Charles Anthony

I can appreciate the humor and the intention behind it as an argumentative device. I understand your point here in this discussion. My own immigrant grandmother joked when she heard that American men could be charged with raping their wives. She said that in her old country, all men would be in jail. I remember laughing at the time. Now, it means something totally different to me and it aint funny. I think you guys are good enough to be able recognize that if ever there was a time to for you all to act like gentlemen in the forums, then that time is now.

Do not misrepresent Michael Hardner's words.

Folks, Stay on topic. All you need to know is that mod staff deems that the topic of this thread is not furthered by off color jokes. The topic is not rape anyway....that's just approved thread drift.The thread drift is now unapproved. Nobody is being edited or censored. I hope you all had your laughs. From this point onward, we will nix any posts that do not stay on topic.

Move on, guys.

I didn't think I would have to explain that this is what I meant.Agreed. That is how we moderate this issue. It is clear you perceive otherwise. Could you offer examples? I realize that if we took down a post for this disputable reason, you can not possible refer to is at is is no longer visible. However, if you can recall anything, we will dig it up for discussion. No. The jist of your OP is correct. You have the right idea.

Folks, Stop making the discussions personal. Anybody who continues with personal jabs will take a brief vacation. If you need help with that, here is a strategy: 1) ignore the names of your fellow members; 2) pretend that every post but your own was written by 1 single person who is no longer with us but still had something valuable to say; 3) write so that a 3rd party who just happened upon the forum for the 1st time ever and reads your next post as the 1st thing here on MLW may understand whatever value may exist in your post; 4) write to an honest audience. If you have no interest in smartening up or if you can not understand the problem, I suggest you take a break from the forum and read everybody else. Train yourself to be disciplined enough to read whatever you-perceive-to-be-objectionable of others without exercizing power to respond. We are going to be cracking down on the nitter-nattering and I assure you that many of you will be surprized because a lot of you do it. The thread is temporarily locked.

I motion to have a Fortune Cookie script. Once you have cycled down to the Sorry, no new content found. stage, the script would churn out a bland random fortune much like you would be served after an all-you-can-eat buffet. Members could have the option to turn it off or on.

I have no idea. This happened to me once yesterday prior to you posting this thread. Just ignore it and move on. My guess is that there is a ghost in the machine. We could do without the anti-sodomitic comments.

Open up your own profile. On the left side of the screen, there should be a vertical menu that appears thusly: LittleGuy1's Photo Overview Profile Feed Friends Topics Posts Click on the last one and it will display your posts. In the top right corner of that following page, there should be a vertical menu with the following "Add as Friend" and "Send me a message" and "Find Content" buttons. Depress that the last "Find Content" button and you should get a new screen which gives you more sorting and display options. If we take down a post, we usually send a message explaining why. Lately, we have not been doing that if the post is indesputably and 100% trolling. In simple terms, if there is no hint of addressing the topic of discussion and we have to explain why stupid is stupid, we do not bother sending a message.

Anyone who can't stay on meme, Pamela Geller is gonna drop like a hot potato. Seriously?? My immediate reflex was to nix this post like I did your prior 1 but I genuinely can not make out what cluttered message you are trying to convey. I want to believe your post is remotely on-topic somehow --- perhaps I am not bright enough to make the connection. Was it an attempt at humor, perhaps? Please accept the following challenge: Try to re-convey your message in such a way that somebody who does not know the Geller-character could understand your message. Clarity is lost when folks refer to arbitrary man-made labels. I hope more folks can better appreciate how confusing and unproductive a discussion becomes once members take things personnally and or attack the messenger.

Folks, Stop making things personal. If you keep insisting on making things personal, you will take a vacation. The reason is not only aesthetic but practical because the definitions/reality symbolized by your labels are debateable. Whenever discussions get personal, the essence of the debate becomes meaningless because you all talk past eachother. It is that simple. Avoid labels and names to get to the heart of the discussion. It is already noted.

If I let too much trolling slide under the radar, I am sorry if it upsets any of you. I am even more sorry that you lack thicker skin because you all have interesting perspectives on various topics. Every single 1 of you surprise me on a constant basis. I read a post of yours and I never would have predicted your opinion on that particular issue. You all try to sneak in some bit of trolling under the radar. None of you want to admit it, though. Every once in a while, you all bring out the kabuki false-dilemma of a lack of a definition of trolling. It suits your style of argumentation perfectly and I am confident that this is all subconcious on your part. That is OK. Choose your matrix. I do not agree with popular forms of argumentation. You all have the ability to ignore petty comments and keep discussions going even when you really enjoy responding in kind. It is too bad none of your are ever very humorous about it. That is my bias. I enjoy reading what you all have to say and I am eager to skip the insults --- for myself as a reader, that is. I must confess, I skip the Sports discussions. You must ignore what you perceive to be trolling. That is it. That is all. It is Greg's law. CORRECTION: This is Greg's forum. Correct. Try to imagine this forum without any moderation. Only your self-restraint would keep it alive and healthy. You do not even have to apologize. All you have to do is avoid responding to trolling. Now, let us all hold hands together and sing Kumba-Yeeha!

