Rule Change (New Staff Power)

[Drich]

That said my question was not about what could take place on this web site, but what is now allowed to take place given this new rule and how me being confrontational to stimbo specifically could result in my ban.

Being confrontational is not against any current rule, nor is it likely to ever be.

There are two measures in the new rule which prevent action from being taken just by being confrontational to a member:

1) The rule specifically requires that the member be an "overwhelmingly negative influence on the forums as a whole". Being confrontational to one member doesn't even come close to that.

2) The rule specifically states "there are no points of view that a member can hold which would be considered a negative influence". So if you are being confrontational because of a disagreement over an opinion, the rule specifically protects you.

good to know!

[Joods]

Yes, it IS good to know. So now that it is known, can we please move forward and stop dragging up past posts?

[Brian37]

Great Drich, now can you dispense with the "poor me" false martyr" complex.

You have to know many of us are on multiple pages not just here. There are Muslims on this page we make the same arguments to. I have been on line 15 years and have debated Jews and Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus. We really don't want to hurt you or the world for that matter. We really are simply trying to get theists to think, and yes, sometimes we get very blunt about it. Morso when  it comes to religiously justified bigotry, sexism, homophobia and violence.

I think most atheists here and everywhere outside this page understand there is no such thing as global utopia and there would not be a perfect world for atheists either. But that does not make you or anyone a victim. Victims are those who cannot escape their environment. Those would be the likes of Kurdish Christians, Sunnis living under Shiites, or Shiites living under Sunnis, Jews who lived under Hitler, Palestinians who live in a giant prison. Jews who have to fear rockets every day. Blacks who were slaves, Native Americans who were slaughtered and had their land stolen from them.

We may blaspheme and cuss out your claims sometimes, but you have to know and trust us, regardless of how crappy we may think any claim of any religion is, if and when you are a victim, we will stand up for you. Human rights are a given, but claims as ideas do not deserve to be scrutiny or blasphemy free.

I think if you insist on staying here, instead of complaining, consider that you are not hear to teach us, but we are here to help you understand why your logic is not as great as you would like to think it is. Instead of being paranoid, try learning. You might find we are right and we are freeing you from very bad logic.

[Excited Penguin]

I think the fact that you felt the need to retroactively make up a new rule after abusing your powers in my case speaks volumes as to the inpracticality of this rule and raises multiple concernes regarding censorship of speech, mob rule, overreaching of authority and so on. Congratulations, Atheist Forums. You have essentially become what you despise, if only in name.

I am awaiting instructions and/or explanations, privately or publicly, whatever the staff thinks appropriate, as to what I did wrong or may do wrong in the future so as to avoid running foul of this despicably authoritarian rule.

I already know I'll get banned no matter what I say. What you seem to fail to realise is the long-term effects of enforcing such an unthinkable constrain of free speech. Banning people for not agreeing with them? For not liking them? Does this sound familiar at all to any sound mind around here? So just because all staff agrees that a certain individual is "disruptive"(whatever that means) and a "negative influence"(whatever that means) that justifies banishing them, despite not being able to come up with sound reasons for why that might be or why those reasons are justifiable for doing so? You are basically telling everyone you are the ultimate authority on what is right to do around here, based merely on that, your authority. No evidence of wrong doing or sound reasoning employed to make a good case with that evidence, just unanimous agreement. Doesn't this strike you a little odd, seeing how theists use the same kinds of mechanisms(and have done so for millenia) to arive at what most of you here hold to be unfactual descriptions of the world?

I rest my case with the casual reader who is not staff.

[Thumpalumpacus]

lol. it wasn't about you, little monk -- climb down off'n your cross.

Also, I'm not staff, but I will be happy to advise you: stop being a cunt.

[SteelCurtain]

I think the fact that you felt the need to retroactively make up a new rule after abusing your powers in my case speaks volumes as to the inpracticality of this rule and raises multiple concernes regarding censorship of speech, mob rule, overreaching of authority and so on. Congratulations, Atheist Forums. You have essentially become what you despise, if only in name.

I am awaiting instructions and/or explanations, privately or publicly, whatever the staff thinks appropriate, as to what I did wrong or may do wrong in the future so as to avoid running foul of this despicably authoritarian rule.

EP, you were given a two week vacation for trolling/flaming, harassing brand new members in the shoutbox, and derailing nearly every thread you entered.

If we had 'retroactively ma[d]e up a new rule' for you then you wouldn't be posting right now, would you?

Instructions: See Thump's post.

Also: Don't pretend for a second that you are the arbiter of what 'powers' the staff has or doesn't have, or that you are in any position to judge whether or not they are being abused.

