Name one. Give me a chance...

sorry, I edited that mentally but not physically to say "pretty much all of us"

It is a bizarre false equivalency that has come up around Redux and Merc. Can anyone come up with an equivalent to post 46, but with the roles reversed?

I dunno, but right now i'm really hoping no-one invokes Rule 34.

Monster...I am open to suggestions on how to improve my posts.

But please tell me how my posts offering a perspective on the Voting Rights Act or a post on the UN treaty on small arms...or my post on the recent FTC action on journalism and the internet were offensive rather than an honest attempt to address what, IMO, was a misrepresentation of the facts.

Or how providing budget, enforcement and crime data in the AZ immigration discussion was disrespectful?

All I get is the same old responses (failed, bullshit, partisan suck up....) to whatever I post..and yes, I respond in kind.

INVOKE RULE 34
Don't remember what that is, I'm tired, and I've had a couple beers.

Maybe I should just go over to chat.

That's a great turn of phrase. I think you should copyright it. :)

ARe you diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome? Or anything on that spectrum?

I don't see a big purpose - you mean like a dolphin, right?

I thought my questions to you were reasonable...since you made it all about me.

I guess not.

I rhink she means like a special purpose....

I know mne was a reasonable question. I guess I got my answer.

Cool.

Are you finished now?

This is obviously a very significant issue, based on the number of responses.

I think we should wire up each of the 7 named individuals and have a button on each post saying "Tase the poster," which anyone can push, including the other 6.

I don't see that. It was pertinent to the discussion and civilly phrased. How was that cause for banning?

Redux

You are not being singled out,not by me and most others.
This started out as a collective problem to solve. You are emotionally involved and it's hard to see it that way. Just look at this objectively and answer this question.

How can we participate in the politics thread?

Except for that one time you were given suggestions, oh, and the other time, and the one after that, too. Your posts would improve on their own if you actually chose to be a member of the community, because you would actually know the people you were talking to, and that whole "the internet turns everyone into assholes" thing wouldn't be a factor anymore.

This is a major part of your problem. Every post is full of this indignant "Tell me how" and "Give me one reason" and "Please explain to me how you" stuff. It's the way a teenager argues with an authority figure. If you have a point, make it. If you have evidence against the other person's point, show it. Anything that starts with "Please tell me how" is useless bickering.

And this is the other major part of your problem. Again, like a teenager, you keep falling back on this "he started it" concept, that you expect us to respond "fairly" to you and your adversaries, or you're going to throw more temper tantrums. No one gives a shit. It's been explained to you repeatedly that when you "respond in kind," you make yourself the asshole, end of story.

That is all I was asking...and evidently, many dont want to address it.

I have acknowledged being part of the problem.

I have said I will try to do better.

But unless, Merc makes the same commitment, IMO, nothing will change.

Its simple..avoid personal attacks and discourage responses like "failed" ...."bullshit"...."partisan shill" and I will do the same.

And for the record, I apologize for my personal attacks of Classic...they were inappropriate and it wont happen again.

.....and so the vicious cycle of blame and defensiveness continues...

I am sorry that you and Clod see it that way.

"shrug"...I honestly dont know what else to say.

YMMV. I'm going for intolerbly irritating. To me, the whole point is that many of us are sick and tired of this shit spilling out of the forums in which it originated -quoting people out of thread and out of forum is always pretty low, but to do it in a thread that's about most of us being sick of this shit is intolerably irritating.

I am sure he will. Thanks red

If so, all will be cool. :D

Thanks!

Actually my post was right after clods. It was blame singularly pointed at you.

As I said before it is not one persons problem.

I said I wasn't singling you out remember?

My apologies. :flower:

People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids?...It’s just not right. It’s not right. It’s not, it’s not going to change anything. We’ll, we’ll get our justice....Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to work it out.

not divisive, eh?

Thanks :)

Why am I smiling. lol

but I agree.

I know it makes you uncomfortable, Cloud, but it's really not healthy to completely internalize and avoid all conflict. And I say this as an extremely non-confrontational person in real life--I very much understand the feeling, but it's impossible to avoid all negativity all the time. If people have a problem, it needs to get talked about. If there was nothing divisive about the issue, then it wouldn't be a problem in the first place. It's not the moderators' place to play Mommy and Daddy.

to remove a cancer, one must divide.

yeah, it is. surely they have enough idea of the nature of the problem, the parties involved, and the choices available to them by now.

define devisive, please. Because it seems to me you see any disagreement as "divisive". I see discussion and argument, but I see no divides.

arguing about arguing without taking any action to solve the problem.

If you don't like the word divisive, how about disruptive? ridiculous? futile?

you'd prefer to ignore the Elephant in the room?

Excuse me, but can you tell me what the meaning of "is" is?

no. I'd prefer for the moderators to do their job and take action to alleviate this long-standing problem.

Personally, I would consider TheMercenary to be intolerably irritating if there were nobody responding to his crap.

you're saying 'even if there were nobody responding'?

or is it a typo that should say that you 'wouldn't consider the merc to be intolerably etc...'


I can't tell.

