# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/161 "2011-12-15T16:55:25Z")
> [@RedFury](#): > > Where’s this “board war” you prevented through your valiant actions? I ask because the invisible OP in question is freely available in exactly those very boards that are, in your mind, full of internet warriors chomping at the bit to invade the SDMB. Even JamieMcGarry got closer to inciting a “board war” when he was telling his friends on Facebook to sign up here to help him fight back against all of us big meanies. The mods didn’t give much of a shit then either, so I’m not sure why this has caused them to panic like this w/ the vanishings and the backtracking and whatnot. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/162 "2011-12-15T17:00:13Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > “I must warn Your Majesty that with each new transgression, it grows increasingly difficult for us to maintain the public appearance of impartiality…” But you must admit it’s fun watching them tying to put the toothpaste back in the tube. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/163 "2011-12-15T17:01:26Z")
Another example: MsGrand or whatever her name was was posting “Haha–I’m cheating on my husband who’s too stoopid to track me down.” When Dopers said that she’d posted so much personal info that she could easily be found out, she said she couldn’t. Naturally several dopers were able to locate her and post some pretty telling stuff about her location, she asked that the thread be removed. Not only was it not removed, it wasn’t even closed. Why the change here? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/164 "2011-12-15T17:03:13Z")
> [@RedFury](#): > > Where’s this “board war” you prevented through your valiant actions? I don’t really think a board war was imminent, but you have to admit this is a _really funny_ question. ---
**Author:** ![FuriousGeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecae2f/32.png) [@FuriousGeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuriousGeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/165 "2011-12-15T17:08:37Z")
> [@RedFury](#): > > Where’s this “board war” you prevented through your valiant actions? The lack of a board war just proves how right these valiant actions were. ---
**Author:** ![Oliveritaly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oliveritaly/32/15233_2.png) [@Oliveritaly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oliveritaly)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/166 "2011-12-15T17:10:23Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Another example: MsGrand or whatever her name was was posting “Haha–I’m cheating on my husband who’s too stoopid to track me down.” When Dopers said that she’d posted so much personal info that she could easily be found out, she said she couldn’t. > > Naturally several dopers were able to locate her and post some pretty telling stuff about her location, she asked that the thread be removed. > > Not only was it not removed, it wasn’t even closed. > > Why the change here? Umm Fenris, cause it’s Opal. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/167 "2011-12-15T17:12:00Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > I don’t really think a board war was imminent, but you have to admit this is a _really funny_ question. As quoted, sure, due to the sarcastic “prevented.” But not if taken in context. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/168 "2011-12-15T17:14:18Z")
Well she posted 40 times yesterday but hasn’t posted anything since 7:22 last night, so this thread at least did something. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/169 "2011-12-15T17:25:19Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > Snort. She posts a Pit rant in MPSIMS about another board, and she isnt looking for drama!!!? That stick you speak of, is it a mote or a beam? Bullshit. She pitted a bunch of people who took a her private pictures and posted them without her permission. She has every right to pit the people who did that. They’re assholes. I don’t care what past arguments they’ve had with Opal. I’ve had a few myself but I never figured that somebody else’s behavior gives me an excuse to do something wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/170 "2011-12-15T17:33:15Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > Well she posted 40 times yesterday but hasn’t posted anything since 7:22 last night, so this thread at least did something. Congratulations. You all must be so proud. I try to live my life by the Golden Rule. What I want to know is, were you all this amoral to start with, or does the whole “do unto others” thing go out the window for y’all if the end result can get someone you don’t like to leave an internet message board? Jesus Christ. Every single person who had anything to do with this is orders of magnitude worse as a person than Opal could ever dream of being. I hope this thread doesn’t get vanished, because it’s a good road map for me to use to remember who I shouldn’t respect anymore. ---
