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Originally posted by tony g:
posted 09-12-2008 06:19 PM

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This individual needs to be banned. Can you just ban someone from a particular forum? He might actually want to talk about his disease or help someone with theirs someday. I'd hate to see him lose that.

But he has no business on the Open Forum. And, yes, I informed him of a discussion we were having he might want to participate in. He was Bible Bombing people on the transplantation forum and he needed a distraction.

I don't know if it's done here, but many boards will give the poster a warning first, then if they continue their behavior they are at risk of being banned.

Under the current arrangement, I think if you want to the admins to address a particular poster, you need to present your case to them, including pointing to incidents so they don't have to hunt them down.

Personally, I think Lorenzo22 lost any claim to 'innocence' when he implied Deb, who will believe is banned from his site, was a party to his attack and that he spoke for her.

It's my belief that they are probably not sitting around reading every thread and that they must have been alerted to this particular thread by "someone".

It was a great thread, Tony. Nice to divert the talk from cancer from time to time.

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As I have said over on another Palin thread when one of the posters put an objection to the forum becoming too political. It is an Open forum. To constantly talk about cancer does no one any good at all. A bit of mental diversion is good therapy.

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I would be "that guy," Tony. I've been around for several years and have nearly 800 posts to my name, though most are not in the open forum.

Simply saying I "complained" is disingenuous, as is the implication that I said anything that could be remotely construed as asserting that we should talk only about cancer. I said, I believe at least twice in the threads in question, that I fully supported the open forum being an open forum. And I went out of my way to give a rather lengthy explanation of why I was uncomfortable with threads that are simply blatantly partisan "Look at how bad THOSE people in the other party are" posts when half the people on this board are THOSE people.

That is not saying "talk only about cancer." That is not saying "don't talk about this stuff." I have several times in the past - including in threads that 'got political' - disagreed openly with people who have said specifically that the forum was not the place for this or that kind of discussion.

What I said - again - is that THIS particular type of political rhetoric, and the sudden appearance of numerous threads in that vein, seemed out of place given what it engenders. There is political discussion, and then there is partisan sniping. There are plenty of other very large, popular forums for that kind of discussion, all of which are little more than non-stop flamewars, and I'm not sure that's what most people here want to see.

And, strangely enough, when I did talk politics in those very threads I was told I should take my input elsewhere to another thread. Apparently the rules of acceptable discourse are situational, but only situationally.

So, forgive me for voicing my opinion, and I'm sorry you disagree with it, but don't be dishonest about what I've said. It's that sort of reply of thing - along with what can I can only construe as a rather snarky insult to my character and intellect by someone who compared me to a politician for whom they clearly harbor an extreme lack of respect and a similar degree of disgust - that prompted me to leave the threads in which I participated. You'll note, by the way, that I pointed out my own participation in the thread despite my better judgement, and you'll also note that my participation was not in the form of partisan attacks. I was truly interested in objectively discussing issues, countering myths and memes, and trying to approach actual issues without filtering them through highly distorting political rhetoric. Unfortunately, no one else seems very interested in that, and it doesn't really matter because (as your comment demonstrates) in these types of discussions it doesn't matter what you say or how far backward you bend over to explain your thoughts - you're either 'with us' or 'against us.' It doesn't matter what you say, someone is always going to hear what they want.

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Funny thing is the guy who complained about it not being cancer related is now so hooked up in it he has become a major poster on economics

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Do me a favor, Tony. Since you've characterized my input so accurately, why don't you dig up the post from me where I "complained about it not being cancer related."

Can you do that for me? Can you find the post where I say what you keep claiming I said? I'm sure it's there.

I'm pretty sure tony was speaking of L22 or someone else. You didn't complain about it being too political, at least nothing I read of yours said that.

When the topics on the Open Forum turn to religion or politics, there is (almost) always someone who complains we shouldn't be discussing these topics on a cancer BB. I'm assuming that if it wasn't L22, it was someone similar.

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But then, couldn't I just post those without offering any comment? Shouldn't I just keep my mouth quiet and let the black-and-white 'discourse' continue uninterrupted, lest I be treated as L22 v2? What is actually the point of interjecting anything into this thread, beyond my objection to stocking the open forum of a cancer board with openly partisan discussions that will do specifically nothing but drive a wedge between members (last I checked, both liberals and conservatives get cancers) for little apparent value. We're all viewing what the rest of us can view, reading what the rest of us can find on the internet to read (I find it odd for anyone to say they would come to a thread like this to "learn more about" Palin given the availability of the internet and the clear ideology of this thread; not exactly the first sort of place I would look for objective information), and no one is going to change anyone's opinion, meaning this - to me - is little more than people sitting around on the open forum of a cancer board proselytizing to each other.

Doesn't matter if you're liberal or conservative or libertarian or socialist, I just find it a little odd to be doing this _here_. I'm not saying don't, I'm not saying I've got the self-control not to chime in against my better judgement and contribute to that which I'm arguing against, I'm not saying politics-related issues are bad, I'm saying this particular sort of thing I find out of place.

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