# WTF? Otto was just banned by Ed. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 10, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971 "2008-09-10T18:35:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 21
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/401 "2008-09-11T01:28:33Z")
So, how banned would I get for changing my sig to this: [Bannings will continue until morale improves!](http://boardstest.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10179498&postcount=145) (Thanks, **Hogwash**.) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/402 "2008-09-11T01:29:13Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > Some of us have been reading these boards since long before we joined. Ed’s bizzare hissy fit has made me wonder whether I owe you an apology for my sponsorship. At any rate, I wish you’d have joined much earlier — back when Spiritus Mundi, PLDennison, and others were here. It used to be a special place. Your posts are a highlight for me these days. I seek them out, so thanks for all your contributions. ---
**Author:** ![TommyTutone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@TommyTutone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TommyTutone)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/403 "2008-09-11T01:34:13Z")
I don’t care one way or another for **Otto** but Ed’s actions just reek of being petty and assholish, kind of a power trip for so many of us shitting on him making his own personal forum. My biggest regret is that I did not renew my account in the past 30 days so that I could issue a chargeback. I guess I can at least put in an adblocker on my web browser to block out the Google ads that appear. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/404 "2008-09-11T01:34:22Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > And if **duffer** ’s only supporting it because of some personal remark, that makes him a stupid jackass in my mind. You already think I’m a jackass, so I’m not too worried about your opinion. If you dislike me, I must be doing something right. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/405 "2008-09-11T01:37:36Z")
> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#): > > And yet, people just bitch, bitch, bitch about every little thing. And please, spare me the ‘I’m a paying customer!!!’ bullshit. I’ve subscribed every year since the board went P2P, have bought all the books, and that total is still less than I spend on lunch in a week. Give me a friggin break - $15/year (or $7.50) is an absolute pittance - and yet some people seem to expect gold plated posts, and boot licking from the mods regardless of their behaviour. Thing is, alice, I don’t know how many other bulletin boards you read or post at, but most of them are about a hundred times faster than the straight dope, never go down, have modern versions of the board software with most or all options turned on, AND ARE FREE. They should have licked our hairy beanbags for pulling our credit cards out to pay to post at this dump at all - the price doesn’t matter. And it’s not like they said, “service and support are still gonna be awful, but you don’t have a choice: pay up, bitches.” They made a lot of empty promises. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/406 "2008-09-11T01:38:05Z")
I almost feel responsible for **Otto’s** banning, with my mild pitting of **TubaDiva** beforehand. This is yet another appeal to Ed: please reconsider **Otto** ’s banning. I really didn’t see any snark in his post. I’ve said before that I run a message board. I have bad days where it seems like everything’s going wrong; competing site getting more attention than it deserves while mines goes unnoticed, Russian bots bringing the site to a crawl, Indian SEO spammers that make it past the IP, keyword and email blocks, and so on. I just want to take out my frustration somewhere, whack my aluminum banhammer hard onto some user that breaks a minor rule, or seriously consider shutting down the whole thing. Why bother, I think; it sucked up hundreds or thousands of hours of my leisure time for the past decade and a half, and I’ve got little to show for it. The mods on my site aren’t yes men and women, and I don’t want them to be that. I depend on the moderators to _moderate_ and set the tone for the site, not just be forum cops. They’re part of the system of checks and balances on the site, and at times they’ve also been my emergency brakes. Ed, you’ve got some intelligent and rational people behind those mod tags. It seems like such a waste if you use the board’s staff only to enforce the site’s rules. Before you do anything you might regret, think about it first. Go to your mods, and ask for their advice. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/407 "2008-09-11T01:40:02Z")
Are Alice and Guin gonna fight or fuck or what? I’m getting so hot just thinking about it. (They are women, right?) It reminds me of Cheers when Sam and Diane were just bein’ mean to each other. Girls, I’d like to picture you both typing furiously with your tops off, oiling up and swearing at your monitors. Oh well, that’s over. Time for a nap. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/408 "2008-09-11T01:41:03Z")
I’m a reasonable person. I haven’t complained about timeouts or mods or Barn House, because, well, these things happen. I haven’t bitched as things went down, I haven’t complained when the upgrade took longer than expected, I haven’t even bitched as we lost search and other functions. This? This was purely unprofessional, and **Ed** , you should be ashamed of yourself. As the administrator, you should be acting fairly and maturely. I don’t know Otto from a hole in the ground, but that wasn’t a post that should cause banning, even if he’s had bad behavior in the past. I’m more than willing to post this in ATMB and take the banning. **Ed** , you’re a jerk, why don’t you ban yourself? ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/409 "2008-09-11T01:42:41Z")