What moderator intervention would you recommend? and when? N.B.: Mod staff can not read every post as fast as they are posted. I took down 2 posts that were off-topic and distracting. I opened up them up again: drumm J.S.Omar You all can judge for yourselves. It seems to me that everybody got past the pettiness. The intervention was a success!! Maybe go back through the thread and see about that dummy word. Oh and lets see, while your at it, have a look at who likes to use the term loonies as well.Yes, you got away with it. Big deal. You used the word "dummies" in response to Rue who was the 1st to use it. Everybody continued the discussion without getting personal after that. There was no need to intervene and any intervention would have run the risk of political censorship. Therefore, I left it. Everybody else seemed to leave it too and move on. Anybody who truly had an interest in sharing ideas would move on. You are making a mountain out of a mole hill. Dummies?? It is not that big of a deal. Most other members ignored the pettiness and moved on. The discussion kept going without getting personal. There was no need to go back retroactively and intervene. Whatever bias may exist in moderation is most definitely NOT political. The bias is in favor of honest and polite discussion. You may not like how it plays out in 1 moment of time but tough luck.

Folks, If you have a problem with a fellow member's posts or if you believe a fellow member is violating the forum rules, you are expected to report it, to ignore it and to refrain from responding in kind. If you can not handle those simple freedoms, then you are expected to go find some place else on the internet to pass your time.

The thread has been moved.

The new posts have been split off and merged into the new thread. The old election thread is closed. I do not know. Good question. Since MikeH is the one who raised the thread from the dead, I would throw out the following theory: My personal political perspective led him to appreciate any lapse in a time in a different way.

Yes, they do. Indeed, it has. Yet, that perception of reality is mistaken. How about the following compromise? Perhaps we should not allow ANYBODY to log into the forum anonymously. Personally, I do not see what the big deal is but perhaps I am biased. Mod staff can see the usernames of everybody who is logged in anonymously. How about the following compromise? (3) we can have a poll. We can discuss facts, feelings and fabrications. I changed this topic to a poll limited to only 2 choices. Regardless of how the vote plays out, I will pitch the change to Greg and we can figure out how to disable it. Unless there is something I am missing, I doubt he would have a problem with it. In the mean-time and whether it matters to you or not, get up and vote!

Agreed. From this point onward, anybody who refuses "to ignore this and move on" will take a vacation. TRANSLATION: Anybody who chooses to engage in thread drift will be temporarily suspended. HINT: Identifying thread drift requires very little subjectivity. I took out some more trash, by the way. Anybody who feels censored is welcome to file a complaint.

Yes. All I did was take out the trash. When everybody is trolling and or feeding trolls or feeding thread drift or takes it upon themselves to defend violating the forum rules, the answer is a resounding "Yes!" Yes. "we" = Greg +MikeH + me "you"(dealing) = IGNORE Somebody posted a personal attack. Other members responded to the personal attack instead of ignoring it and or reporting it. All of it was childish. Despite appearances, the guilty party knows exactly who it is and was told exactly what/why the intervention occurred immediately after the intervention was made. Despite the common desire for public floggings and private gossip, there is no need to single that person out in public. That is not how we operate here. Suffice to say that people responded to something that was NOT the subject matter of the Opening Post.

Could you stop the thread drift? It is not even funny. Could you folks stop responding and feeding the thread drift? What in the world do you guys want???

@ ePi - You are welcome! They should be there in your mailbox by now. If not, let me know. @ everybody - The same invitation is open to each of you. If you wish, I can forward transcriptions of each of your posts that are now hidden. You can sift through them and copy-paste the good stuff back into this thread if you want. I am not going to do it unless you send me a PM specifically requesting it. Some of you were clearly intending to be disruptive. It is subjective. I am not sure I can explain it any more than I can explain my preference for drinking my coffee black. Nowhere. They are purely subjective. You are asking for the impossible. In this thread, the basis of a particular post was a personal attack directed at a fellow member (and a rude attack, to say the least) which is objectively an act of thread drift. At the risk of stating the obvious, the member who is subject to the attack is not the topic of the thread discussion. Determining who deviated in this case was not more complicated than that. For what it may be worth, it would have been thread drift just the same if the attacker showered heeps of praise upon the target instead of being rude. That is 1 more reason why we tell you folks to ignore what YOU PERCEIVE TO BE TROLLING so that when we cut out trolling and the responses to trolling, your posts do not become collateral damage. If you can not identify for yourself when a discussion changes from the OP's subject matter to a fellow member, then you are going to run into problems.

ePi, Your posts are part of the collateral damage that stepped into the fray. What you lost represents what is lost when people respond to trolling. Most of it was good but it responded to trolling. I took out what I believe was the initiating troll-post and also every response that was a branch off of the initial trolling. None of those posts are gone forever. They are retrievable. I can forward the posts to you so that you may copy-paste the good stuff back into the thread. Give me a bit of time.

You should report it to the Admin. Send Greg a message. Would you like me to give him a heads up? I can forward the entire PM convo to him. Among many things, it clearly shows who was the 1st to solicit the other through the PM function.

Guys, Please stop the childish names.

Guys and Gals, I deleted a bunch of immature garbage and personal attacks. Stay on topic. The next person who deviates 1 iota into thread drift will take a short vacation.