BECAUSE THE TUBES THAT MAKE UP THE INTARWEBZ ARE SERIOUS BUSINESS!!!
Giraffe - I’ll check that out, as I was unaware that the (not terribly original) insult to QED would be disallowed. Thanks.
Having seen the site in question because it makes the rounds of my office at least twice a day, using ctrl-alt-del and doing an end task on IE/Firefox will kill the Rick-Roll. You could give yourself a very basic education in use of a computer and not have to shut your entire computer down to get rid of a harmless joke, but you choose to remain ignorant and proud of your lack of knowledge.
Why you think that entitles you to anything but derision is beyond me, but there you have it. You are being willfully ignorant, and desrve to be laughed at.
The only reason you had to shut your computer down is your own deliberate ignorance. It’s a harmless prank. You’re still bunged up over it.Your entire argument is ‘Wahhhhh I choose to be fucktarded. Don’t make fun of me.’
That is absolute hilarity.
The more I see them get their panties in a twist over a Rick Roll, the more hiliarious the Rick Roll becomes.
I don’t think that’s accurate. Or at least, it’s coming from an assumption of yours, because the first place I’ve ever seen the acronym “TLDR” is here on the SDMB. I remember looking it up on urbandictionary.com, where I often have to go looking up acronyms that people use here and elsewhere online. Assuming that VCO3/TLDR got his new user name as a reference to a snark board and not from a general mockery of internet acronyms is either a huge stretch or a projection on your part.
Yes, it was mangled often, but it was also very long and (I suspect) deliberately confusing. Most people referred to him as TLDR, which is a shortening and not an insult per se. There is no rule against shortening I don’t think, though it’s polite to comply if the other person objects to that shortening. I don’t think TLDR ever did, though I could be wrong about that. I’m sure Q.E.D. does not enjoy his bitchy little nickname. It’s meant to be degrading, but it actually degrades the user far more IMO.
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. None. And yet you bray like an ass. Why am I not surprised?
More ignorance. Where have I asserted entitlement?
Wrong again. Shocking.
You know, I apologize. You’re not ignorant. You’re pathetic. To be so sure of oneself and to be so completely without a clue.
It must be truly blissful.
Quick question. Are moderators acting in moderator capacity allowed to call people, not their behavior, jerks?
Well, considering we have a rule against being a jerk, I’m not sure how we would tell people they were breaking the rule without using that word.
We want to avoid users starting fights in other forums, but moderators can (and should) call out people who are being jerks. This is because moderators can (and will) mete out appropriate action if they don’t stop. If a user does it, then it can turn into “no, you’re a jerk!”, and then other people start to chime in and it derails the thread.
I guess you could think of it as a subset of junior modding. If someone’s a jerk, a member should let a mod know. If you’re upset with someone for rule-breaking and want to respond, the correct venue’s the Pit.
“considering we have a rule against being a jerk”
I don’t think anything would improve the transparency and consistency of the rules and their enforcement than dropping this quaint, vague, muddled mess of a rule and replacing it with a few objectively measurable rules.
What do you suggest? Honest question.
If this is your reasoning for using “jerk,” I’d love to hear the reasoning behind being able to call someone an “ass”.
Which is, you know, what the thread is about. Not “G.E.D.” or rickrolling, as interesting as those are. I appreciate (really, no sarcasm) the discussion of those, especially Giraffe’s contribution to the moderating off-board crap and concurrent thread talking about same.
But I really would like to know how far moderators/admins can go in insulting someone outside the pit.
The same rules as other boards – no name calling or hate speech. No threads started just to bitch about other posters. No pile-ons. I’ve never seen any other board spend as much time fretting about what the rules are when the rules are that simple.
It all works out the same, though. Either you exhaustively list rules for every conceivable situation (since it’s utterly impossible to make simple rules that cover every species of knobhead infesting the internet), or you have some general principles to work from and just end up discussing specific cases from time to time. Neither seems obviously less arduous to me. And in my experience boards with the former type of system end up with no less arbitrary rule sets, and spend no less time arguing about them than this one. Even your examples aren’t much less generic than “don’t be a jerk” - hell, this very board has spent vast amounts of time debating what does and does not constitute “hate speech”, and will assuredly do so again. It’s what people do, especially in mediums specifically devoted to argumentation.
In any case, I’ve always thought “don’t be a jerk” was less a rule, and more a rule of thumb for those wishing to avoid breaking the actual rules without needing to know them all first. We’re allowed to be jerks in all sorts of ways around here (I can call you a hamtoucher with impunity, for example), and have plenty of specifically stated rules including the ones you advocate (hate speech, name-calling anywhere but the Pit, messing with quotes, etc.). “Don’t be a jerk” is just something to fall back on in new cases.
I’ve already given you my understanding, namely that mods and admins are expected to obey the same forum rules as everyone else when posting as posters, but that there are no official on-the-book rules for what language we can or can’t use when acting as moderators.
The main check on both the tone and language we use when doing stuff like handing out warnings is the Pit, actually. People are not shy to speak up when they feel we’ve behaved with unnecessary rudeness. We also have discussions amongst ourselves from time to time.
I’ve seen several boards that function with minimal rules. The basic problem here is, as you say, “we’re allowed to be jerks in all sorts of way,” but a mod can pull out the “don’t be a jerk” card and play it on their own whim. This is a good example, because I think lying about other posters linking to malware is much more jerkish behavior than a rick roll… and a mod condemning someone for it without checking the link is even more jerkish. But it’s all subjective, isn’t it?
