EA Forums

I'm not a terribly complicated person. What you see is what you get. (Not the avatar, that's my fantasy)... But as one of the "raging, prolific political" posters, this is what I think.

1) Politics isn't everything. It isn't my life. I don't want it to fill all of my time or come to possess me. However, I'm not shy about voicing an opinion.

2) This isn't a public board. It's private. Even the largest political blogs will block you if you say the wrong things. There are always rules to participate in discussions. Every web site that lets you post your comments (pause) is someone else's web site. If you want to say anything and everything that comes into your mind, get your own web site. That sounds insulting and rude but it isn't. Your words belong to you and not EA and not me and not Daily Kos or anyone else. If you want your words posted uncensored, create your own website.

2) The people who read and post on the EA have a common interest and they want to read about those common interests. Now we might have the opportunity to post about politics for favorite pizza, or top ten movies or the latest joke making the rounds, but that is fluffiness to the board. Gender issues, nullification, sex drives, castration, transitions and all the other EA issues are the meat of the board. (I probably forgot some issues, if so, it doesn't mean more than my list isn't all inclusive.) To come back to my point, the people who read and post on the EA board want to read about those issues. The fluffiness, the face-to-dace meetings are all part of the subject matter of the EA. The fluffiness is getting to know people and getting to understand them. We should appreciate the differences between people and enjoy them for being special, for not being "us"...

3) Politeness helps. Rereading and reviewing a post before posting helps.

4) What happened last year on the politics board was outrageous from all points of view. It was the prime example of that old saying "Never discuss politics or religion." It was a raging pit of screaming and yelling and vituperation and obnoxiousness. Not that I agreed with the shutdown. That stung because I couldn't gloat over the results. However, I ain't fragile or delicate. I quickly got over it. The EA isn't here for me to get my political jollies. That was my realization. the EA is here to inform people about loss of testicles, sexual desire, by choice or by accident or by disease.

5) No one is going to let you post instructions on how to commit crimes or how to permanently damage yourself and die trying. You can't skate up to that edge and think you'll get away with it. WHY? Because there are real stories of near death experiences that you should avoid.

Pittsburgh had a court case where the "cutter" called an ambulance after he got in over his head. The Judge (being a wise person) still convicted the cutter for not having a medical license, etc... but gave him a lecture and put him on notice, next time was jail. The Judge also lecture the person for being foolish and not using proper medical channels. The reason is obvious. It is the duty of a person to the society they live in to see that they do not harm another by a foolish act. Now I repeat: No one is going to let you post instructions on how to commit crimes or how to permanently damage yourself or another and die trying. You can't skate up to that edge and think you'll get away with it.

6) I almost don't care to know exactly why "MOI" got banned. It's the same as I don't care what my neighbors do inside their houses or on their properties. They are law-abiding citizens and it's their property. I don't even look or try to watch. Life is too short.

Thank you, Dave.

Paolo wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2009 2:00 am By sending an email with a valid subject line and a sincere apology.

No one's ever tried it, and I keep waiting to see one.

Silly question, but how would the banned person know that is all they had to do? Being banned from reading this message and all.

Paolo wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2009 2:00 am By sending an email with a valid subject line and a sincere apology.

No one's ever tried it, and I keep waiting to see one.

Emails that keep ranting on the issues that got 'him' banned won't do it...

It would seem to me the people who are likely to email an apology aren't the ones who are likely to ever get banned in the first place

Great Job Mods!

Batman

randy (imported) wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2009 4:43 am Silly question, but how would the banned person know that is all they had to do? Being banned from reading this message and all.

Anyone can READ the Archive. Someone who has been banned cannot POST to the Archive. They can, however, write directly to the Archive moderators through a link on the front page.

Other than spammers, cutters advertising their services, and the under-aged, banning is a last resort only after trying to reason with the person. Posts are deleted only for good cause.

The only case that I was actively involved with was a few years ago. There was an Archive member whose personal hobbyhorse was that we needed to castrate little boys to return to the golden age of the castrati. He kept highjacking other threads to post on his favorite topic. His posts got pulled. He got warned. He kept at it, claiming that he personally knew young boys who had been castrated to preserve their soprano voices. He even sent photos of a couple of the boys to an Archive member who had given him an off-Archive email address, and who then forwarded them to me. (A forensic photographer conclusively demonstrated that the photographs were Photoshopped versions of photos of boys from a porn site.)

After increasingly strongly worded warnings, he was banned. Shortly after, he signed up again under two different names and began holding public conversations with himself on the Archive about important it was to castrate little boys. He's the source of the warning from Paolo about banning an entire country! The Internet service provider that he used is banned, though we still do have some members from his country.

The same individual also posted similar pleas to castrate little boys on a Renaissance music site. He may also have been (and may still be) posting such things somewhere on the Internet. He just won't be back here.

I post to and read a lot of message boards. I can tell you that several message boards I have accessed in the past, were ruined by people posting on them who had no civility, no common sense, or no ability to use restraint. If asked to decide between censorship and .license, I choose censorship

Thank you all,

I am doing my zen moves and have reached again that eunuch calm.