**Author:** ![FuriousGeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecae2f/32.png) [@FuriousGeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuriousGeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/171 "2011-12-15T17:33:16Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Bullshit. She pitted a bunch of people who took a her private pictures and posted them without her permission. She has every right to pit the people who did that. They’re assholes. I don’t care what past arguments they’ve had with Opal. I’ve had a few myself but I never figured that somebody else’s behavior gives me an excuse to do something wrong. She didn’t pit anyone. She whinged in MPSIMS about some off board shit. I thought this was a rules violation, but maybe not. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/172 "2011-12-15T17:41:10Z")
I realize some of the mods have a history with **OpalCat** because she’s been on the board a long time, some of the staffers have been modding/administrating for a long time, and she’s been through (and posted about) her fair share of major personal drama. But you should also realize that a lot of newer mods (which which I mean people who have become mods in the last five years or so) have dealt with her rarely or not at all, and when we’ve dealt with her, it has usually been over something relatively minor and not a huge catastrophe. My guess is that the new-ish mods have probably moderated people for insulting **OpalCat** about as often as they have actually moderated **OpalCat** for doing anything disruptive. Perhaps you can see where this leaves the mods I can see where this might leave those mods (I’m including myself here) with one impression and people who have been moderating or posting longer with a different viewpoint. So with all of that said, maybe that’s what looks like special treatment to some posters, but it doesn’t look that way to me. I’m not sure what the purported _reason_ for the special treatment is supposed to be either, but since I’ve never been told to moderate **OpalCat** differently from the way I moderate anyone else, I’m not really worried about the reasons. I’ve been a mod since early 2008 and handled MPSIMS for about two years. I’ve been modding Cafe Sociey for maybe three years. [I can see I locked one MPSIMS thread that **OpalCat** started because it went off the rails.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=521999) I had to deal with one Cafe Society thread where **OpalCat** asked for suggestions about songs for a playlist she could listen to while walking, and some people suggested walking-themed songs. Frustration ensued. Those are the only ones I remember dealing with. I see one thread from the same period that was locked because she was promoting a personal appearance and hadn’t asked for permission, and now we’re going pretty far back because it was locked by **SkipMagic**. **twickster** has been modding MPSIMS for about two and a half years, **Ellen Cherry** has been there for two years, and I think she’s been modding IMHO for about the same amount of time. **Idle Thoughts** has been there for exactly six months. I remember **twickster** and **Ellen Cherry** recently moved one of **OpalCat** ’s threads from MPSIMS to the Marketplace and then moved it back. I realized **OpalCat** has started plenty of threads about her artwork. A few were moderated because she hadn’t asked for permission and some others were borderline. I remember that three years ago, she was posting a lot about her (then-) impending wedding and some people thought she was overdoing it. I’m sure the active MPSIMS mods have dealt with some other ‘ **OpalCat** wants advice’ threads that went badly that I haven’t seen. I know those threads aggravate some posters to no end. But not everybody sees it that way. Not everybody follows the ins and outs of board life that closely or gets that annoyed about the habits of one poster or another. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/173 "2011-12-15T17:47:52Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Bullshit. She pitted a bunch of people who took a her private pictures and posted them without her permission. She has every right to pit the people who did that. They’re assholes. I don’t care what past arguments they’ve had with Opal. I’ve had a few myself but I never figured that somebody else’s behavior gives me an excuse to do something wrong. A picture posted on the internet ceases to be private, it becomes public. That’s the whole concept of the Net. Unless we’re having this conversation by PMs. And you’re right ,she was pitting people, in the MPIMS. But apparently everything is cool there. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/174 "2011-12-15T18:09:56Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Another example: MsGrand or whatever her name was was posting “Haha–I’m cheating on my husband who’s too stoopid to track me down.” […] > Not only was it not removed, it wasn’t even closed. That thread _was_ closed by **Czarcasm**. We don’t always close or disappear threads when the OP reconsiders, but we sometimes do, and we’ve always reserved the right to do that. It goes without saying I can’t show you other examples of threads we’ve removed (although we do it on rare occasions) and while an example from April 2007 isn’t exactly fresh, it’s a given that you can certainly find other examples of threads that were similar in one way or another that were not removed. I felt the thread should be removed because leaving it visible here furthers a serious violation of **OpalCat** ’s privacy, making a bad situation worse. We have removed I realize the content is still visible elsewhere, but we can’t do anything about that one way or another. What exactly was to be gained by leaving it visible? People wouldn’t be accusing us of being inconsistent? They would, of course, unless we left the thread visible _and_ warned **OpalCat** (which I also don’t think was deserved) and possibly did more than that. So I’m not seeing the advantage there. > [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Could a mod answer please: If that MPSIMS thread was vanished for cross-board drama, was Opal officially warned for this transgression? She was not officially warned. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/175 "2011-12-15T18:12:47Z")
