Nothing against Otto, and I won’t say one way or the other whether or not I support the ban. But I will say I understand if the mods and admins go a bit heavy on the banhammer after all the shit they’ve had to endure.
Put yourself in Ed’s shoes for a sec. Two things have happened recently that would totally fling me off the deep end:
You add a forum so you can have a place to talk about your book, and despite the fact that it’s YOUR board, everybody has a fucking cow about it and generally acts like they own the fucking place.
You commit time and resources to a much-needed board upgrade, and this somehow magically gives everyone the right to bash the ever-living fuck out of your lead tech guy. Meanwhile, he’s hacking bits of open-source board software to do things it was probably never designed to do. And a bunch of people act like entitled assholes, personally insulting the guy and calling his skills into question.
Now, can you understand why Ed might be a bit heavy-handed with the banhammer?
Add to this the generally shitty attitude of some of the people on this board, which I’ll sum up below:
People who act like plunking down $15 entitles them to treat the administration like shit and make unreasonable demands.
People who cry poverty and act like $15 was their entire entertainment budget for the year. Folks, if $15 is a highly-considered purchase for you, cut off your Internet access and seek employment.
People who, out of sense of smug self-satisfaction, can’t wait for something to go wrong with the board so they can be the first to post a snarky, insulting thread on it and score favor with their own egos.
People who, whenever a new rule is introduced, feel the need to run right up to the line and poke a toe over. Coincidentally, these tend to be the same people that sit up at night trying to think of potential exceptions to the rules so they can make a further pain in the ass of themselves. “Does this rule apply in the Pit? Does it apply on Pit free-for-all weekends? Does it apply on alternate Sundays? How about during lunar eclipses?”
Add to that all the trolls, whiners, reminiscers (“The board just hasn’t been the SAME since …”) and insufferable douchenozzles dropping obtuse insults on the staff…
Paraphrasing Chris Rock, I don’t condone Ed’s behavior, but I understand.
Well, so much for the “Answer My Response To Your Fucking Question, You Pussy” thread I was about to start in the Pit.
Seriously, though. To the best of my recollection I’ve never commented on how the board was run, griped about any mods or moderation, griped about timeouts or other technical board problems, and I have always and still do appriciate Jerry and sympatize with what he has to handle.
Having said that, I thought the warning itself was high-handed if not outright dictatorial. All of a sudden, criticism of the board (outside the Pit and very possibly inside it soon) appears to have become the number one offense around here because it’s the only (as far as I know) official offense that carries banning with no warning.
One of the things people are most critical of regarding totalitarian governments is the way criticism of the government is officially verbotten, and I thought the warning itself smacked of this kind of totalitarian-esque mindset.
But the banning of Otto was so far out of line as to make my questions about the warning undeniable. (And I, too, say this without any particular love for Otto, myself.
If this policy continues, I will not renew my subscription when it comes up for renewal this spring. I will not pay to belong to a board in which its members live in fear of offending management.
I’d like to apologize to Otto. Although you’ve been a whiny shit at times, and we’ve traded snark, you didn’t deserve the treatment you got, man. Were it not for my continued poking of TPTB to clean up their act, your head wouldn’t have been put on a pike, as a warning to the others. I hope they rescind your banning, Otto. I’m outta here. Be well.
BTW-I’ve been trying to send this message for over 15 minutes, but our stellar board performance hasn’t allowed that meager request to be processed.
I’d like to apologize to Otto. Although you’ve been a whiny shit at times, and we’ve traded snark, you didn’t deserve the treatment you got, man. Were it not for my continued poking of TPTB to clean up their act, your head wouldn’t have been put on a pike, as a warning to the others. I hope they rescind your banning, Otto. I’m outta here. Be well.
BTW-I’ve been trying to send the message for over 15 minutes, but our stellar board performance hasn’t allowed this meager request to be processed.
I’d like to apologize to Otto. Although you’ve been a whiny shit at times, and we’ve traded snark, you didn’t deserve the treatment you got, man. Were it not for my continued poking of TPTB to clean up their act, your head wouldn’t have been put on a pike, as a warning to the others. I hope they rescind your banning, Otto. I’m outta here. Be well.
BTW-I’ve been trying to send the message for over 15-no 30 minutes, but the stellar board performance hasn’t allowed this meager request to be processed.
I’d like to apologize to Otto. Although you’ve been a whiny shit at times, and we’ve traded snark, you didn’t deserve the treatment you got, man. Were it not for my continued poking of TPTB to clean up their act, your head wouldn’t have been put on a pike, as a warning to the others. I hope they rescind your banning, Otto. I’m outta here. Be well.
BTW-I’ve been trying to send the message for over 15-no 30 minutes, but the stellar board performance hasn’t allowed this meager request to be processed.
I felt the same way. I was glad to see a sticky to shut the fuck up already and let Jerry do what he has to do and give it time. He has given several updates. Until today I have had no real complaints but of course it figures that today the new hamsters are sick and the board is super slow.
A heavy handed banning for sure but maybe this is the new SDMB reality. It has always been expressed to shut the fuck up or get out. I guess this is their way of beating that into your heads.
Erm…not really. Unless you have some sort of experience of a posters wording and phraseology, how are you meant to determine “snark”? Is there a sticky definition of it?
So we agree the “snark” could have been imaginary?
Ok we get it!
Sorry, I couldn’t resist, 5 times is a lot. Good luck danceswithcats, youhave been harassing TPTB too much lately, but as I said recently. You were a helpful and informative poster and I will miss you.
I was just coming to The Pit to post about this. :mad:
The board has been slow/down all day, and I went to “About This Message Board” to see if the gerbils had died. Then I see the “No whining” thread and Otto banned.
Methinks the board staff is getting a bit elitist and sensitive these days.
Serious question, is it really that hard to run a message board? Is the hardware or message board software at fault? Does the SDMB have a huge number of users compared to other boards?
There’s “avoiding the question,” and then there’s “THERMONUCLEAR avoiding the question…” Both get the job done, but one has some pretty drastic consequences.
For what it’s worth, I’m in the “it was a damned good question” camp.
I don’t think paying $15 entitles us to abuse anyone, but how about some fucking respect? How many other sites do you pay to use. As for myself, this is the only site I pay for, and the mods here are, let’s say, more unpredictable than any other message board I’m on.