I now understand P's remarks that I laugh at so often about banning you and your whole f en country.

The good people that run this site have been doing so for years with little thanks or understanding as to what it takes to keep it going. Thank god I am no longer in the day to day as burnout is real. I have even taken a long vacation from the site altogether, it is a delicate balance that takes place here and needs to be enjoyed and appreciated.

River the calm.

Think before you speak.. Oh, I have been guilty many a time of speaking first and thinking later, realizing suddenly that I hurt someone's feeling..Moi, Blaise and others are all good people. They all needed to learn the same lessons that have been hard for me to learn too. I have had to say I am sorry to Paolo and Kristoff before. Oh, it is not easy. But they are two decent guys, always willing to forgive. Geez, Louise, Ain't that why we have erasers on pencils, Hey we all make mistakes. But it takes a real man to admit you made a mistake and try to do better.

I believe I still have the "One Free Rant" card I was given when I took over. So, I'm gonna use it.

Yes, there is free speech. Yes, you may feel that you have the right to say whatever you want, wherever you want. You are wrong. Period.

While the Internet as a whole is free and democratic, all the sites on it are dictatorships. Those who run the site get the final say in what happens on that site. If the head of the site sets a rule that all members must provide photos of themselves in pink tutus, thats their decision. Similar things happen when you invite people into your home. Just as nobody forces you to go to their house, nobody forces you to go to a site which has objectionable policies. You don't want to wear the tutu, don't go to the site. Arguing that the 'tutu rule' is wrong, you shouldn't be subject to it, it's unfair, it's prejudicial, anything like that is just whining bullshit. If you make such an argument to that site's administrator, he (or she) has every right to laugh at your ass, then ban you. Further arguing that the ban was wrong, or rather that the administrator's chosen rules are wrong, is asking to be laughed at more, and suggests not only should you start wearing a helmet, but be kept away from sharp objects for your own safety. If you invited someone into your home, and found them trying to set the couch on fire, would you discuss their right to do so in a free and democratic society as a means of self-expression, or would you simply toss their ass out the door and forbid them to ever again set foot in your house?

You want to change how a site is run? Change it from within. Volunteer to help. Give some of your time to helping run and maintain things behind the scenes. Until you're willing to put your time and money where your mouth is, why should those who are bearing the load listen?

As I said to start with, these are my personal opinions. This is the guideline I've followed, as a user, in every site I've ever been a part of in all the time I've been on the net. In the end, the administrators are the ones volunteering their time and energy to keep the site going. It's their call. If I don't like the way they do things, the net is a big place, and there are other sites of which I can be a part.

After that, I'd like to point out that I am not in charge of the message board. Ok? That job is more than adequately handled by others. This is just my personal opinion, not how I run this site. I have done my damnedest to run this site as I feel Bboy would have wanted it run, regardless of my personal opinions on the matter. Anyone who thinks they can do better, send me your real name, home address, and a written note (notarized is preferable, for legal reasons) that you are willing to put your ass on the line, and risk legal consequences for running a site that a prosecutor would likely describe as "sick, twisted, and filled with descriptions of child abuse and pedophilia advocacy."

One last thing. I will abuse my position on the board one last time. This thread is not to be locked. You got something to say about what I've said here? Act like you've still got a pair and say it. I, the real me in the real world, not the nickname I use here, am the focal point for the legal threats, including those from foreign governments. How many of you would do the same?

Well stated, I could not agree more.

And yes, letters from foreign governments one of which we are dealing with right now.

River

As head of the chat room I run into some of the same problems as does the message board. People wanting to talk about subjects that are out of the scope of the site or illegal. Personal attacks are not tolerated. I as well censor people. In chat room it is a ban. The Message boards have moderators and I have a great staff of Operators to help staff the chat room. We have a set of rule's to be in the chat room. If you do not like them, you are free to leave. You break them, we will set you free.

As Chat room manager I think I have the power to give you another One Free Rant .

IEunuch I give you back another.

I used to wish everyone a happy birthday. I put a lot of effort in to adding the appropriate emote-icons and what not. I wish I still had time to do that for everyone but I don't and since I don't want to come off like I am playing favorites I just stopped doing it altogether. So for everyone planning on having a birthday at some point in the future... Happy Birthday!

I used to post quite a bit about my gender issues. I think I covered it fairly well. What else is there to add? This is who I am and I will let you know if are any major developments.

I think I still have some things to say about having sovereignty over my own body but I am not sure what section I should post. It's Political, gender, health, etc. etc. etc.

I don't post all that much in the Political section any more. I have stated my position on most of the things that matter to me. Anyone who wants to know where I stand on marriage can go back and look at my previous post on the subject. I will still post about the bigoted hypocrites who get themselves elected by pretending to be pillars of the community and then getting caught with their pants down.

Yoli here,

Now I understand why I could not reply to the most recent of Moi's PMs, which were pretty much a daily occurrence, though always welcome.

