesson or two in web security. That doesn’t change the fact that several people here apparently see nothing wrong in taking and sharing other people’s stuff simply because there’s no physical barrier to doing so. I assume, then, that if you lost your wallet, and I found it, you wouldn’t object to me pocketing a 20 or 2 as your security was appalling. I didn’t say “hooray, information wants to be free, and so do nekkid pics! Fight the power!” She left the doors unlocked, whether she knew it or not. It’s a shitty move to stroll in and take stuff but you have to expect someone’s going to do it eventually - when you’re on the Web and have billions of people milling around out there, plus computers whose **job** it is to find and catalog **all** the shit on the web. So yes, if I lost a wallet on a sidewalk for months or years with millions of people passing by it, I’d expect bad things would probably result. (And when it comes to pictures, marking something as “private” is pretty much just saying “porn here, look!” If you want to hide porn, it has to be a really boring folder title.) Side note: Besides threads disappearing into nothingness, what mod actions happen to people who risk board wars with those threads? I know **Mewl Dear** (sp?) got a verbal smackdown just for saying “hey, maybe we should check out (another board)” a couple times, and that wasn’t even war-spurring. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/105 "2011-12-15T04:49:52Z")
> [@Sierra\_Indigo](#): > > You seem to mistake those who were banned (i.e. _removed forcibly by you_) for those who _don’t want_ to be here. No, I’m pretty sure you’re the who’s confused on that score. I’m talking primarily about the people who were banned from here. See? > [@me](#): > > Not entirely: a significant portion of most of the various SDMB satellite boards are posters who either quit here in a huff over something or other, or who were banned outright for their behavior. These are people **(the second group, in particular)** whom we do not want around here in the first place, and we’d like to avoid giving them any temptation to return. Emphasis added for the re-quote. > [@](#): > > Those who were banned from here make up a very small number of users of the other boards. Do some of them try to come back with socks? Probably. And there’s probably equal numbers of banned ex-posters who DON’T post at any of the spinoff boards and yet do the same thing. Well, I’ve never tried to make any sort of scientific study of it, but when I visit the satellite boards, its certainly been my perception that the number of banned posters who participate there is much higher than you make it out to be. > [@](#): > > The disgruntled ex-members who simply don’t want to be here, simply don’t post here. They make up a larger proportion than the bannees, and yeah - they may read here, but they don’t post, they don’t register sock puppets and they don’t go out of their way to come back here and argue with y’all for the most part. Once again, most of the cross-pollination comes from posters who AREN’T banned and HAVEN’T stormed off in a huff, but who feel (rightly) that they still have input because they are still members here, and still want to post here. That’s great, but I’m not saying that these people make up the majority of poster at the other boards. I’m saying that there are enough of them that it becomes a concern when fights on other boards start showing up here. Which is why we usually lock (or, in this case, vanish) such threads. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/106 "2011-12-15T04:51:05Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > **Oakminster** , please answer this for me; what does that have to do with mods disappearing a thread that she started on the subject on _this_ board? The situation is what it is. Nothing posted here is going to change the situation on the other board in any way. Her remedy, if any, is with the other board. There’s no value added to allowing such a thread here, and the mods here exercised their discretion in what I think was an appropriate manner. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/107 "2011-12-15T04:53:54Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > (And when it comes to pictures, marking something as “private” is pretty much just saying “porn here, look!” If you want to hide porn, it has to be a really boring folder title.) That’s my theory. If I croak and my parents have to go through my computer looking for bank accounts and shit, “private” means, “Mom and Dad, you really want to just delete this one.” I don’t even for one second want to consider that they might find something they like. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/108 "2011-12-15T04:54:25Z")
What I’m saying is that disappearing the thread to prevent a “board war” is stupid, when the boards you’re trying to prevent the “war” with don’t have as many of the banned posters you’re so scared of as you seem to think they do. I’m not saying no banned posters post there, but there is certainly not a “significant proportion” of them on the spin-off boards. Disappearing the thread in and of itself is neither here nor there. The spurious reasoning behind disappearing it is what’s under discussion. If anything was going to trigger a “board war”, Opal’s whoring is hardly it. The banned posters who are going to sock it up do so anyway. The fucked-off posters who just hate the durp aren’t coming back here. Where’s the source of this “War” that you’re trying to prevent by disappearing the thread? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/109 "2011-12-15T04:55:15Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > I don’t even for one second want to consider that they might find something they like. Great. Now I need to find the brain bleach. (This is why you get a porn buddy whose job it is to clean out all the embarrassing shit off your computer and out of your drawers before the grieving loved ones have to deal with your stuff.) ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/110 "2011-12-15T04:58:15Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > The situation is what it is. Nothing posted here is going to change the situation on the other board in any way. Her remedy, if any, is with the other board. There’s no value added to allowing such a thread here, and the mods here exercised their discretion in what I think was an appropriate manner. So, all of the RO threads in the pit should be disappeared because this site can’t solve those problems? ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/111 "2011-12-15T05:05:15Z")
