Dance Dance Revolution

[Chaerophon]

Allright, admittedly I've not been Lurking as much as I did in previous years... but should I have some fire and acid onhand for unrealshadow13?
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A little piece of reference for you. This is Lemming's position on a certain member after about a month of his trolling antics (the full thread is here):

Lemming:

Unrealshadow13:
Zippy joined this forum this month. The month isn't even half over. He's new in my book.

Look at my account: Forum Member: 03. Joined: Feb 9 2003, 09:05 PM.

Your logic would indicate we've only had forums since Feb 2003. What you don't know, since you've not been around for very long, is that the Lounge has had forums for far longer than Feb 2003. We've had different forum software over the years, and accounts from one software package don't transfer to the new software. (Lounge forums were even on Network54 at one point.)

As you can imagine, Lurkers don't necessarily stick around from year to year to year. Sometimes people go away for awhile. The difference in experience between someone ancient, like me, and someone relatively new, like you, is that I can recognize people -- good and bad -- from ages past. Since the Lounge isn't the only Diablo forum I browse, I can also recognize posters from other forums and use that knowledge to know whether I should watch someone closely or feel comfortable with them posting here.

Unrealshadow13:
Those poems are about me? That's kind of messed.

That you don't understand the poems are about you further indicates the root of your problems here: comprehension. The way you say things matters. One of the things that makes posters think you're a troll is that you consistently say things in the worst possible way. For instance:

Unrealshadow13:
In my opinion, America kind of deserved 9/11. We've been killing lots of people in other countries a lot, and undeserved in most situations (IMO). Obviously those particular people who died in 9/11 didn't deserve it, but did all of those civilians we killed in Vietnam and Desert Storm deserve death? I thought that we should have just taken the attacks in stride, and tighten our defenses.

Posted: Sep 11 2004 in "9/11 coverup?"


You say "America deserved 9/11," but attempt to disclaim that by saying "those particular people who died didn't deserve it." You can't disclaim it that way, because you can't have it both ways. Either America "deserves 9/11" or it doesn't deserve to have its civillian populace attacked. Your phrasing was ambiguous, what you said sounded terrible, and out of 365 possible days of the year, you said it on the very worst one. And yet you can't comprehend why people think you're a troll.

A far less inflammatory way of saying something similar: "an attack on America was karmic." This phrasing does not endorse an attack on civillians, or attacks period, it says "What can you expect when you threat the world this way?" You'll still get disagreement, but I doubt as many posters would view such phrasing as trollish.

UnrealShadow13:

Posted: Aug 15 2004 in "Gay Marriage"

Gays help keep the population in check by not reproducing, and then dying by aides, or becoming victims to hate crimes. I think they fill a needed niche in society, and should be allowed to marry.

Homophobes don't seem to think so, so that is the only argument I could think of that homophobes could relate to.

Your first comment would be awful even if you prefixed it with "For those that hate gays, ..." There was simply no way of disclaiming such an inflammatory comment. And if you honestly thought your comment wouldn't sound like the most horrible thing posted in the entire thread, you really don't comprehend how what you say affects other people. I was gritting my teeth not to ban you.

It's because of posts like the few I quoted that whenever I check the Lounge, I personally look for any new posts made by you just to make sure you haven't said anything that needs editing. In other words, your posts draw so much attention at least one moderator has to babysit you. In the past month, numerous Lurkers have publicly voiced complaints about you. Your presence on this forum is highly disruptive.

Do you see where this is going? That's right. It's going toward the ban-stick. I've got it all charged up and it would give me some sadistic pleasure to pop you with it and leave a big bloody skidmark where your account used to be. So, don't mistake what follows for benevolence.

Consider yourself on probationary status. Your challenge, until I say otherwise, is to avoid saying trollish things. If the only way you know to do that is to not post every little thing that comes to mind, then that's what you'll have to do. And you know what? That might even help you. Contemplate before posting. Discard posts if you need to. And when you do post, write as if you're writing for other people. If something sounds inflammatory, try to say it a different way.

And here's a challenge to other Lurkers: You think he's a troll? For every post you think is trollish, PM me. That's all you need to do. Even if the post doesn't bear editing, if it's trollish, PM me. But don't reply to him. This way, the trollish posts get less attention, and we don't have quite so many threads that unravel into musings on Unreal's motives.

And what am I going to do with all those PMs? That'll remain classified. For now, it's time to take this mess behind the scenes. No more flames.


QUOTE(Robert Frost)
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.


This shall end in ice.

-Lemmy

Hope that helps.