Another poster here who doesn’t particularly care for Otto but thinks this banning is bullshit. If any action was called for (and I don’t think it was), it should only have been a week’s suspension (is that junior modding?). Free the **Otto 22,506!** ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/410 "2008-09-11T01:43:14Z")
Jesus Christ, **Guinastasia** , could you just shut the fuck up or open your own thread in which to be be cuntish toward **Duffer**? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/411 "2008-09-11T01:43:55Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Girls, I’d like to picture you both typing furiously with your tops off, oiling up and swearing at your monitors. I’d buy **that** for a dollar! ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/412 "2008-09-11T01:44:59Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Thing is, alice, I don’t know how many other bulletin boards you read or post at, but most of them are about a hundred times faster than the straight dope, never go down, have modern versions of the board software with most or all options turned on, AND ARE FREE. They should have licked our hairy beanbags for pulling our credit cards out to pay to post at this dump at all - the price doesn’t matter. And it’s not like they said, “service and support are still gonna be awful, but you don’t have a choice: pay up, bitches.” They made a lot of empty promises. Other places that I read or post at aren’t really at issue here. My point is that the amount they charge is a pittance. If I added up all the $$ I spent here over the years and deleted it from one of my bank accounts I don’t even think I’d notice - it’s well under $100. I mean, the board not working super fast could be annoying - personally I just go and do something else. But when people start bitching about being paying customers it strikes me as absurd. And really, if the board is such a dump, quit coming here. I’m not being a snot - I really can’t understand if people are so outraged at the service why they keep coming back. Obviously the (crappy) service they’re getting is worth $15/year or they wouldn’t re subscribe - right? ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/413 "2008-09-11T01:50:40Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Girls, I’d like to picture you both typing furiously with your tops off, oiling up and swearing at your monitors. Hey - I’m doing that right now! Is there a camera in here? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/414 "2008-09-11T01:51:31Z")
> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#): > > Hey - I’m doing that right now! Is there a camera in here? Oh yeah, gigity, gigity!🆒 ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/415 "2008-09-11T01:51:54Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Jesus Christ, **Guinastasia** , could you just shut the fuck up or open your own thread in which to be be cuntish toward **Duffer**? That is resolved anyway. She misread what he wrote. See somewhere above. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/416 "2008-09-11T01:56:04Z")
> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#): > > Other places that I read or post at aren’t really at issue here. My point is that the amount they charge is a pittance. If I added up all the $$ I spent here over the years and deleted it from one of my bank accounts I don’t even think I’d notice - it’s well under $100. > > I mean, the board not working super fast could be annoying - personally I just go and do something else. But when people start bitching about being paying customers it strikes me as absurd. And really, if the board is such a dump, quit coming here. I’m not being a snot - I really can’t understand if people are so outraged at the service why they keep coming back. Obviously the (crappy) service they’re getting is worth $15/year or they wouldn’t re subscribe - right? Again, it’s not the price, it’s the fact that we paid at all. This is a traditionally free service. Sure, a hundred bucks isn’t all that much money these days, but what if you paid a hundred bucks for, oh, say, a milkshake? You’d expect it to be a fuck of a milkshake, wouldn’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/417 "2008-09-11T01:56:09Z")
Ed has posted in ATMB. > **[Time out, everybody](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=482772)** > > OK, everybody needs to take a timeout, me included. I’ve revoked the posting privileges of a few people. In the first case I concede I did so precipitously. A couple of subsequent cases occurred after I specifically said I didn’t want to hear any... ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/418 "2008-09-11T01:56:45Z")
Everyone, please read [this.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=482772) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/419 "2008-09-11T01:57:55Z")
Color me unimpressed. We’ve heard the same bullshit for years. Oh, the mods work so hard. Oh, we hear the same stuff over and over again. Oh, I just lost my temper. Please. Someone brought up the time **Tuba** pulled that stunt with **Stage Manager** , which really pissed most of us off, since we knew what a shit he was, but gave him ammo. And now, we’re just supposed to say, “Oh, it’s okay, **Ed**!” Whatever. Same old, same old. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971/420 "2008-09-11T02:00:29Z")
**Ed** has extended an olive branch in ATMB: might I courteously suggest that we refrain from poking the bear with sticks any longer until things have had a chance to cool down a little? Me, I’m going to take a little posting hiatus until things are a little saner around here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971.md?page=20) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-otto-was-just-banned-by-ed/462971.md?page=22)