If thou gazest long into the Pit, the Pit will also gaze into thee

UPDATED: You may wish to read the follow-up post downthread before reading this post. It supersedes some of this one.

<reasoned>
Less than 48 hours after digging the Slyme Pit I have received seven complaints in PMs about some of the posts that have been made here, including two PMs that indicate the senders are going to stop reading and posting here. These seven are all from people whose input I have appreciated greatly. Some of the PMs mentioned posts that they thought contained overt threats or veiled threats.

I did not plan that the Slyme Pit should be censored by the moderators, and I don't want to do it.

To this end I ask that people use common sense in posting to protect both the Pit and me personally from legal liability: the site hosting this board is in the US and I am a US citizen. If you can't understand the potential consequences, go back to eating your chalk.

One of my relatives is an attorney and she has agreed to review stuff that I send to her, and also to lurk here. She will also have moderator rights. I will be abiding absolutely by her opinions, and she or I will immediately edit or remove any posts that she believes may result in legal liability. We will indicate that this has taken place and why. IMPORTANT: members who make three posts that are deemed legally unacceptable MAY be banned.

I would also ask that you all protect me from unnecessary extra work that may be engendered dealing with fallout from unwise postings.
</reasoned>

<rant>
I really don't like stupid posters who post shit that they know full well may fuck this place up for everyone. If you want to be edgy and controversial do it with wit, not deliberate provocations. You can be an arsehole, but try to be an entertaining arsehole.

Does this seem like the end of free speech? It's not: you can go and dig your own pit...
</rant>

So, please try to be sensible and witty here. It's meant to be fun for everyone, especially me...

The problem I see with your post is, there are no examples. Therefore, none of us can know what the hell you're talking about.

Does "they thought contained overt threats or veiled threats" mean Ophelia Benson Style threats? Is Justicar back in town having a force five temper tantrum? Who the fuck knows. I don't.

Does "seven complaints in PMs about some of the posts that have been made here," mean someone said Canadians eat too much cheese, and someone else threw a coniption fit aboit it? I don't fucking know.

So, a couple of people said they might stop reading here? Wow. Stop the presses, stop the world; I want to get off.

Lsuoma, you have done a great job, and I suspect you are probably somewhat stressed from throwing this altogether, and not getting much thanks into the bargain. However, as soon as you start sayin "this is my place, and some people whose names I will not name, have claimed that some other people said something they didn't like, and which I will not devulge, and I am mad and I am going to throw my toys out of the pram", well, the moment you said that, this place right then and there stopped serving the purpose for which it was created. Full stop.

Now, let's see if we can make this a dialogue before you sabotage and utterly destroy that for which you have worked so hard.

Okay?>

It's the same old shit, which a certain poster seems utterly unable of let go. In fact, he has escalated it to new heights in two recent instances.
It's pointless to get into detail and keep the fucking meme alive to our collective detriment. So forgive the lack of clarity.

Great, so now the new so called slimepit is going to start playing Chinese whispers, locking threads that a couple of people whimper aout teh bad werdz, scapegoating people they don't like, misrepresenting what they say.

Fuck that. That is not what I came here for. If I want to hang out in room 101 I'll go join FfTB.

John Greg wrote:Great, so now the new so called slimepit is going to start playing Chinese whispers, locking threads that a couple of people whimper aout teh bad werdz, scapegoating people they don't like, misrepresenting what they say.

Fuck that. That is not what I came here for. If I want to hang out in room 101 I'll go join FfTB.

Yep, same feeling here. That's weird. I think I might just end up going back to my good old AE AtBC and be done with it. Wasn't the purpose of this place to continue the discussion in whatever terms we want without causing any damage to Abbie?

I'm scratching my head in puzzlement right now...

Agreement with the Greg.

*After* having been a year long reader of the threads at ERV, *and* reading through a hundred or posts here, *and* finding one locked thread with its own vague finger waving of disapproval, I think I know what this kerfluffle is about.

Any other unspoken evil werds of magic that are too terrible to be posted here?

Actually, can we step back and have my confusion addressed? I thought I had been following the plot. Although nothing had ever come down from the Geographic overlords, there was a worry that repeated baboon complaints or the simple presence of harsh language that an advertiser might shy away from could at some indeterminate future date cause Abbie grief. Thus, migrate the baboon mockery elsewhere and let Abbie's site stick to kick ass virology. I missed the part where the presence of evil werds would hold an even stronger taboo at a site where there is no possible threat of theoretical Geographic crack downs.

I want you all to give me a break: I've been trying to keep people happy and on board in these early days of the Pit by adding features and listening to suggestions. I hope people think I've done a good job with that, but now it's clear to me that there is no policy on moderation that is going to work for to keep everyone happy. So...

I've accepted that I have to piss off some people because I either have to moderate to $SOME_DEFINED_DEGREE or moderate never, and there is no easy way to get people to agree on what $SOME_DEFINED_DEGREE should be: unless it's spelled out explicitly there will always be people unhappy with it.

I strongly support free speech and the First Amendment - it's as close as I come to holding anything sacred, so here's how I'm planning it's going to work:

1. I'm not going to moderate ANYTHING except stuff that I believe may leave me open to legal sanctions. In those cases it will be edited to show that content has been removed for that reason, and as little as I think necessary will be removed. I don't plan on reading everything, though.
2. Editing by users has been set to two minutes, to retain the ability to correct errors and add afterthoughts. Once the two minutes are past, tough tittie. You should have said what you wanted to in the first place. You can always reply to yourself in any case.
3. Deleting by users is gone.
4. You can send me suggestions about the board and its structure in PM or make them in public. I will read them, and may acknowledge and/or implement them. Or not.

I may add other stuff that occurs to me over time

Please people, keep this EASY for me.

My sincere apologies to everyone who doesn't like this - if you decide not to participate, I'll be sorry to see you go, but as I said above, it's clear that there is no way to please everyone and these are my choices.

---

ETA: locked thread is now unlocked. Apols for doing it in the first place.

Thank you for doing this, Lsouma

JAB wrote:Thank you for doing this, Lsouma

For purposes of transparency, I'm going to correct my misspelling of Lsuoma's name in a reply instead of editting :D

1-4 sound reasonable to me. And my thanks for getting the board underway.

I suspected some discontent may occur, based on my experience with past board dramas (e.g. IIDB, Talk Rational). After all, the only thing that unites the Slymers really is their nontheistic /skeptics outlook and objections to FTB dogmatism. We range from the more polite and diplomatic to the more vitriolic and provacative, from liberals to libertarians, from accommodationists to confrontationists. So it's like herding cats a little. We normally might be at each other's throats under different circumstances. ;)

I just want to say fuck you all before the pit gets fully underway. Absolutely no rhyme or reason for it other than to let each and every one of you know, i ain't interested in your kitties (staffy duck, i'm not referring to your pussy, depite your constant need to relate everything to your vagina and sex power games) i ain't interested in hiw much a nice guy you are, i don't need any more friends, i don't need a safe space (really a safe space on the fucking internet, if you need a safe space online, you need more than a safe space online, you need serious fucking help).

I'm interested in the weight and validity of your argument, and how funny you are, period that's it. I don't want you to like me, i don't give a fuck if you hate me, just be intellectually honest, or to fuck with the niceness i'll call you out, and expect the same from you.

Many thanks for listening to my shit.