Any chance of reducing the ban to 7 days?It was his actions in another (unrelated) thread
I know that 30 is the next stage, but it seems a little OTT.
Any chance of reducing the ban to 7 days?It was his actions in another (unrelated) thread
How is that sentiment consistent with this one:
How can people simultaneously have the freedom to believe what they will, while others are simultaneously 'purging' so much from those people's thinking and from their cultures?
That scares me a little. It suggests that some elite (call them "educators") is convinced that it is more enlightened than the common herd and should have the power to indoctrinate everyone else (for their own good, of course).
Any chance of reducing the ban to 7 days?
I know that 30 is the next stage, but it seems a little OTT.
You misunderstand - I am not suggesting it is the governments responsibility to "purge" people of their preconceptions... rather, we, as a species, must move beyond them willingly. Admittedly, not likely to happen with our current caste-based wealth-enamored society but cest la vie...
Truth be told, it could have very well been a permanent; as it was, since no other moderators had stepped in to issue warnings/infractions before the topic in question went entirely out of hand, I issued a single infraction for all the posts in question, instead of one infraction per post. However, I will discuss with the other moderators what their feelings on this matter are (admittedly I have not dealt with MR very often, but the posts in question were blatant attacks)
Yes, he does get a bit overheated sometimes, but his heart's in the right place.
He starts a lot of interesting threads.
I thought MR had a lot of good interesting things to say. Truth is, I didn't hang out where he was posting, so I only caught a glimpse. I have no idea what lead to the meltdown, but it looks like he was reacting to Balerion, who just says what's on his mind to get the point across. If you look at the content of what Balerion posts, he speaks a lot about being a decent person for the sake of decency, without any of the trimmings that come with superstition. And he constantly defends common sense, the value of knowledge, and anything that pertains to science, as these things often come under attack. He is also very good about pinning people down to their logic and definitions, and he reads fallacies like the back of his hand. For whatever reason MR felt hurt by this, and it all went to hell, since, for one thing, Balerion doesn't take any guff and speaks his mind. In any case they have a history I'm ignorant of. It just doesn't matter to me Who Shot John. In my mind both guys have said a lot of brilliant things, and so MR should be regarded as an asset to the dialogue. Maybe you guys could cut him some slack, recognizing that if he had gotten the first warning soon enough, he might have cooled his jets.
I liked what MagicalRealist said here. I thought it was going to develop. Too bad things went South.
I thought MR had a lot of good interesting things to say. Truth is, I didn't hang out where he was posting, so I only caught a glimpse. I have no idea what lead to the meltdown, but it looks like he was reacting to Balerion, who just says what's on his mind to get the point across. If you look at the content of what Balerion posts, he speaks a lot about being a decent person for the sake of decency, without any of the trimmings that come with superstition. And he constantly defends common sense, the value of knowledge, and anything that pertains to science, as these things often come under attack. He is also very good about pinning people down to their logic and definitions, and he reads fallacies like the back of his hand. For whatever reason MR felt hurt by this, and it all went to hell, since, for one thing, Balerion doesn't take any guff and speaks his mind. In any case they have a history I'm ignorant of. It just doesn't matter to me Who Shot John. In my mind both guys have said a lot of brilliant things, and so MR should be regarded as an asset to the dialogue. Maybe you guys could cut him some slack, recognizing that if he had gotten the first warning soon enough, he might have cooled his jets.
Magical Realist is my friend.
I disagree (sometimes violently) with his left-politics, his over-the-top hostility towards "religion" and with many of his philosophical ideas. But I've also known him online for something like 15 years and he's fundamentally a good guy. (And as Balerion said, wickedly smart.) I enjoy arguing with him and I'd have no hesitation having a beer with him in real life.
If MR's been banned, then I guess that I'll be taking a break from posting too. (There's been way too much banning going on around here recently.)
What Sciforums' moderators don't seem to realize is that Sciforums is only as good, and only as interesting, as the people that post here. A discussion board's greatest asset isn't its software, it's the conversation that it hosts. Driving participants off subverts the board's whole reason for being.
(Stated simply, you need us more than we need you.)
And it's both ironic and telling that all this happens on a thread that at least ostensibly is about eliminating all differences between people and bringing everyone together in love.
That's usually the way these things work, whether on Sciforums, in Pyongyang, or in real life. Perhaps that's the lesson that needs to be learned. The desired homogeneity has to be imposed with force on whoever refuses to conform, and it always seems to end up being enforced top-down by a ruling elite that believes that it's more enlightened than the little-people.
I prefer bottom-up popular soverignty myself. Democracy in other words. And that, just by its nature, means that differences of opinion will inevitably exist. I see internal diversity as a good thing, even if it's sometimes associated with hostility and with arguments. It means that people have the freedom to think for themselves.
It's the image of herding cats compared to herding sheep. I fully intend to remain a cat.
He wasnt banned for his posts in this thread. He was banned for flaming and trolling in a different thread. It's far from his first time.
He's smart, but he's also extremely immature. His reaction tk criticism of his Ideas resembles that of a 9-year-old having a tantrum. If you guys are so close, maybe you should talk to him about that.
I wasn't exactly well-behaved in that discussion either, so I'm not claiming to be innocent. I also don't agree with a month ban. But I'm not bent out of shape abkut it, either, considering how rotten he got in the course of our dialogue. MR's contributions can be great, but he can also be the worst, which he demonstrated in that thread.
I am abashed to admit that the one month ban was actually inconsistent with the pattern set forth by the administration; I have been, since becoming a moderator, operating under the understanding that the infraction being given that resulted in the ban was included in the total points calculation to determine the ban length. I was incorrect - a 14 day ban should have been the longest it could have been.
I have requested to have it reduced to 7 days in lieu of my error and heavy-handedness in the matter.
To be honest Balerion - and I respect you as a decent human being - it takes 2 to tango, and maybe you should have walked away and given him time to cool down.
I have been here almost four years... I have never seen so many bans being cranked out. No Balerion, you shouldn't be banned at all... Though, I do respect your sense of fairness. And, MR, in my opinion, should have his ban greatly shortened, if not overturned... I've seen so much worse here, with no bans... Let's play nice.You're absolutely right.
I would submit to perhaps a 3 day ban to balance the scales a bit, if you guys think I should.
I have been here almost four years... I have never seen so many bans being cranked out. No Balerion, you shouldn't be banned at all... Though, I do respect your sense of fairness. And, MR, in my opinion, should have his ban greatly shortened, if not overturned... I've seen so much worse here, with no bans... Let's play nice.
I have been here almost four years... I have never seen so many bans being cranked out. No Balerion, you shouldn't be banned at all... Though, I do respect your sense of fairness. And, MR, in my opinion, should have his ban greatly shortened, if not overturned... I've seen so much worse here, with no bans... Let's play nice.
Thanks, Gremmie.
Let's not turn on Kitt. He's trying to do the right thing. He always is.
I should have walked away from MR, but I didn't. That doesn't excuse him, though.
Wow! Mod in doesn't-understand-the-rules-shocker!
At least you've had the honesty to admit it, which is more than the other guy ever did.
Thanks, Gremmie.
Let's not turn on Kitt. He's trying to do the right thing. He always is.
I should have walked away from MR, but I didn't. That doesn't excuse him, though.