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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   28359 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 11, 2024

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As of this time @HlynkaCG has been permabanned. I'm posting this message at the top of the thread, because its not really for Hlynka, its for the community to know. There were a few different posts I could have chosen in the modqueue, and many of them were too buried to be visible. The mod team has given him repeated warnings and bans. And I personally reached out to him last ban to warn him that a permaban was likely coming if this behavior continued.

I mostly do not feel this is a good thing, but it is a necessary thing. Hlynka had quite a few quality contributions, and I don't think I was alone in appreciating his often unique (for themotte) perspective. But he repeatedly did it in a way that just wasn't acceptable for the rules around here.

I would like people to have a few takeaways:

  1. No one on this forum is infinitely excused of bad behavior. Having quality contributions and providing a unique viewpoint might get you some additional leeway, but our patience isn't unlimited.
  2. The mods do read and participate here. We know when someone is starting to abuse that leeway. We know when there is frustration about it.
  3. We do try to be deliberate and slow about things. It can feel real shitty when a cabal of people meet in secret to discuss your punishment and they decide permanent banishment is the solution. For longtime users that have put in the time and effort to be a part of the community here we don't lightly jump to permanent bans as a solution.

Please keep any discussion civil.

no, this not a correctional facility and you are not correctional officers

we like hlynka and are looking forward to his contributions under his new name

  • -18

You're correct that this isn't a correctional facility, but you're mistaken if there isn't moderation involved in keeping our tiny enclave in the internet wastes that way.

Anyone who doesn't like it is welcome to leave. There plenty of other forums out there. The mods here still take pains to maintain the Mandate of Heaven approval of the supermajority of the users, since without them, we'd be a glorified day drinking club and Zorba's AWS bill would be significantly less justified, if a lot smaller.

But that's that for Hlynka. Making an alt after being permabanned doesn't work as well as you'd like, especially for such a colorful character as Hlynka. Anyone can tell it's him even behind seven layers of VPNs, and anyway, I think he has more of a martyr complex and feels vindicated rather than desiring to sneak in under a new alias.

Anyone who doesn't like it is welcome to leave. There plenty of other forums out there.

This line was worn out 5 years ago. There is no where else to go.

Yeah that's a boatload of responsibility for you shepherds who didn't sign up for that job - but even the birdwatchers started banning each other years ago for political incorrectness. There is no where else to go.

If Hlynka (me lol jk) is gone from here for good, he's just gone for good. Damascus Steel. Greek Fire. Roman Concrete.

Or, off our grid at least, which is the same thing. How many OG's does it take to determine how many angels fit on the head of a pin? Because we're trimming the muscle from the bone real quick if Hlynka isn't able to do his Hlynjinx anymore. And I genuinely don't even like the guy. I've met Mr 'when I was in the service' a lot in my life, and wouldn't think he added much, if he weren't the only one still doing it!

Here's to all the posts to which we have to look forward on the newest thing in san francisco nimbyism, how ai is gay now and forever, and why Trump is really done this time

If HlynkaCG messaged the mods with a clear description of how he's not been engaging constructively recently and expressed an intent to not do that in the future, he'd probably be unbanned quickly. He's probably not going to do that though.

NTA but no one ever's probably going to do that, in this very thread (in other branches) people have clearly expressed their views on bending the knee and writing mea culpas to the janitors. I'm not keen on getting modded any time soon but I'm happy to join in the collective sentiment of "fuck that noise". It sounds like a good idea in the abstract but one mental test run of you yourself doing that should reliably dispel any notion of real-world applications.

I've seen it done on other forums, it's definitely cringe but it often works - just the ability to coherently articulate the mods' perspective on what the user was doing wrong is something most people who get banned for being annoying lack - and if it doesn't work the first time you just permaban them again.

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