Quote:
Originally Posted by livius drusus
Good points, Seven. He has the second highest postcount on that thread (16; the thread starter has the most with 22). Click here to see all his posts on that thread in a single window.
Thank you for putting up all the links.
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You're welcome, liv.
I'm finding just logging on a challenge right now, so I was worried that I hadn't presented my argument well.
I ordinarily would have made more posts on that thread, but I stopped because he was flooding the thread, and had planned to drop out of, or never post in, any thread on which he lavished his attentions, yet I'm sometimes the only member of other boards willing to post seriously with folks who are obviously mentally unbalanced, or have weird bees in their bonnets, because they truly want and need someone to converse with, because I find what they have to say of interest, and feel I can learn something of value by assuming their mindset.
However, people like latin are predators who use your own socialization, your ideals, and your kindness as weapons they can turn against you in order to undermine, and even destroy the internet community you and vm have worked with such love and care to build here: every post such people make is spam, and the more rope they're given only results in more such posts until they're flooding contentless posts and abusive posts like crazy.
I feel that this thread is a also a good example because Beth can be observed in it appealing to latin's better nature with no result, and, IMO, anyone who didn't have a heart of stone would have been affected by her pleas. No form of behavior modification we can bring to bear seems to me to be in the least effective, and I feel certain that you and vm closely examined his history at other boards hoping to find a way to reach him so you could retain him as a member, but found the opposite was true, and to such a degree that you saw that
warning him that he would be banned had proved counter-productive at other boards.
Anyone reading vm's and your posts on the subject can see how painful this experience has been for you, and I couldn't be more sorry that latin chose us, especially since you both appear to mistakenly feel that you've compromised your strongly held principles. People like latin are out to achieve just that goal, and they can do it, too, precisely because they're unprincipled themselves.
He hurt you both, and I there's little I can say to console you, except possibly to point out that the very fact that you've been so deeply wounded proves that you
didn't compromise your ideals at all.
Personally speaking, I have more faith in both of you than ever, even though my faith in you was considerable before, and because I depend on internet message boards to meet real-life needs, my faith in the folks who run them isn't that easily won or kept because there's so much at stake for me.
Latin
had begun flooding, and would have escalated that practice if you'd allowed him the opportunity so that every member here was aware of his flagrant violation of this rule and the resulting disruption of every section of the board, but I don't see how it would have benefited us members if you had waited until it was clear to all that he was breaking the letter of FF's rules, when he'd been breaking the spirit of the ideals on which FF is founded all along, and doing us far more harm thereby.
arrr...perhaps I should have waited to make this post until I was feeling better? I'm not certain I've expressed myself at all clearly, just when I wanted most to do so.