I am totally flabbergasted at the hatred and bile exhibited here. I must say I’m rather disappointed in the behavior of many of you.
Shit, man, that’s not even on the same level. Viruses and trojan horses actually cause damage to your computer, damage that may take a long time to clean up. The web site in question did not.
No. It. Isn’t.
Let me assure you, first of all, that there was absolutely no malicious intent on my part. In fact, the only malicious behavior I see here is yours, jumping on the bandwagon. I challenge any of you to show me how that web site damaged your computer. Hell, I challenge you to show me how it caused you any more than a minute or two of annoyance.
I ran across the site in the first place in a classic “rick roll”. Someone (on another message board) posted something along the lines of “hey this is a funny lolcat site”. Before clicking I examined the URL, much as HD suggested, and it looked like a typical lolcat URL so I followed the link. Imagine my surprise at seeing, not a lolcat site, but instead that stupid Astley video and those annoying pop-ups. Then I shut down my browser and got on with my life. I’m not sure if I even responded to the guy who posted it in the first place. I do know we’re still on good terms, the incident long forgotten.
So you see, when HD brought up how looking at the URL can keep you from unsavory sites, I figured I’d give him a little friendly ribbing about it. That’s all there was to it, and I never dreamed so many of you would have such over-the-top reactions.
And to the OP who started this horrible ball rolling in the first place …
I admit, I was originally a little pissed at TubaDiva. No, not her language. I’ve come to expect that sort of language from her, and indeed compared to some other posts of hers in the past, the language here was quite mild. No, I was pissed that she thought this merited a (dun dun DUH!) “Formal Warning”. For a link to an annoying web site? But I had no intention of taking the subject any further. I posted a short response in the original thread and figured that would be the end of it. But then Garfield226 decides to pit her for using the word “ass”. Shit, Garfield, with friends like you, I don’t need enemies.
It’s funny, but after looking through this thread and seeing the sheer quantity of malevolence, I’ve come to change my mind. What with all the calls for my head that I’m sure she received, Tuba’s response was the soul of discretion and moderation. I should probably thank her for not joining the witch hunt.
There, now hopefully we can all put this behind us and damned well move on with our lives. Sheesh!
I know that your argument boils down to ‘Im an idiot and need to be protected.’ and that you over-react to harmless jokes. That alone makes you a hell of a target for rickrolling.
I was under the impression you wanted the babysitter to make sure nobody pulled a prank on you. What are you? Six? ‘Mommy make them stop picking on me!!’
Actually, you’re the one who proudly proclaimed that you’re a total computer illiterate. I’ve seen that site, and it’s always possible to kill the browser app and be done with it. No rebooting required.
Is this what you said when the popular kids wouldn’t invite you to their parties in high school?
Since it causes morons to shut their computers off, it’s even more funny!
But the mods never really get to make up new rules on their own whim, precisely because we’ve got a specific place to call them on it and spend so much time doing so (to which you objected earlier). It seems like you’re claiming that our rules are arbitrary and unjustified, while simultaneously worrying that we spend too much time discussing them, which seems a bit contradictory to me. My point is that no actual written rule set is sufficient, so allowing for discussion is the only way forward, and that’s what we’ve got.
This is not to say that Tubadiva isn’t a law unto herself, and I’d greatly prefer it if all the mods did actually adhere to their own rules. But I think the regular mods do behave properly, and I can’t think of an instance off the top of my head in which a specific rule has been simply magicked into existence using the jerk rule (although I’m prepared to be proven wrong). Yes, Tubadiva is an absolute heffalump with a tin ear and a hair trigger, as is Dex quite often. However, the fact that they are able to act this way unrestricted has less to do with the basis of our rules, and more to do with their “elder statesperson” standing with the owners of the board, having put a lot of effort into its running when it was young. This doesn’t make me happy, but that’s just the way it is.
It is, as you say, all subjective. This is always going to be the case. I’m not saying our way is better than anyone else’s, I’m just saying it’s no worse. They all work out more or less the same in the end - there’s just too many ways for people to be dickheads for any set of rules to cover. Where I really disagree with you is in your earlier objection that this board spends too much time discussing rules. I think the members’ inclusion in this area is one of the best aspects of this board, and I think the moderation by and large is pretty unobtrusive. Yeah, there may be a whole lot of sound and fury signifying nothing on occasion, but that’s the internet for you. People are here to waste time. Let 'em, if the issue at hand doesn’t bother you. But I really don’t think there’s any significant difference that abandoning the “jerk” principle would make.
On preview: Ponder, while I quite agree that this whole thing has been blown out of all proportion, I will say that blind links to annoying sites with sound and popups are, well, pretty annoying, even if they’re not “malware” (which of course they aren’t). A regular site that pulls that crap on me is one that I never go back to, and I’d rather not have this place turn into one. Would you take a polite request not to do that sort of thing in future? At least not here, eh? There’s whole boards for that sort of thing.
No apology from you, I see.
Your mama is sucking donkey dicks in hell and is ENJOYING IT because she just doesn’t know any better, you disgusting moron!
My case, re: the subjectivity of when someone is being a jerk. I rest it. I’ll take a rick roller over a humorless fetishistic abusive sadistic asshole any day.
Who are you calling “humorless”? :mad:
You are welcome to join in; here’s your asparagus, for extra effect.