WTF makes you think they owe you an explanation of why they keep records? For all you know, Ed Zotti has every warning ever issued printed out and used as wallpaper in the barn house. Who gives a damn? Whining about it and obsessing over it isn’t doing you any good.
If Warnings are issued in a capricious and unpredictable manner, so that no one can predict if any post may get a warning out of the blue due to new rules that only exist on the moment- then having such a warning go away after a reasonable period makes it sting less.
The issue here is that we all want warnings to make sense and not be in capricious and unpredictable manner. As I pointed out more or less the same post has generated a response of* "not even a note needed’* to “Warning!”.
They are only capricious and unpredictable if you try and push the envelope. It’s not that hard to avoid doing so.
I dont think CarnalK was trying to push the envelope, and neither was I when I made a bad joke that is more or less a Board meme… and has been used many times before and since with nary a warning.
It can only hurt you if you let it, man. In your heart, you know this warning is now powerless over you. Be strong.
Incidentally, I also have one solitary very old warning that I thought was unjustified, and at the time, I was able to easily find examples of other people saying the same thing without being warned. My offense also happens to be pretty much identical to the OP’s (I said “you have no fucking idea what you’re talking about”). I thought it was pretty ridiculous at the time, and consider it evidence that the rulings here are unpredictable and inconsistent. But it’s in the past. It’s never occurred to me that having that warning still sitting there on my record is an ongoing insult or painful reminder.
Consider yourself a trailblazer then. Because you took one for the team, the mods are afraid to mod anyone for it now.
Remove “try and” from my post.
Good one! I love it! 
Post 23. I’ll quote the core of it:
Basically it says civility is good and clear communication is good. But sometimes they conflict. This thread discusses one of the frankly rare cases where I felt expressing the legitimate point posed a modest challenge.
It’s not against the rules to say “That is complete Bullshit”, so I don’t see what problem wolfpup is trying to point out. That’s a simple and effective way of point out “complete bullshit” when we see it.
What we don’t want is people saying “That’s complete Bullshit and you’re nothing but a Bullshitter”.
I’m capricious and unpredictable mainly when I haven’t had enough coffee, so be particularly careful what you post before 9 AM.
Is that UTC−05:00 time zone?
Next time, say: “you have no [del]fucking[/del] ever-loving idea what you’re talking about”.
It’s hard to be sure any more, but I think the above (bolded) is complete Bullshit. I’m pretty sure if you responded to a post by saying “That is complete Bullshit” you might well be modded for it. Especially if Colibri hasn’t had his coffee yet.
ETA: The meme that I invented and would like to see incorporated into Netspeak is “BSDL”, meaning Bullshit, Doubletalk and Lies. We surely need a way to call out Bullshit, Doubletalk and Lies, there being so much of it all over the Net, the Universe, and Everywhere, this message board on the whole being no exception.
As frivolous as these issues sometimes seem, I think there’s an important matter of principle at stake, especially when rules get entrenched.
To illustrate, my original comments came from this thread where, after a great deal of mod discussion, it was deemed that “deliberately distorted” was not allowable. It’s a marginal one and I can see the logic, especially with the “deliberately” part implying intent. And yet, and yet … if someone makes an argument citing points to support his case and omits numerous points which argue against his case, if the supporting points are in various ways being misrepresented, and if the source for it all is someplace commonly known to be driving an agenda … I mean, come on! Jesus H. Christ, surely there is some point in the universe of logic where “deliberately distorted” is actually objectively valid?
But, as I say, even that is a marginal case. It gets worse. It was implied in that thread that “you made that up” was somewhere apparently also deemed disallowed (though I haven’t seen such a ruling myself), and “you’re being disingenuous” is another candidate for prohibition but isn’t actually quite prohibited yet.
Where is all this going? It’s nowhere near as clear-cut as you imply. I don’t normally subscribe to “slippery slope” arguments but this is more like an Alpine luge. I once got mod-noted for using “you made that up” when another poster failed to provide a citation for something he had said, the mod note coming with the comment that it could have been a Warning except that the other poster had already acknowledged that he had, in fact, made it up. Indeed. Because the other poster freely and cheerfully acknowledged that he had simply stated something that he believed to be correct and axiomatic – to be so self-evident that it didn’t need a citation. Which is not the same as accusing someone of “lying”, or anything within a country mile of it.
Which nicely illustrates how these phrases have important, specific, and useful meanings that are worlds away from accusing someone of being some sort of morally deficient habitual liar. And I hate to see these important tools of communication and expression at risk of disappearing one by one, just because someone at some point may have used a phrase injudiciously. It diminishes the value of these forums.
I don’t see the problem. It is clear cut in the example you provided. Accusing someone of making something up is the same as accusing them of lying.
You say he admitted it, but that’s not how it sounds in your description. If he “simply stated something that he believed to be correct and axiomatic” he didn’t “make it up”; he was mistaken. Ignorance isn’t the same as deception, and not everyone who disagrees with you is your mortal enemy who must be vanquished.
Here’s an easy solution to your dilemma: Don’t make accusations that begin with “You…”.
That is complete bullshit.
OK, let’s see if I get mod’ed for that! Oh wait, you didn’t get mod’ed for it!!
And the same is true for “You are lying”. I’m just not seeing that it’s all that hard to direct our posts at the argument instead of the guy who is making the argument. In GD. If it gets really bad, just post in the Pit.
I think you’re wrong here. They don’t conflict. It’s a separate problem if a person can’t communicate clearly without being civil.