OK guys, lets all read back a ways and try to remember the thread topic. Got about 150 posts here and if it stays off topic , it won't make 160.
Originally Posted by Pistolero
But it's been 150 posts of pure entertainment. When I sat down at the computer, god knows how long ago, it was to sip a little scotch and smoke a cigar while catching up. The stogie is cold ashes, the scotch has been decimated, and I'm more than bashed - but I've spent more time in the coed in one day than I have since the board started.
It was like watching a whole season of reality SHMB TV on DVD in one sitting. It was addicting. Every time I was ready to quit and go to bed, some new shit would start and I was hooked for another 30 minutes of reading. You're exhausted, but fuuuuck,
wasn't that shit just awesome?? Fucktards bashing hooktards, bashing modtards, with white knights, whales, dolphins, Adolf muthaphuckin' Hitler and a cast of many others thrown in. Fucking riveting.
Original topic? Oh, yeah - strapping them big ass Underoos on your narrow (or wide, as the case may be) ass.
Let me thinck about that and get back to you.
As a spectator to most of this (spectard???) I have to say that all of this has been enlightening. For a while I have been turned off about many of the issues that have been subject of discussion in the various whale war threads. There just was neither time nor interest to try and ferret out exactly what was going on, who was on which team, and who was in the right. These threads have, at times cryptically, and at other times in excruciating detail, laid out probably 90% of the story.
Us spectards can't tell the players without a program, and all of this has become my program.
And to this spectard it looks like there is a Mexican standoff. For the newbie modtard from the great white frozen wastelands up north, that's what youse guys would call an
impasse.
Each side accuses the other of offensive behavior not conducive to how they envision this information exchange is supposed to work. Neither side is backing down, but now one group would like a re-framing of rules. Call it the no Asholes
interpretation of policy.
The brinkmanship on the part of those at whom the no Asholes policy is targeted, has been more convoluted and bizarre than the changing of the guard ceremony on the boarder between Pakistan and India. But one man's Ashole is another man's Freedom Fighter - or something like that.
But this standoff has a third party - the ownership and the modtards. You folks that create and enforce the policies. While who got points or who got banned is all behind-the-scene stuff I don't care about, I can appreciate that you guys have probably spent a fair bit of time over all this crap. You guys make big banque on this gig, but still, who wants to work harder than they have to. right? And while it's just my assumption that all of this has been a pain in the ass for you'all more than a source of entertainment - the public face of moderation has been impressively restrained. In effect, the modtards have worn their big boy panties during all of this.
But I sense that while there may be some admiration for the brinkmanship, and some astonishment at how people will allow themselves to be baited, this thing has worn the patience of many. Some may feel it is time for the moderators to do
something.
So my suggestion would be that the modtards keep their big boy panties on and let all the rest of the boys and girls work this out amongst themselves, in accordance to the established rules. In other words - just say no to a nebulous No Asholes policy.
But, this is the hobby.
We have no laws in our hobby, or we would have hobby 5-oh to avenge the many wrongs that go on in the provider-client relationship. And to be honest, ECCIE is about a forum, not the pussy peddlers, and I would get bored with out some assholes.
Originally Posted by bestoralntexas
Which is a decent way of seeing that most of us are big enough to figure all this out
as long as the information is allowed to be exchanged freely.
While my belief is that allowing hooktards access to a SHMB is like allowing restaurateurs and chefs to have equal space in the restaurant review section of the newspaper - it's a fact and we have to live with it. We have to figure out how we're going to make it work for us - fucktards and hooktards. Like roommates, you have to work out living together or fight it out. When you add sex and money into the fuel mixture it can be explosive.
This has been entertaining and educational but, at some point the majority of people will be able to get past the drama to make up their mind about the issues and move on. Some people will want to stay and argue, but eventually it will be like Hayekians and Keynesians (or conservatives and liberals) trying to convince each other that they're wrong. Other people will be free to move on with what they really come here for.
...try sticking something or someone in your mouth, call up a hooker for God's sake.
The relatively unhindered exchange of information is the value of this place. And because, as someone pointed out, some fucktards lie in reviews, or some hooktards can be obnoxious constantly advertising posters, there needs to be the freedom for people to be able call them out - even if that pisses a few people off.