[Excited Penguin]

I think the fact that you felt the need to retroactively make up a new rule after abusing your powers in my case speaks volumes as to the inpracticality of this rule and raises multiple concernes regarding censorship of speech, mob rule, overreaching of authority and so on. Congratulations, Atheist Forums. You have essentially become what you despise, if only in name.

I am awaiting instructions and/or explanations, privately or publicly, whatever the staff thinks appropriate, as to what I did wrong or may do wrong in the future so as to avoid running foul of this despicably authoritarian rule.

EP, you were given a two week vacation for trolling/flaming, harassing brand new members in the shoutbox, and derailing nearly every thread you entered.

If we had 'retroactively ma[d]e up a new rule' for you then you wouldn't be posting right now, would you?

Instructions: See Thump's post.

Also: Don't pretend for a second that you are the arbiter of what 'powers' the staff has or doesn't have, or that you are in any position to judge whether or not they are being abused.

You are accusing me of trolling and flaming. I contend that I never ever trolled, and dare you to prove me otherwise, and that I only ever cursed or insulted those who have done the same towards me first. If I'm not mistaken, none of those were banned.

I ask that you clarify your accusing me of harrasing new members in the shoutbox. I think I know what you're referring to, and if it is that, then here we have a mere failure of recognizing humour for what it is, even when it is self-described as such, and even when the purported victim claims it isn't even slightly offended by it.

I think you need to explain to me what derailing a thread even means and prove to me that I have done it.

I certainly have no authority to ask you to do these things, which I'm sure you would be quick to point out in an unnerving manner if not for this very caveat, but alas, it has been shown that here you can be banned and ostracized simply if you happen to be repeatedly misconstrued and villified with the most appaling intents imaginable by certain individuals. Enter mob mentality at its finest.

Why do you think you feel so threatened by my remarks that you feel the need to disallow me from criticizing you? Does this sound familiar? Dictatorships, anyone?

[SteelCurtain]

You are accusing me of trolling and flaming. I contend that I never ever trolled, and dare you to prove me otherwise, and that I only ever cursed or insulted those who have done the same towards me first. If I'm not mistaken, none of those were banned.

I ask that you clarify your accusing me of harrasing new members in the shoutbox. I think I know what you're referring to, and if it is that, then here we have a mere failure of recognizing humour for what it is, even when it is self-described as such, and even when the purported victim claims it isn't even slightly offended by it.

I think you need to explain to me what derailing a thread even means and prove to me that I have done it.

Your recent post history will suffice as proof. Consider: your opinion as to what constitutes trolling/flaming is irrelevant. What staff decides in these matters is relevant. Again, as has been pointed out countless times, no member of staff acts unilaterally. We collectively vote before an action is decided. Our collective opinion is that you were trolling/flaming, being inappropriate to new members, and hijacking threads. Go back and read your posts before your ban and just know that a large portion of them were trolling/flaming.

I certainly have no authority to ask you to do these things, which I'm sure you would be quick to point out in an unnerving manner if not for this very caveat, but alas, it has been shown that here you can be banned and ostracized simply if you happen to be repeatedly misconstrued and villified with the most appaling intents imaginable by certain individuals. Enter mob mentality at its finest.

You know, one of the hallmarks of immaturity is the lack of any ability to self assess. You haven't even considered the possibility that literally everyone here having an adverse response to you could actually be about you rather than a 'mob.' From day one you've been an incredible dick. But we're all collectively at fault for persecuting you, right?

Why do you think you feel so threatened by my remarks that you feel the need to disallow me from criticizing you? Does this sound familiar? Dictatorships, anyone?

Please believe me--although I doubt your ego will allow it--that absolutely no one here on staff is threatened by anything you do. We are tasked with maintaining a positive community. Your presence has been antithetical to that, and so we took actions to correct. We were lenient and gave a temporary cool down period in hopes that you would recognize that we won't tolerate your corrosive attacks on members, but clearly you spent that whole time brooding on how we've wronged you. Oh well. Keep doing what you're doing, EP. If you don't think you've done anything wrong, then I can't help you any more.

[Excited Penguin]

You all know it. I know it. There's no point in continuing this conversation. It makes me sick to my stomach to witness what you are doing.

You banned me for illegitimate reasons. But I don't care anymore. It's Tib's site, and if he's allowing this to happen, what the fuck do I have to say on the matter. Go ahead and do whatever you like. I'll stop engaging any one of you from this point forward.

The management of these forums is inherently flawed from the get go. No wonder it fosters the flavors of idiocy it does. What did I expect? Why did I even bother?

Go ahead and ban me indefinitely. I'm not coming back anyway. You're all a bunch of cunts and the fact that you would ban me for stating that, while at the same time applying double standards failing to notice your own hypocrisies and actually banning me for personal reasons just proves what cunts you are.

[robvalue]

I was going to say welcome back...

But I guess I'll say goodbye then.