I’m sure you didn’t miss too much, the meltdowns happen about twice a year and if you’ve ever been the object of the meltdown or involved in any way it’s not so big a deal after the first few times.
Sam
Say it ain’t so, Joe! Zenster helped me sort out my hot peppers!
I’m rather suprised it was something as small as that. I was thinking he was going to break and post some sort of meltdown, and then get banned.
All the people defending Zenster most likely have never been under his line of fire(for example, disagreed with him, even worse so in the pit where he can tell you to shove a tree up your ass rather than implicitly state it). Yes, he’s done good things. But he has done a lot of bad things.
Is it fair to keep him on the board so he can violate rules several times more than offered to most posters, just because he might offer support to someone in need?
He can be quite nice. It’s just the jerkish things overshadow the nice things.
… That said, I looked at the junior modding stint, and that was a bit of a sad (maybe even jerkish) thing to pull by Zenster if he’d been told not to do it before.
I’m sad about this. I hope he’ll come back.
I, too, was taken aback. I hope that after a cooling-off period he’ll return. It wouldn’t be the same around here without him.
Were the next poster to use all capitals, I will cause them harm. Now, whomsoever does this action, is doing it with knowledge of a consequence. Did I just threaten everyone who is reading this, or just the next seven posters who will use capitals? Hyperbole…Probably only three…
As is generally known, I really didn’t like Zenster, personally or online.
But, while I won’t miss him, I didn’t see anything in that particular post to warrant much official comment. But I’m sure Lynn and the other mod staff felt it was enough in the web of his posts.
ARE YOU THREATENING ME???
That was brilliant moderating, and a textbook example of how a good moderator, using his or her common sense and judgement, can save an online message board from unnecessary turmoil and very public meltdowns by taking apropriate actions based upon each individual situation.
A angry drunk muttering to himself “I outta kill that guy” after a fight is not anything even close to a credible death threat, and to treat it as such is an extreme overreaction without realastic provication, especially when the person in question has a long, well known history of getting upset and muttering to themself without ever acting upon it the next day. It’s a “zero tolerance” type of violation, 100% within the letter of the law but oh so petty.
It also goes without saying that either, both or neither reaction is completely under the purview of the Reader and the board administration, to exercize as they see fit and if any of us ever feels that the said exercize of board powers becomes intolerable, we are absolutely free to vote with our feet and leave.
He has always been one of my favorite posters. Way before I registered, I lurked for a very long time. He was one of my first “faves”, along with Crunchy Frog, OpalCat, Billy Rubin and several others I am drawing a blank on right now.
I really am kinda sick about this. 
I hate it when a “veteran” is gone. Even some of the crappy ones, which Zenster was not.
I hope he can come back. And soon.
Yeah, Michael Ellis…just damn.
“Long Time Poster Syndrome”
I’ve seen plenty of other well-liked posters go down in flames over the years. I don’t what causes it.
Well, personally, I think it’s grossly unfair.
Perhaps Zenster’s comments were somewhat over the top; however, they were also obviously hyperbole.
Given the way some posters behave without getting banned - heck, the way some posters behaved in that thread without getting banned, makes ** Zenster’s** banning seem totally inappropriate.
Slightly off the subject
I find it very creepy that my name was in the ‘offical goodbye’ message to a long standing poster. Esp in a thread I wasn’t even keeping track of other then a drive by post. (yes I realize that my name had nothing to do with anything that was going on. Still a bad sign though)
As for Zenster. He seemed very Jekyl and Hide to me. I think I’d like to see him back though.
I know where you’re going with this (or I think I do), but I think it’s not doable on a message board. It’s a print medium, we can’t tell inflections of voice etc. and if the staff here would take a stance such as you’re suggesting, we’d have a situation wherein Longterm Poster A would have episodes of drunken idiotic behavior which would be accepted 'cause hell, we all know that they get drunk say things they don’t mean and appologize, but then Shortterm Poster B or Longterm Poster C posting the same sort of thing would be banned.
how would folks know which category they fell into? I’ve gotten one cautionary email from a mod. One. and I took it to heart and have made damn sure that I didn’t do the same sort of thing again.
Should the situation ever occur where the staff here posted a public admonishment about my posting behavior and mentioned as well that my posting priveleges were being discussed, I’d make triple damn sure that I was bein’ nice.
I, too, feel that Zenster “Didn’t really mean it in the literal sense”, but he was quite publically under notice.
there’s a pattern that I see here not infrequently. Long term Poster starts getting public warnings, poster gone. I genuinely like Zenster, hope he would want to stay in touch w/me. But he needed to be more cautious about his posting. As soon as I saw that post I thought ‘uh-oh’.
I hope Zenster can come back.
He’s a good man.
I shall think of him whenever I eat mayonaise.
I’m sure this has probably already been mentioned somewhere sometime, but it’s funny how when somebody gets banned, everybody acts as though they died. In the world of these message boards, though, I suppose that’s true. Anyway…
Minor nitpicks:
(I realize that when you venture into the realm of formal, perhaps semi-archaic English, it’s easy to get in over your head, but if you’re going to do it, do it right. So excuse my while I don my prescriptive hat and prescribe the following)
- After the construction “Were [some hypothetical situation],” it’s best to say “would” instead of “will.”
- The word you’re looking for is “whosoever.” “Whomsoever” is an object pronoun.
He was almost banned for junior-modding in flagrant disregard of warnings about doing it. A week ago. That seems to be being ignored in this contention over empty threats and such.
I will miss Zenster. Most of his stuff I liked very much. I wouldn’t have had the guts to do that one thing he did, taking evidence pictures of a cat that had been set on fire. For that he will forever have my respect.
Even heros can have clay feet, and it seems he broke the rules badly enought to warrant being banned. But I sincerely hope he will cool off and later ask to be reinstated. I would welcome him back at any time. Things will be different without him, and I will pray for his peace of mind and healing. Zenster, if you see this, take care of yourself, you hear?
I’ve yet to see anyone get banned w/o dire warnings. By dire, I mean warnings that specifically mention revocation of posting privilegs.
I dread the day I open my email and find a message from an SDMB admin or mod. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep my wits about me enough not to break the rules in any signifigant fashion.