But Andros, that’s just nitpicky semantics, dear. “The major factor” and “the reason” are the same thing in actual practice.
But okay, I’ll start over. Izzy, if you’re not too busy with your pictograms, could you please go find me a cite that proves that “Being unpopular is a major factor in getting a poster banned”. And besides Daniel~, because, as I’ve already made quite clear (although come to think of it, I used words, so maybe I should have used pictograms), the fact that some people didn’t like him was not a “major factor” in his banning. The fact that he was frequently a jerk was the “major factor” in his banning.
Dammit, I was going to mention red_dragon in my last post…
Is it possible that he got banned on accident or due to an error? I remember that someone (water2j maybe?) got temporarily banned because some smartass used his e-mail addy when registering.
He didn’t say “the major factor.” He said A major factor, which as you know quite well has a very different meaning. It’s YOU who are using semantics to twist what he’s saying. A word here and there can substantially change meaning.
The subjective call that someone is “a jerk” is no different from saying he was unpopular. It’s an open fact that one’s popularity, reputation and history is taken into account in terms of when the mods do and don’t take action, as well they should. Wildest Bill rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, and I’m quite certain that greased the skids. A more popular poster could get away with GQ questions FAR worse than what he was apparently banned for. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; this is a community, after all, and if the Reader’s appointed mods want to make calls based on what them preponderance of users want, that makes sense to me.
(I should note, for the sake of full disclosure, that I’m very disappointed he was banned. But it isn’t my call or my MB.)
Actually, Goose, Izzy, the two ideas aren’t necessarily in conflict.
Most Dopers don’t like Jerks (for whatever valure you assign to the word “Jerk”).
Jerks get complained about more than any other class of posters,
Therefore, yes. People who are complained about a lot are often banned. But the cause isn’t the complaining, the cause is the Jerk-ish behavior that generates the complaints.
People get banned around here for being jerks. Being jerks also frequently makes them unpopular. Unpopularity does not cause the banning, it is simply a side effect of the behavior that causes the banning.
Bill wasn’t banned because of his stupid comments about Clinton. He was banned because he posted his stupid comments about Clinton after being warned and warned and warned over and over and over again to stop being such an idiot.
Of course most other posters wouldn’t have been banned for what he said. They would have been, get this, WARNED. The Admins would have said “If you keep up this crap, we’re gonna kick your ass”. And if the average poster took the warning to heart, the incident would be forgotten. But that wasn’t Bill’s first warning, nor his second, nor his third. That particular post was simply the last straw.
And that’s too bad, since I thought Bill added a lot to the boards. But he brought it on himself.
[strother martin]“What we have here is…failure to communicate. He got what he wanted. And…I don’t like that any more than you men do.”[/strother martin]
Yes, but to restate someone else’s position using words that significantly change the original meaning is either dishonest or negligent.
No, it doesn’t. Given the talk of ‘six respected posters,’ at worst he thought that you were one of six to get WB banned (“singlehandedly?”). All we can know for certain from his post is that he suspected that you had asked that WB be banned. There’s no need to overstate that.
Darn! I had a chance only once to show how wrong he was but he never replied to me. I lost my chance to be touched by one of the big ones from the dark side! Oh well, OTHO Seethruart is still roaming around but he is a one trick pony, not on the level of Wildest Bill.
“Nonsense- God gave Wildest Bill a brain, too. If Wildest Bill wants to do like Kirk and build his own gun, let him.”
Ben
“Ok ben who is Kirk? Some guy that probably blew his head off with a homemade or something?”
Glad he’s gone. After initial amusement, I’ve avoided any thread where he set foot. His one joke just got staler and nastier.
Friends, I’m getting old. I’m still responsive to wit, to trivia and cheap gags. I love to learn new things and be jolted out of my comfortable way of thinking.
But life is too short for vexatious time-wasters.
And the wrath of the Noble Duck was wasted on him.
[sub]Striking his lyre, Redboss sings:
“O Google-goddess, Noble Duck,
Please lead as we meander. ,
Research, Enquire, Instruct, Inspire,
And serve sauce to the gander.” [/sub]