> [@Drain\_Bead](#): > > Congratulations. You all must be so proud. Well, I didn’t find the pictures, I’ve never seen the pictures\*, and I’ve never shared the pictures. I’ve also very rarely directly interacted with Opal so whether she even knows I exist, much less used me is a reason for running away from the Board, isn’t much of a matter of debate. But in general, yeah. I’m pretty proud. Thanks for your concern. \*In fairness, it’s because I was at work and there’s no way I was clicking on those links at a work computer. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/176 "2011-12-15T18:38:53Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > What exactly was to be gained by leaving it visible? People wouldn’t be accusing us of being inconsistent? They would, of course, unless we left the thread visible _and_ warned **OpalCat** (which I also don’t think was deserved) and possibly did more than that. So I’m not seeing the advantage there. 1. Vanilla was banned for far less. Why wouldn’t Opal’s warning be deserved. 2. The “What was to be gained?” question’s answer is A) You’re expected to live with your posts, B) some degree of consistency. Non-spam posts are almost never deleted and almost without exception there’s either illegal stuff or extremely personal information (phone numbers, etc). There was neither in Opal’s thread–the personal stuff was all off-board stuff. . ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/177 "2011-12-15T18:50:49Z")
I’m not ignoring your comment about **vanilla** , but I can’t really speak to it because I wasn’t moderating at the time and I’m not that familiar with her situation. > [@Fenris](#): > > 1. The “What was to be gained?” question’s answer is A) You’re expected to live with your posts I think everybody knows it’s a guideline, not an ironclad rule that we will uphold no matter how much harm will befall the person who made the mistake of posting it. It’s a good guideline, but we’ve made exceptions in the past to remove stuff that could come back to hurt people legally, emotionally, and so on. We don’t do it lightly or often. > [@](#): > > B) some degree of consistency. Non-spam posts are almost never deleted and almost without exception there’s either illegal stuff or extremely personal information (phone numbers, etc). Doesn’t the fact that you say “almost never” and “almost without exception” here speak for itself? This is definitely about stuff that is “extremely personal,” and thread was about that stuff even though that stuff wasn’t directly posted to the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/178 "2011-12-15T19:34:51Z")
I post to this thread late. However, I watched it evolve over time. I note the juxaposition that OpalCat would start a thread in MPSIMS ([I’m different now. Just saying](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=630519).) in early November, only to have that thread discussion say otherwise that she has changed. Yet we now find the Board is into more Opal drama with a different Opal thread (now removed), and a mod accused of Opal favoritism. In my view, Opal has not changed nor the perceived favoritism toward her. It really doesn’t matter what the actual occurrence is/was all about. What really matters is the number of Board members who perceive the favortism because for them, the perception is reality. As a result, the credibility of the manner in which the Board is managed (by humans with their own foibles) is again called into question. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/179 "2011-12-15T19:37:07Z")
Marley: Are you considering issuing a warning? Aside: > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Bullshit. She pitted a bunch of people who took a her private pictures and posted them without her permission. Except… That didn’t happen. People posted links to pictures. Links. Because it was all out in the open. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267/180 "2011-12-15T19:37:43Z")
> [@Marley](#): > > Doesn’t the fact that you say “almost never” and “almost without exception” here speak for itself? This is definitely about stuff that is “extremely personal,” and thread was about that stuff even though that stuff wasn’t directly posted to the SDMB. As far as I recall, nothing in her post was about was “extremely personal”. Her post didn’t have names, phone numbers, addresses or any specific link to any pictures. It was just a rant about off-board drama with no specifics at all. And at this point, everyone knows the drama, so what’s to be gained by keeping it hidden? What “extremely personal” stuff did you find in her OP? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-opals-mpsims-thread-removed/606267.md?page=10)