> [@Sierra\_Indigo](#): > > What I’m saying is that disappearing the thread to prevent a “board war” is stupid, when the boards you’re trying to prevent the “war” with don’t have as many of the banned posters you’re so scared of as you seem to think they do. I’m not saying no banned posters post there, but there is certainly not a “significant proportion” of them on the spin-off boards. > > Disappearing the thread in and of itself is neither here nor there. The spurious reasoning behind disappearing it is what’s under discussion. If anything was going to trigger a “board war”, Opal’s whoring is hardly it. The banned posters who are going to sock it up do so anyway. The fucked-off posters who just hate the durp aren’t coming back here. Where’s the source of this “War” that you’re trying to prevent by disappearing the thread? That’s my fault. It was more for the board-to-board drama reason (that I outlined in [post 60](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14567398&postcount=60)) then a potential board war, so take this as me admitting that I misspoke. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/112 "2011-12-15T05:05:17Z")
> [@Sierra\_Indigo](#): > > What I’m saying is that disappearing the thread to prevent a “board war” is stupid, when the boards you’re trying to prevent the “war” with don’t have as many of the banned posters you’re so scared of as you seem to think they do. I’m not saying no banned posters post there, but there is certainly not a “significant proportion” of them on the spin-off boards. I guess we just have different definitions of “significant,” I suppose. > [@](#): > > Disappearing the thread in and of itself is neither here nor there. The spurious reasoning behind disappearing it is what’s under discussion. If anything was going to trigger a “board war”, Opal’s whoring is hardly it. The banned posters who are going to sock it up do so anyway. The fucked-off posters who just hate the durp aren’t coming back here. Where’s the source of this “War” that you’re trying to prevent by disappearing the thread? I believe I’ve explained the source several times. If you feel my judgement is off in that matter, you can either provide evidence that shows I’m wrong, or live with the fact that one of the moderators on this board has a different perception of some other part of the internet than you do. Just telling me, “You’re wrong!” over and over isn’t likely to change my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/113 "2011-12-15T05:07:51Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Just telling me, “You’re wrong!” over and over isn’t likely to change my mind. Likewise, I’m sure. That said, I think you did an exemplary job of handling **chacoguy** ’s pit thread. I recognize and appreciate your openness and explanation there. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/114 "2011-12-15T05:08:06Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > That’s my fault. It was more for the board-to-board drama reason (that I outlined in [post 60](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14567398&postcount=60)) then a potential board war, so take this as me admitting that I misspoke. Fair dos. You might want to tell Miller that, however. He seems under the impression that a board war is what is wanted to be prevented, which is what I was addressing. ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/115 "2011-12-15T05:09:03Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I guess we just have different definitions of “significant,” I suppose. > > I believe I’ve explained the source several times. If you feel my judgement is off in that matter, you can either provide evidence that shows I’m wrong, or live with the fact that one of the moderators on this board has a different perception of some other part of the internet than you do. Just telling me, “You’re wrong!” over and over isn’t likely to change my mind. Could it be confirmation bias? ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/116 "2011-12-15T05:09:30Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > That’s my fault. It was more for the board-to-board drama reason (that I outlined in [post 60](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14567398&postcount=60)) then a potential board war, so take this as me admitting that I misspoke. And thank you for that as well. Even if I still disagree with the decision. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/117 "2011-12-15T05:10:13Z")
I have no problem with action being taken on Opal’s thread. I just think disappearing it was the wrong move, when I believe most other mods would have simply locked it. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/118 "2011-12-15T05:11:35Z")
> [@Sierra\_Indigo](#): > > Fair dos. > > You might want to tell Miller that, however. He seems under the impression that a board war is what is wanted to be prevented, which is what I was addressing. Which would be odd, considering how we’re practically the Legion of the Banned as far as Millurd is concerned. MA, PA! GIT THE GUN, SOME BANNED PEOPLE’S GONNA COME BACK HERE 'N MAKE SOME TROUBLE ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/119 "2011-12-15T05:12:55Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > The situation is what it is. Nothing posted here is going to change the situation on the other board in any way. Her remedy, if any, is with the other board. There’s no value added to allowing such a thread here, and the mods here exercised their discretion in what I think was an appropriate manner. The de facto rule here has always been you live with what you post. The thrust of this thread is did Opal get special treatment. The answer is yes. It is unfortunate what happened to her, but her starting a thread here only made it worse for herself. The thread should have been locked (because of its inappropriateness) , not disappeared (to protect her). The claims of fear of a board war are total bullshit, imo. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/120 "2011-12-15T05:13:35Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > … live with the fact that one of the moderators on this board has a different perception of some other part of the internet than you do. Honestly, what worries me is that one of the moderators on this board has a different perception of why a thread should be moved from sight than has ever been before and that that perception is being allowed to stand. Not only are we going to have to live with it now, we’re going to have to live with this precedent in future: that any one mod can unilaterally change the rules we live by on this board. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267.md?page=7)