He had alluded to some disputes he was having with another member (also banned, I gather,) but I was never privy to any such.

I respect the authority and the underappreciated efforts of the mods here and I can only hope that I can soon resume my "friendship" with a decent man who has always been kind and respectful to me...even if we are poles apart politically.

Please, no PMs of explanation or elaboration re Moi's ouster. I accept things as they are. OK? Nor am I seeking a replacement pen pal. I'll just sit around waiting for Uncle MacWolfie to ask for my hand in marriage.

Yoli

The Sarah Palin Of The Southwest...Yeeeeehaaaaaa!

Mac, did you see that?

Move fast before Yoli changes her mind.

River

Act NOW, Uncle Macccccie...

Dear Mods, Members and the EA Community

First and foremost I wish to apologize for any disruption I have caused. Over the last couple of days I have really missed the old neighborhood and the intellect of the neighbors. No other Board I have ever visited is as diverse, thoughtful and graphically well laid out as this one. Bravo to the responsible persons.

I was confused by my banishment as well as the missing messages. It is my sincere hope that kristoff and I have cleared up any of my misunderstandings between us.

Thank You to my neighborhood friends who kindly spoke on my behalf.

Glad To Be Back

Sincerely

Moi

Wow. I think a big round of applause is due to you and to the moderators. It looks to me like all show maturity here.

Arab Nights (imported) wrote: Fri Jul 31, 2009 5:39 am Wow. I think a big round of applause is due to you and to the moderators. It looks to me like all show maturity here.

What a lovely topic this is and you guys have to bring it up during the week I don't have computer access!

Most of my life I have been against censorship in any form on principle. In my naivete that meant political and porn/erotica type censorship.

However, I now realise that hate speech should be censored and for a very good reason. From time to time I read on this board that a person went through a period of self loathing early on in his life. Usually that was because he was different from the norm in some way: gay or coloured perhaps, or even that he just spoke with a different accent. The different person, with limited life experience, had no choice but to accept the values of his peers who were no wiser than he was.

A very similar thing happened to peoples who were colonised and whose cultures and traditions were despised by the colonists. They too came to accept the values of their colonial masters and that led to the loss of self confidence in whole communities, nations even.

Even today the descendants of those peoples have not completely recovered from a sense of inferiority.

Each of us is born with our own potential for achievement and deliberately to denigrate a person for just being different is to steal his potential away from him. I acknowledge that the denigrators often do it to mask their own personal anxieties.

However, hate speech as such is completely negative. I suspect that merely having hate thoughts is more harmful to the person who thinks that way than it is to the people he affects to despise.

So moderators, keep up the good work. It seems to me that you have a well thought out position on censorship and are doing a good job.

This is not directed towards anyone. Just something I felt I needed to get off my chest.

I am actually all for hate speech, and against laws banning it. People should feel free to express themselves, and openly air their views against people of certain sexual orientations, religions, skin colours, politics, opinions, beliefs, whatever. If nothing else, this makes it easier for me to tell who the idiots are, and avoid them.

That being said, while I am all for free speech, a website is more like your home than Trafalgar Square. You don't like people wearing sheets and burning crosses in your home? Well, you should have every legal right to toss them out on their ass. Whatever the laws are protecting free speech, they do not, and should not ever, trump your rights over happens on your property.

You want to express whatever opinion you want, you should have every right to do so in your own home, or on public property. You should have absolutely NO right to come into my house and do so. Not any more than I should have the right to come into your house and do whatever the hell I want there, regardless of your feelings on the matter.

You feel the censorship is too much here? You think that no matter what the people who've dedicated their time and energy to running this site feel, your right to say whatever you feel like trumps their right to say what happens in their house? The Internet is a big place. Start your own site, where you can do what you want. Just be sure to give me two pieces of information. One, I want the address of your site, so I can come there and see how much 'free speech' you tolerate once it's your ass, your house on the line. Two, I want your home address. Why? Because if you feel your right to do whatever you want trumps my right to say what happens in my house, I'm gonna come stay with you for awhile. And unless you're a hypocrite, you'll let me. Even if I set the couch on fire, just to watch your place burn. After all, freedom of expression trumps everything, right?

moi621 (imported) wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2009 10:43 am Dear Mods, Members and the EA Community

First and foremost I wish to apologize for any disruption I have caused. Over the last couple of days I have really missed the old neighborhood and the intellect of the neighbors. No other Board I have ever visited is as diverse, thoughtful and graphically well laid out as this one. Bravo to the responsible persons.

I was confused by my banishment as well as the missing messages. It is my sincere hope that kristoff and I have cleared up any of my misunderstandings between us.

Thank You to my neighborhood friends who kindly spoke on my behalf.

Glad To Be Back

Sincerely

Moi

Dear Mods and the Community.

The inappropriateness of using my avatar to share web images had not occurred to me and I do apologize, again for this oversight in my judgment.

Seems like I always find a way to really, "step in it" no matter how 'good' I try to be.

Again I apologize for any disruption this may have caused to the community.

Sincerely

Moi