Huge island of rubbish floating off California, 6x Size of Britain

[Dr Mabuse]

It's not his stance on the issue that's the problem. It's the way he expressed it.

You're all welcome to state which side of a controversial issue you stand on, SUCCINCTLY AND POLITELY, in order to put the opinions you've expressed in perspective. But to turn it into an argument of its own, on a thread about another topic, you need to A) explain why having this argument at this time in this place is relevant to the discussion, and B) provide evidence to support your assertion, as is required in any argument over any controversial topic in a place of science and scholarship. Without that, it's just trolling, which is against the rules.

In addition, you're not supposed to insult people. We all get silly once in a while and trash-talk each other, that's not what I'm talking about. We can even slander all pedophiles, evolution denialists, crackpots and racists because this entire website is hostile to them. But to clearly and specifically assert that every member of SciForums who disagrees with you on a controversial issue is "gullible" and "pathetic" goes beyond trash talk. That's a personal insult, which is also against the rules.

I would probably have let either one of those slide, especially since this isn't my board. But both of them together were really inappropriate.

You, or anyone else who has even basic reading comprehension skills, should be able to tell that I was describing the wasting of resources on a non-issue as "pathetic", not any person or poster on this forum, or a person anywhere else for that matter. In fact I would bet money you knew that. Subject and object is an important part of reading the written word, and I was clear on both counts. Saying the followers of the stuff were gullible might be considered in poor taste and a bit much, but I was not referring to or insulting anyone on this forum either and you know it.

You have your moderator status, and you decided to use it to 'show me' that I wouldn't besmirch CAGW and get away with it. Fair enough... you are after all a mod so you can do that. You took my post personally and decided to 'show me', and you did.

But stop trying to pretend it's some noble effort to prevent me from 'trolling' or 'insulting' anyone. I did neither. You just abused your mod status and I can live with that no problem, obviously you can too because you did it.

Don't clothe yourself in some nonsense of 'it was such an egregious display my conscience could no longer restrain itself' and the like. You just look silly doing that. All of the direct insults and mocking posts on this forum that whiz by day by day... please.

 

[Randwolf]

Originally Posted by Randwolf
Ummm... On topic, I am amazed at the number of people that weren't aware of these oceanic "trash piles". Especially on this forum. Oh well...

I confess to merely skimming this thread, but I did see someone mention that if you took a boat out to the doldrums and looked around, you would only see an occasional piece of trash float buy...

Well, It's about time someone addressed this...
Mevermind that someone had...
http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=2495630&postcount=27

(Takes a drink from his beer)

You knew you had it coming

(Burp*)

Guess what - I don't know who you are, but it appears that you would be one of my half-addled "friends" from real-life. In any event, I'm not quite sure how to take the tenor of your posts... As you appear to follow me about this forum... Should I be flattered? Insulted? Happy? Angry? I can't quite figure it out... (And yes I anticipate your imitation inebriated reply.)

In any event, note the "I confess to merely skimming this thread" in my post. I apologize for not acknowledging your allusion to a similar observation. It was not meant as an insult, but it is rather unsurprising considering I already said I hadn't read this thread in detail - won't make that mistake again where you're involved - so, please, apologies all 'round.

Nonetheless, regardless of who first mentioned it, do you not agree something should be done about these floating "islands" of trash? If so, what's your idea? It should be possible to do something useful with them - hence my proposal to try and gather the trash together, do something practical with it, or at the very least make sure that your "average person" is aware of their existence.

What say ye?

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

You, or anyone else who has even basic reading comprehension skills, should be able to tell that I was describing the wasting of resources on a non-issue as "pathetic", not any person or poster on this forum, or a person anywhere else for that matter.

That's not the way your language came across to me at all, but if this is just a misunderstanding, then I apologize.

You have your moderator status, and you decided to use it to 'show me' that I wouldn't besmirch CAGW and get away with it.

You're perfectly welcome to criticize the global warming hypothesis, and there's even a thead on that subject in one of the other subforums. My complaint is that you didn't criticize it, you just insulted it. That's not the same thing. You did not speak to any of the myriad issues involved, you only expressed your feelings. On such a sensitive, controversial issue with tempers running hot all around, that's not the way to stimulate the rational kind of discourse that should characterize a science website. On the contrary, it's the kind of wise-ass remark that starts flame wars. My purpose was frankly not so much to rankle you, as to let everyone else know that the flaming stops here.

Fair enough... you are after all a mod so you can do that. You took my post personally and decided to 'show me', and you did.

But I'm not supposed to. If that's what I did then I'm sorry. I simply want the members to know that in scientific and scholarly discourse it's not okay to casually toss in a completely unsupported opinion about something that's only tangentially related to the topic of the discussion, in an inflammatory rhetorical style, knowing that you're going to piss off some of the people who disagree with you.

All of the direct insults and mocking posts on this forum that whiz by day by day... please.

I'm not any happier with those. I just can't be everywhere. I do expect the other Moderators to do their jobs too. As I've said many times, we have to tolerate childish behavior because most of our members are in fact children, and the rest of us often act like children because, after all, this is not an academy. But being a wise ass and trash talking can go too far and stall, derail or discourage a discussion, or intimidate a member into not posting. At that point it becomes trolling.

Just try to be ladies and gentlemen. That's all I'm asking, okay?

 

[Dr Mabuse]

Just try to be ladies and gentlemen. That's all I'm asking, okay?

Absolutely.

Good show, and good form btw.

I'll try to choose a different tone in the future. I could have easily avoided the use of the word "gullible" in my post, and probably should have.

 

[Giambattista]

This is why all the gullible people falling for CAGW, all the money and time devoted to a non-issue like that is such a joke.

Time, money, propaganda... takes a lot of resources to keep up appearances. Also took a lot of fuel for all the jets and then for the limousines to cart those "dignitaries" to and fro between their important meetings and the brothels when in Copenhagen.

But you really overstepped your bounds with the "weak-minded" remark. Are you a PhD in economics like Dr. Rajendra Pachauri. Certainly climate science is lucky to be graced by people who know money. After all, it takes more than a weak mind to figure out how set up carbon taxes and carbon reparations.

Don't clothe yourself in some nonsense of 'it was such an egregious display my conscience could no longer restrain itself' and the like. You just look silly doing that. All of the direct insults and mocking posts on this forum that whiz by day by day... please.

Hmmm. I think you have a point there. Seems many things slip unnoticed, but every once in awhile, a single comment catches all hell. Mods sometimes have extremely selective criticism.

 

[Laminated]

Shoot it into spaaaaaace!!! I wonder if you can see these islands on google maps.. has anyone tried?

But seriously.. that sucks.