And now, a brief word from the Titan Network...

[dwturducken]

Exactly. and when its done correctly, that can happen.

Unfortunately, in the online world, its often an excuse for asshattery.

 I always try to be open and forthright in my asshattery!

[emu265]

I'm sorry you had to bother with posting this, Tony.  All of what he said should be common sense, so please just try understand things from all three perspectives:  your own, your 'opponent' and Titan's.

[TimtheEnchanter]

To summarize...

"I'm not your mother. So stop coming to me complaining every time one of your siblings does something you don't like."

[Kistulot]

To summarize...

"I'm not your mother. So stop coming to me complaining every time one of your siblings does something you don't like."

This, yet said without the tone that would make such a statement hair pulling.

[Codewalker]

Prior to the closure announcement, our forums were pretty quiet. Now they're positively thriving with activity.

I used to read every single post.

My "All Unread Posts" is now up to 18 pages.

[eabrace]

I used to read every single post.

My "All Unread Posts" is now up to 18 pages.

I still try to read every post outside of the Plan Z sections.  (They have their own moderators for a reason.)  Eventually I just have to stop, take a break, and take care of non-forum things like eating dinner, walking the dog, cleaning the house, running errands, etc.  Then I dread seeing the number of unread posts when I get back to the keyboard. 

[corvus1970]

I used to read every single post.

My "All Unread Posts" is now up to 18 pages.

Then get to readin', slacker!

[TonyV]

And I don't have anything against Gangrel.  As far as I could tell at a brief glance, I didn't see anything outrageous or negative that he posted, certainly nothing I would have moderated.  I don't know what exactly caused him to flip out and want to start burning bridges, but if anyone is thinking that my post was in response to something negative he posted or some opinion he held, nothing could be further from the truth.  We've just got way too much going on to be constantly be bugged about deleting accounts or banning people or whatnot.  15 minutes here, 30 minutes there, it adds up.

[Hyperstrike]

And I don't have anything against Gangrel.  As far as I could tell at a brief glance, I didn't see anything outrageous or negative that he posted, certainly nothing I would have moderated.  I don't know what exactly caused him to flip out and want to start burning bridges, but if anyone is thinking that my post was in response to something negative he posted or some opinion he held, nothing could be further from the truth.  We've just got way too much going on to be constantly be bugged about deleting accounts or banning people or whatnot.  15 minutes here, 30 minutes there, it adds up.

Just keep telling yourself "This is what I get paid the Big Bucks for!"

Then try not to laugh yourself to death...

 

[Arcana]

As with so many things in life, there are right ways and wrong ways to go about playing devil's advocate.  The right way is to just make sure that an opposing viewpoint has been given a voice and taken into consideration before proceeding.  If an individual chooses to adopt that opposing view as their own view and fight to the death for it, they are no longer playing devil's advocate.

(This message brought to you by someone who gets paid to play devil's advocate.)

On more than one occasion I stated the following.  If someone's only crime is expressing a personal opinion as an opinion, I believe they deserve a lot of latitude when it comes to interpreting what they write in the least incendiary manner possible.  Most people are not socially surgical pockets of eloquence.

However, the moment someone decides to take it upon themselves to direct a conversation, manipulate a context, or elevate their expression above personal opinion to social engineering, all bets are off.  Such a person is required to be and should assume they will be held to the highest standards of social discourse, and the absolute limits of free-form reciprocity.

To put it simply, don't dress up as the devil and complain when people treat you like the devil.  I have on many occasions played the role of devil's advocate.  But I made it absolutely clear what I was doing and was nevertheless still willing to take my lumps when I did it and extend maximal patience to those that didn't recognize the tactic for what it was.  And I have more years of experience dealing with that than most posters probably have with electricity, and its still a dangerous thing to do.

Lastly, I should mention this.  It is not impossible to sound incendiary and yet moderate the crowd, and sound reasonable and incite them to conflagration.  I've done both, and deliberately.  If you don't know what you're doing, never take it upon yourself to be the voice of reason or the voice of sanity or the voice of temperance or the voice of anything other than the grey matter between your ears.  Because people are not as predictable as anyone thinks, and anything else is going to be, deservedly, self-immolative.

Just say what you think for no other reason than to express what you think.  Attempting anything else is volunteering to be a pinata, and honestly you'll have no one to blame but yourself.

[Tenzhi]

Just say what you think for no other reason than to express what you think.  Attempting anything else is volunteering to be a pinata, and honestly you'll have no one to blame but yourself.

In my experience, even just saying what you think can make people start swingin' a stick at you.  My advice is to have a tougher social skin than papier-mache if one wants to keep one's sweet, sweet emo-guts on the inside.

[Arcana]

In my experience, even just saying what you think can make people start swingin' a stick at you.

Its true there's no way to avoid that.  But there's a difference between expressing your opinion while people swing sticks and expressing your opinion while standing in traffic.

[Electric-Knight]

Plus, I'd rather be hit for saying what I believe than for saying stuff I was just saying for other reasons.

[Arcana]

Plus, I'd rather be hit for saying what I believe than for saying stuff I was just saying for other reasons.

I'll be sure to remember that the next time I'm looking for someone to hit with a stick.

[Electric-Knight]

I'll be sure to remember that the next time I'm looking for someone to hit with a stick.

I don't believe you'd really want to hit me! 

(Ah, shoot, I don't really believe that...)

[TimtheEnchanter]

Suddenly it's starting to feel like a hidden corner of the D in here... 

[Tenzhi]

Its true there's no way to avoid that.  But there's a difference between expressing your opinion while people swing sticks and expressing your opinion while standing in traffic.

Ah, so that's the real reason they call this the "information highway"... 

[Roughtrade]

RACIST!

Wouldn't that be 'specieist"?

[Roughtrade]

The only substantive comment I have is this;

Several posts above have statements mentioning behavior on other sites.  "He was never bad here but he was really bad there" sort of things.

Should not matter.

If we are going to judge people by what they post on other sites and what they do in other places on the internet, then you are all perverts because we all know the internet is for porn.

Seriously though, we can hope that the Admins here are only judging folks by what they do here, because to use hearsay of "on this other site he was a big meanie" would be improper. 

[Golden Girl]

Suddenly it's starting to feel like a hidden corner of the D in here... 

I see no bi-curious catgirls.