I mean this sincerely: I'll miss PapaG if he doesn't return. Some may think I'm kidding due to the spirited debates he and I have had at times, but I actually thought he was a good guy at heart, even if was quick to anger and/or felt victimized a lot.
This paranoia by PapaG is more recent than not, isn't it? I like the guy, seems chill..at least to me..just wondering if all this happened suddenly or if he's been like that forever.
Been like that forever, but got worse later. At the outset of the Iraq War, I guess it was 7 years ago, many people fought over it on all boards. When you oppose the government, and get death threats, you get paranoid. That was me. I wondered about strange things happening on my computer, but I figured I was being paranoid. I mentioned it anyway in the Iraq threads, in response to his yelling at me, and he said, how ridiculous. Now he says his computer is being hacked. Shoe's on the other foot. But he used to not keep responding to irritants. He would argue for awhile, then stop. Now he seems to have to have the last word, so he never stops responding. This keeps arguments going forever. Then others throw him a small irritant in a new thread, he bites the bait, and it escalates back to where it was in the previous thread. In 1993, I think it was, he turned 30 and had his first kid. He had the PapaG name before he was a father. He is not old at all. A few years later he said he was considering running for some small local political office, but later said no way would he ever do that. One time in about 1994 or 95 he was in a bitter argument with Crandc, and I tried to play mediator. So I made some jokes in between their hateful posts, but it didn't work. Crandc just disliked me more. (I tried many times to make her my ally, but no dice.) He was on the political right (as far as I've ever seen, so is she, except for one issue). But they were like cobra and gerbil, they were hissing at each other. Anyway, you people on BBB have had many more years experience with him than I did on ESPN. So you know more than I do.
I hope he comes back, and just assumes another name. Sometimes a new name is necessary. Once, I was known as Brenda..and then a few weeks later... Anyways, I think he had a similar incident earlier, where he threatened to call the FBI over something. I don't remember the details though. I think it's safe to say there was over-reactions on both sides (in both of the most recent incidences). Instead of being adult like and just taking down the avatar (even if it they felt it was harmless), the avatar remained. And the rest of us kind of tried to make it into a joke, but papag didn't see it that way. Well, I assume he didn't. He might've been playing us for fools. But all that hassle could've been resolved simply by someone changing their avatar, or at least removing the "hi papag" at the bottom. Even if you think it was totally blown out of proportion, it's not like removing those 7 characters was going to make a big deal to NB. And this most recent episode (of Guiding Slight), it could've just been easier had both parties not continually escalate things. One was playing "I f'n rock!" and the other was playing "woah, I'm totally the victim here". Things went a little too far, on both sides, and there is no innocent party here. I completely understand why papag felt he had to leave the group, or at least change his name. I hope he comes back, even though there were times when he rubbed me the wrong way. Like I said in an earlier post, all he has to do is create a new SN, and slowly re-introduce himself into the group. Hell, he should make up a persona, while on the inside he's laughing at all those who didn't like him, now like him and in essence befriend him. On an unrelated note, I found this list of what makes a troll. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/troll4.htm
He was a pretty good contributor until near the end of our BBF stay. After that, he wasn't very fun to have around and derailed many threads. He really took this board to seriously, so maybe this is for the best.
It sure seems like all this drama on here involves the same 3 or 4 people. Getting kinda old. People take this forum shit too serious.
Two things... I've got nothing against him. He does act a bit paranoid sometimes. Times are really tough and really tough on people these days, so a little compassion goes a long way. I asked him to remove a quote of NateBishop3 from his sig and asked Nate to remove his avatar and both did. It sure is nice to ask nicely and have people do the right thing.
Denny - Can I please have some of your vast internet fortune? I could really use it. Thank You Very Much!
The only reason why the avatar remained as long as it did was because I didn't want him making it into something bigger than it was. I would rather people see what the big deal was about, rather than only go off of what PapaG was saying. The second it was gone, he was saying the gun was pointed at the camera and shit like that, which wasn't true. Dude had already blown it out of proportion, so whether I took it down or not really didn't matter.
I'm glad you left it up, because that way I saw it. It was as you describe, harmless. Now, at least 2 others have avatars with the same caption but with guns pointed at the camera, and a 3rd has a nuclear bomb. No one is complaining about them, and no one should. Now that Papa's gone, why don't you bring back the avatar, maybe with a different caption, so everyone can see what the fuss was about. As for Papa returning under a different name, his unique personality would get him discovered. He was the same 7 years ago, but he didn't post anywhere near as much, so people could ignore it. Now he stays in your face, demanding surrender, and someone inevitably took him on. Papa, I suggest you return to ESPN. People post less per day there, so you won't wear down their patience as fast each day.
