Flaccid made a controversial, but clearly hilarious and quality contribution to the general forum when he shared, seemingly from his real life experience, a web site he had come across regarding dealing with what to do when your cat is in heat.
Now I personally think his post was great, and that the forum would be happy, no, ecstatic, to have more threads like this. It is what half of the garbage threads try to be. He did it right. He linked, he quoted, he contextualized, he emphasized. It was a comedy gold mine.
Maybe it was inappropriate for the site. Animals? Sex? But I think the context was innocent and everyday enough, since this is something any cat owner can imagine. It's not vulgar, in other words. That's why it's hilarious. It's one of those little things in life that almost are inappropriate but they happen, and it's a great laugh.
So Beyonder, "TL's best moderator" says Nazgul, comes along and closes the topic. As is the norm, Flaccid, nor anyone else, was given any clue as to why it was closed. Sure, we can guess, and build up paranoia, which I guess is what they want TL members to do, but I don't think that's best. Here is a quality poster, and a quality post. He could do so much for the site if only you give him some guidelines. He spent time making this great post, the kind that the General Forum will die without, and it gets shot down by a crybaby who wears his cross around his neck a little too tight, who is too shocked by even everyday funny experiences such as cats in heat.
What's Flaccid do? He writes, what has to be the most perfect request for an explanation, ever. I cannot emphasize this enough. It was brief, it was clear, it flattered the mods (but not too much--perfectly believable), and all he wanted to know was why it was closed, so he wouldn't waste his time (or mod's) in the future, and whether there is a reason why to not PM him a reason so that a topic such as this doesn't have to waste anyone's time. And I'm making it sound much less soft and cuddly than his performance did. Go see it yourself, where everything else good ends up, the TL's Closed forum.
Beyonder's response? "Use your brain, or next time it's a permanent ban." So now this guy, who should be God's gift to TL, is not only having his time wasted by having his topic closed, and now his question unanswered, he is insulted and then temp-banned. God damn it. Fuck Beyonder.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
TL Mods Won't Let Anna Nicole Die
When news started getting around that Anna Nicole Smith had died, naturally many people wanted to make a topic about it on the TL forums. She was, if you are old enough to remember, a name for a while. Many people in the U.S. are too young and only remember her reality show revivals and being made fun of during her court cases. But she was (and is still) recognizable and news-worthy to many, however "undeserved" you may think it is.
It was an untimely death of some celeb nuddie girl. If you aren't from the USA maybe you never heard of her, fair enough.
But if it was a man, say, Ron Jeremy, who is _almost_ as famous as her for _almost_ as legitimate reasons, I doubt the topic would have been closed.
Not only did TL staff close the topic. But when a second, and third, and fourth topic came along, they didn't take the hint that this was more important than it was in their little bubble. Their response stayed a Bush-like "steadfast" and "resolute": Anna who? Who cares? Dumb whore.
Nice, guys.
But the Anna Nicole topics finally stopped coming when they allowed a confusing, insulting, joke to stay in the place of a real topic. Yes, that's right. In light of the four topics being closed someone made a topic joking that Anna was in fact undead, a zombie, eating brains and whatnot.
How many other half-celebrities would you tolerate being mocked so blatantly, not to mention insulted, at the time of their untimely death? Maybe if you don't give a shit about them, then it's okay. At least, if you're staff.
I think this sort of behavior sets very bad precedents, that the staff can belittle other's opinions, no matter how common and justifiable they are: that they can, joke back and forth to eachother, showing that the staff not only mocks you but bullies you with its authority: no, you cannot talk about this person's death, but yes, you can pee on their corpse.
I do not think having a staff carry on in this manner is very encouraging or welcoming to the kind of user that the forums desperately need. It is the staff doing harm to the forums, if you ask me. They are supposed to be nourishing and protecting them. Instead, they are abusing the guise of that duty to have fun at the expense of the forum's health, in this case.
They actually started joking about how many more threads there would be. And then desecrated the untimely death of a well-known celebrity. It's funny that Europeans are appalled at our death penalty, but they have no respect when it comes to people who have just died. This woman leaves behind children, who will now be without a mother. These are people's lives that are permanently fucked, and a custody battle that is going to hurt children. Grow the fuck up, let people talk about news, get your opinion in if you want, but at least let others have the normal, expected discussion that every other fucking site was able to have.
Grow up, Beyonder and Carnac.
It was an untimely death of some celeb nuddie girl. If you aren't from the USA maybe you never heard of her, fair enough.
But if it was a man, say, Ron Jeremy, who is _almost_ as famous as her for _almost_ as legitimate reasons, I doubt the topic would have been closed.
Not only did TL staff close the topic. But when a second, and third, and fourth topic came along, they didn't take the hint that this was more important than it was in their little bubble. Their response stayed a Bush-like "steadfast" and "resolute": Anna who? Who cares? Dumb whore.
Nice, guys.
But the Anna Nicole topics finally stopped coming when they allowed a confusing, insulting, joke to stay in the place of a real topic. Yes, that's right. In light of the four topics being closed someone made a topic joking that Anna was in fact undead, a zombie, eating brains and whatnot.
How many other half-celebrities would you tolerate being mocked so blatantly, not to mention insulted, at the time of their untimely death? Maybe if you don't give a shit about them, then it's okay. At least, if you're staff.
I think this sort of behavior sets very bad precedents, that the staff can belittle other's opinions, no matter how common and justifiable they are: that they can, joke back and forth to eachother, showing that the staff not only mocks you but bullies you with its authority: no, you cannot talk about this person's death, but yes, you can pee on their corpse.
I do not think having a staff carry on in this manner is very encouraging or welcoming to the kind of user that the forums desperately need. It is the staff doing harm to the forums, if you ask me. They are supposed to be nourishing and protecting them. Instead, they are abusing the guise of that duty to have fun at the expense of the forum's health, in this case.
They actually started joking about how many more threads there would be. And then desecrated the untimely death of a well-known celebrity. It's funny that Europeans are appalled at our death penalty, but they have no respect when it comes to people who have just died. This woman leaves behind children, who will now be without a mother. These are people's lives that are permanently fucked, and a custody battle that is going to hurt children. Grow the fuck up, let people talk about news, get your opinion in if you want, but at least let others have the normal, expected discussion that every other fucking site was able to have.
Grow up, Beyonder and Carnac.
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