The recent rise in the locking of threads

[AquaAnalogue]

I may be out of place here, but is it just me or is Gruso just picking on Blue Protoman a bit too much?


He's taken his shitposts to Off-Topic. Honestly, that's all you can really ask for. I thought the putting Craig's head on different things was rather funny.


Gruso, that was a bunch of shit-- "Locking this thread solely based on who started it."


That, sir, is Bad Form. If I get banned for calling you out on this, so be it, but I respect you and what you do for the community.


I just don't see how enforcing your own personal preferences is part of your responsibility. I understand that he is mostly a nuisance around here but honestly I enjoy about 50-60% of topics that he starts. He has not clearly violated any of the forum rules. He is out of reach of legitimate modding.


What really grinds my gears is that comment that you were locking the thread solely because Blue Protoman started it. I ought to start the exact same thread.


If this kind of totalitarian shit is to continue, I am ashamed to be a part of the community. That is all.

 

[BaDToaD]

Yes it's just you. Or if it isn't then it should be

 

[guax]

I didn't think that locking it was necessary too, but I guess he had other reasons...

 

[mindlord]

I'm not speaking for Gruso, but it was surely in response to dozens of requests by other forum members for someone to do something about Blue Protoman's prolific creation of threads. He was creating an excessive 13 threads a day on average, many of which were off-topic in the General section. If I were in his shoes I probably would've done the same thing. Lock them all, and sort it out later.


I've known Gruso on these boards and gp32x.de for a very long time and to use the term "totalitarian" in conjunction with him is pretty funny.


Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to feed the flames or anything, but to be honest if you had a problem with something a moderator had done it would have been best to take it up with them in a PM before dragging it out in public like this.

 

[Gerix]

Bad form is posting a thread without any desire to get it started. Did the thread need to be closed? Probably not. But he has a skill at enflaming forum members.


For the record, some of his topics can be fun, but they sometimes get out of hand.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to feed the flames or anything, but to be honest if you had a problem with something a moderator had done it would have been best to take it up with them in a PM before dragging it out in public like this.

This reminds me of a similar incident on the old boards.

 

[Asiyura]

Gruso is one of the nicest person (with ED) on this forum.


To be honest I reported one or two topics that Blue Protoman made.


It's getting boring to watch all of his crap spawning everywhere.


You can find it amusing, but for me, it's just a teenager "attention whoring" on a forum.

 

[- Theo -]

Where did you see that off-topic is some kind of trash where you can post any inane thread? There are some very funny and/or interesting threads in there, nd it was a nice place to hang out. Before Proto came in and turned it into his own personal childish sandbox.


I like him when he says interesting things, ask good questions or throws good ideas to the community (and he does, quite often actually), but I also think he spends far too much time posting crap here. From time to time, it's funny, but how many absurdous threads do we need?


I think Gruso does a fine job, and if it was totalitarian shit as you said, Proto would have been banned for a long time.

 

[Anihil8ion2199]

I enjoy most of his threads actually, yes some are completely ridiculous and unnecessary, but often times he does pose some good points and does ask a few good questions. Aside from some asinine responses that he's given to some verbal jousting, he has gotten more well behaved since being warned. I just think if a thread is not for you... don't read it! Of course if he starts 13 a day or whatever, then Gruso needs to do his thing. Gruso does a fine job running this place, and if he feels he needs to lock a thread and he has his reasons for it, then he just has to do his job.

 

[Klaue]

You know what bad form is? Posting this publicly instead of writing a personal message.

is Gruso just picking on Blue Protoman a bit too much?

In fact, not enough. If I were a mod here, he would've been banned a week or more ago.

 

[Scntrblob]

In fact, not enough. If I were a mod here, he would've been banned a week or more ago.

This.

 

[DaMummy]

gruso, you have my full support to at least lock his profile from creating new threads, banning is not opposed if he doesnt change his useless thread making attitude

 

[DavidBowman]

Lock this thread.


//Irony?

 

[second exodous]

Locked threads just look bad though, it shows that a forum has a lot of problems. I think it would be better to take away a members 'start new thread' privileges and then the next action would be temp. ban all together. I think BP's only problem is when he starts new threads, he is pretty on topic when posting in other's threads.

 

[ZXDunny]

Under certain circumstances, I'd not be bothered about Blue Protoman's excessive thread creation. However, I don't see any way to filter out the off-topic forum from the "View New Content" function, so I have to search for useful and interesting threads to read in amongst all of his crap.


So I say put a stop to him, or give us a way to filter out the bits we don't want.


