THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME KNOW. I MUST BE ABREAST FOR WHUR MY INTERNET FRIENDS ARE AND WHEN THEY ARE MISSING.
On the ESPN board I would rarely link to this board. Newer posters would discover it. A month later, a couple would disappear. If I recall correctly, that's how Nik disappeared from ESPN to S2. Nik was on ESPN only a short time before going, and he started about the same time as someone else (Jayremmie? or the other guy whose name starts with J. Both left and post here.) and I posted there that both were knowledgeable and good new posters. Nik stayed only a few months, maybe it was just a couple of months. So it's the second time for me seeing him go, but this time he said goodbye and it seems he will return. I guess the reason I like his posts is because we generally agree, but he puts my vague thoughts into good analysis because he knows basketball better than I do. I like the way he stays skeptical about all players and resists the flow of conformity. Others will go 100% on someone, like, "Bayless is a future all-star! He got high stats tonight!" and Nik will stay on the fence with some little piece of cold analysis (while I counter the tide of emotion and say that Bayless sucks and is 1-dimensional).
Nik's one of the most level headed and best posters on this board. He has proven himself to be very knowledgeable and I highly respect his opinion. The fact that he feels that this forum has turned into something that he needs to take a break from says a lot about the atmosphere in here.
Agreed. That's all changed since he became a mod, though. I can sense the bitterness in the words that he writes. It's analogous to a curse, or so it seems. A lifesucking force, if you will. I mean, it's a message board. Unless you're getting threats via PMs from nutjobs, just sit back, relax, and realize that for the most part, people are just having fun here.
This board ceased being "fun" long ago but remains a necessary evil for me. It's the place with the biggest gathering of Blazer "fans" (that I know of) so I come here to get news and other info about the team I love. But wading through all the daily bullshit to get that info is increasingly bothersome. But whatever - I just spend more time on other forums for my other hobbies - much less drama and irritation at those places.
Rudy, you should stop being so selfish. You should realize and understand that your schtick bothers people. If you have a sense of what it means to be in a society, you would respond appropriately and tone your act down. And it is an act.
Part of being a member of a free society is tolerating those with quirks, and those who are abrasive in nature. As I posted earlier, many of the same people complaining about over-moderation at BBF are now complaining about under-moderations at S2. I fully recognize that I've had my own battles with mods over the years, but those were all related to my own personal views of what a moderator should have been, and not a constant demand that posters who fall outside of the norm be banned. Let's take chrisinpdx, for example. I generally disagree with his posts, he's the angriest poster here, IMO, and he goes on and on about MIXUM while derailing threads on his own accord. That said, I bypass commenting on most of his posts, and in those that I do respond to, we often end up in an understanding with each other. I tolerate his extreme behavior, and have even grown to try and help him channel his obvious anger into the more productive emotion, passion.
It's not "quirky" behavior, it's anti-social. For example, jlprk is quirky. Rudy Colella's behavior is anti-social. And those with anti-social behavior characteristics aren't accepted, but punished. I look at this place like a bar. I don't necessarily care if someone buys me a drink, but I don't want to get 86'ed from a place. I'll speak my mind, but I won't antagonize someone so much they'd want to punch me in the face. And if I were a bar owner, I'd chuck the person antagonizing everyone else rather than the person throwing the punch.
Well, at a bar, people are directly paying money to the owner, and then have more of a say, if they are customers who help pay for the bar while trying to ignore distractions.. I agree with your analogy in that MIXUM is the freeloading guy at the end of the bar sipping on a PBR all night, while talking junk at the same time, but the reality of it is that at this website, ownership tolerates that person, and really has no need to get rid of him because he brings in extra business via board hits. I don't see how anyone can blame Denny for this. The majority of posters complaining don't post much at other sites, either, and with some of them, I remember the same complaints at BBF. Then, when they were hit with the ban hammer as well, they fled that open bar and set up camp at another open bar. The best way to minimize a MIXUM is to set up a fee-based site, IMO. Since nobody seems willing to do that, and take that financial risk on their own, I have a hard time sympathizing with the "BAN HIM!!!" crowd.
I think the difference, though, is that the hits it is increasing is temporary, and will go drop swiftly when people tire of the schtick. His actions might show an immediate increase in board activity, but shortly after, it'd drop. And then those running the board are left to wonder, was it bets to promote the "free speech" and experience that temporary hit to all of a sudden lose the entire board? I was not a part of BBF, but from what I have read, I don't think it's fair to criticize those asking Mixum be banned as hypocritical, since they fled somewhere after being banned. There's too much and too little. And there's certainly a happy medium to be met.