Not a typo. If the forum were full of Merc's cut-and-pastes from right-wing blogs and contentless snipes, and nobody called him on it, I would find that intolerably irritating. Redux makes him tolerably irritating. Redux's posts are usually researched, informative, and pertinent to the issue. Merc responds with an irrelevant insult or a popcorn smiley. I am mystified as to how this false equivalency arose.

here's a theory....

the merc has an irritating rating of 135, but that is mitigated by his willingness to be a real person who we can get to know.....for a -50 irritating effect, netting him a rating of 85 irritating points.

redux has an irritating rating of 85.

equivalent.

jinx posits that redux has a irritating rating of 65, but a 20 point volume bonus, giving him an overall rating of 85.

I concede the point

Maybe I'll start a thread talking about the people I'd like not to see here again, just to see who agrees with me.

I'm not backing anyone up here, but responding to the thread itself.

We all know the mods will do what they think best in the end and frankly, I think they're doing the right thing now.

People are supposed to have a right to express their point of view, which is apparently why so many of you enjoy coming here. If you don't like the thread, don't look at it. If you want to discuss the issue without input from those you dislike, use the ignore feature. That's what it's there for.

This.

I don't really understand how Redux is drawing so much flak here. Annoying at times? yes. But by no means the main offender. Not even slightly.

Agree.

But then I also concede LJ & Jinx's point that The Merc is a real person here, who participates in the whole board. Even TW (not mentioned here but can be insufferable occasionally) cracks fierce jokes, and UG has a great line in recipes and archaic knowledge.

I'd like to see more of Redux, not less. Then perhaps we might lose some of the vitriol, on both sides.

Perhaps I feel this way because Redux is on my side of the political spectrum. I hope not, because one of the reasons I love this place is reading intelligent and well sourced opinions from the opposite side. I'm sure other people out there feel that too. And that is something I'd hate to be mod-ed away.

Thanks. I wish I could put a little copyright sign in my usertitle. :)

HA! And this lamp, I need this lamp.

Here you go. Copy and paste it. ©

Sweet! Thanks. :)

But you're complaining about their behavior in the politics forum, where Redux is orders of magnitude better than Merc.Redux's volume is almost uniformly responses to other posts. Why doesn't Merc get a +20?

I think it's fairly obvious that TheMercenary is generally trolling in the politics forum, and more explicitly trolling Redux. I don't think that the usual prescription of ignoring trolls until they go away would work, because, as you say, Merc participates in other forums, and isn't likely to be ignored there.

If anyone else wanted to engage TheMercenary in the politics forum (and I did), he would be just as trollish to them. If anyone else engaged Redux, they would get a well researched and thoughtful response. I don't see how a response to monster's questionnaire affects that.

Totally agree. I like Merc, I get along just fine with him, but not if we discuss politics. As soon as it is even vageuly related to politics he turns into a total troll. I pretty much never see redux start this shit. I see him respond an awful lot. Maybe sometimes he could refrain from responding. But it still seems grotesquely unfair to target him because he can't refrain from fighting back, instead of the person who keeps provoking him.



[eta] not everyone wants to share their personal life. Some people just want to come and discuss stuff. Clearly the main focus of Redux's interests lies in political discussion. It is really not his fault that the only area he wants to be in is home to the resident troll.

I agree with HM and Dana. :twocents:

[eta] and I agree with Dana's eta. :)

I agree.
My opinion is based on volume. While redux and Cman seem to sit here all day long bickering, a week or more goes by between Mercs trolling.
More specifically, every current even topic turns into a redux/Cman argument, then a few days later Merc comes along and bumps every thread they've been fighting in with a popcorn smilie or a stupid remark about democrats - highlighting (annoyingly) all the threads they've already fucked up.

One must excise. Cancer itself is rampant cellular division and unorganized growth.

Redux and Bruce don't always agree, but they seem to do just fine when talking about the things they don't agree upon. *shrugs*

• Current Politics thread: "I am right, you are wrong. Moreover, you are a bad person for being wrong." Repeat.
• Desired Politics thread: "Hey, what does everyone think of this development?" "Well, from my POV, it looks like this. How about you?"

Please stop trying to convince the other guy. You'll never win, and the rest of us will be collateral damage. You're not sticking up for your mom's honor, ffs. You're not a bad person for letting someone else believe something that you think is incorrect.

This is you, now:
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png


Can you see how ridiculous it is?

That. ^

I love that one.

If you ever see me engaged in that kind of internet argument, it is because there is something bothering me in my real life that I don't want to think about. I can't speak for everybody but I think this is more like a distraction/addiction than an actual desire to do any type of communication.

The following is my own opinion and does not represent an official position or opinion of the management, unless UT says so:

Okay. I've read through this, and I see calls for the Moderators to do something we are not here to do ... censor content.

The Cellar is what it is ... a community. Communities have their ups and downs, arguments, making-ups, conservatives, liberals, swingers, people being supportive, divisive, rarely just plain not caring, why would we show up here otherwise.

The administrator and moderators are not here to be the graphite to your uranium. There is a reason "insufferably annoying" is not further defined.

Go back about your business of posting. Nothing to see here, move along.

Amen. That right there is why we are The Cellar.