D.

 

[AquaAnalogue]

Look guys, I didn't mean any disrespect.


My point was, even though some (most) of his topics are shit, some aren't (like the Craigix one I was looking at this morning), and pre-judging them because you see Blue Protoman in the OP field is some hardcore asshattery. If you don't agree with that then we disagree on a fundamental level and further conversation is useless.


I guess a PM would have been better, but I didn't think about that. I mostly post in anonymous forums where there are no PM's whatsoever.


I guess it seemed a bit harsh, and I do appreciate what Gruso does for this community (i said that); I've just got a free-speech reflex that goes off whenever I smell blatant censorship. Apologies for the public defamation, Gruso, and I hope I can soften it by saying that i did not wish to insult you, only to say that as a moderator, you should know better. I only got upset because of what I saw (which I still maintain is BS) and reacted thus.

 

[Prometheus]

I guess it seemed a bit harsh, and I do appreciate what Gruso does for this community (i said that); I've just got a free-speech reflex that goes off whenever I smell blatant censorship. Apologies for the public defamation, Gruso, and I hope I can soften it by saying that i did not wish to insult you, only to say that as a moderator, you should know better. I only got upset because of what I saw (which I still maintain is BS) and reacted thus.

I know I'm going to regret pointing this out, as I have no desire to get into an argument, or a debate, or any nonsense whatsoever, but I'm pretty sure that rights to "free speech" in countries where they're available don't apply on internet forums... (Please do correct me if I'm wrong, though.)

 

[lulzfish]

How dare you, Gruso is an infallible avatar of the forum's invisible hand. He was banned for our sins, and after 3 hours returned as Guruso to lead the forum into the land of Pandoras and YouTube videos that omg you guys all have to watch.


There's been a lot of logical fallacies lately (Notably the "locking based on Blue Protoman", and then "I'm not afraid of being banned and that gives my message meaning")


So I just wanted to make sure strawmen and the reverse bandwagon were being covered, since these are two of my favorites.


Someone else should try for fallacy of many questions, I bet it will be fun.


Edit: Prometheus is right. In the US, the "Right to free speech" only means that the government cannot restrict you from saying something. Aside from legal precedents, I believe your employer, ISP, telephone company, cable company, broadcasting network, software developer, favorite OpenPandora forum, car, parents, teachers, etc., can.


So on this forum, the moderator's rules are law, and the worst consequence for blatant censorship would be a shitty reputation.


In fact, you should probably download snapshots of this thread, including avatars, in case anyone happens to disappear.

 

[gruso]

Thanks for all the kind words that have been posted.


I hate being the guy who locks all the threads too. Unfortunately I can't ignore all the unhappy posts, reports, and PMs. The alternative to locking useless threads is to (i) let them run free, which might send the message to newcomers that they've arrived at pandorachan, or (ii) simply hide/delete them, which I suspect would raise peoples' anti-censorship hackles even more than the locks.


BP and I exchanged PMs a few days ago. He was given his posting rights back, and all he had to do in return was not start another silly thread for a while. The next thread of his I saw was called "Please do not lock this thread". This was followed by "Paste Craig's head onto something else". If anyone else had started the Craig thread - which at the best of times borders on being inappropriate - I probably would have just watched it closely to ensure it didn't get disrespectful. But when your warning level is in the red (metaphorically speaking) you don't get the same leeway as other members. So yes, it was locked based on who started it.


It's not a blanket ban on BP threads. This one (which is nothing more than an advertisement for one of his other threads) survives, because it seems to have sparked some actual discussion. And I don't want the place filled up with padlocks either.


As pointed out by others, free speech is a political concept and not one that applies to privately owned websites. Moderation should be a community discussion though, so this thread stays open.

 

[XxionxX]

So... In the: "Please do not lock this thread" you weren't mad at me? :unsure: I couldn't tell if you were yelling at me or Blue Protoman. I'm not going to quote you... I'm sorry if I made you mad, I was replying to Blue Protoman...

 

[Caine]

Gruso handled this just fine. These are official support forums of the team and should not degrade to boards for immature attention whoring.


They define part of the image of the company and therefore require good moderation. So far, these boards are amongst the most pleasant ones I have visited with a high degree of respect, knowledge, willingness to help others and fun. I would like to keep it like this.


Luckily, BP has indeed shifted most of his threads to off-topic, but with the "Please do not lock this thread" thread he even managed to be off-topic in the off-topic session. If I were Gruso I would have banned him for a week at this point.


BP is most welcome in this community, but he does need to learn to behave in public.