Subject: Re: A Modest Proposal: sig files. To Terry From: "XlMeister" Date: 1999/05/31 Message-ID: Newsgroups: rec.skiing.alpine terry morse wrote in message ... >Bert, > >The people who wrote nasty things about you and your stepson were wrong >and should be ashamed. I didn't read any of it. I don't read most of the >trash being posted lately. But I did read *your* posting, thinking it was >a thoughtful response to my topic of .sig files. Your replies are >generally thoughtful and on topic, which is commendable. Thank you, Terry! You're perhaps the first, or at least one of the very, very few, who has said, finally, that posting this kind of disgusting junk is totally inappropriate on RSA. Many others are still very busy finding excuses for it. I feel sad that it took two days of treating these slime the way they treat others, and flooding the newsgroup, before anybody actually would say anything against it. In a better newsgroup, all I would have had to do is sit back, and wait for someone to say "This is totally inappropriate! It doesn't belong here." But *nobody* would, and every time I tried to make a more temperate response myself it was more opportunity to flame me. It seems, however, that the only way to get anyone else to object to these obnixious, disgusting and uncalled-for comments, is for me to resort to their tactics. It's like the "Missouri mule" strategy. Whisper "please" in their ears, aftder youy whomp them up the side of the head with a 2 x 4. So, *please,* people, speak out against vicious OT ad-hom attacks. This is not just kidding among skiing comrades about sticking heads in fences or liking sheep. I's shocked, surprised and bitterly disappointed that absolutely nobody has seen the difference, and all have lent their silent approval to those comments about my liking to have anal sodomy against my step-son. >But contrasting what you wrote to some other more indecent postings >doesn't get you off the hook. Name calling is name calling; ad-hominem >attacks are ad-hominem attacks. Some are more vile than others (a few much >more vile), but they're all vile. To my mind, he who engages in name >calling is a name caller, and every ad-hominem post pushes away people >like me who are looking for a friendly environment to discuss skiing. Terry, I prefer not to try to explain why calling scumbags "scumbag" is not the same as saying that someone engages in sodomy and childhood sexual abuse for fun, or saying that a victim of childhood sexual abuse got liquored up so he could enjoy it with the priests, or saying that someone has blackmailed the Catholic church. To my mind, at least, a minimal amount of discernment would be able to differentiate between calling slime "slime" and these kinds of attacks. Contrasting what I had to write in the last couple of days with these attacks doesn't get me off the hook? Did you not hear me saying, weeks ago, that these kinds of attacks were inappropriate and didn't belong on RSA? To what result? *Increased* vile ad-hom attacks on me, people picking apart my OT Website in great detail, and people telling me I was an a**hole and should just get the f*** out of here. Only *then* did I start using the "flaming" techniques that the Team Dweeb scum have been using for weeks. And only after acting as slimy and vile as the Team Dweebers did you, or anyone, ever acknowledge that things like saying I enjoyed anal sex with my stepson were objectionable. I'm sorry that that's what it took for anyone to say anything against the disgusting tactics of people like *Boots* and the other Team Dweebers. It's sad, really. >I've just about given up on r.s.a., the signal to noise ratio is just too low. I can't blame you for that, at all. People complain about the volume of posts and the S/N ratio -- but *each day* for weeks, 5-12 people have found 3 or more opportunities to light into me, and to "widen the net" by opening new conversations about whether Scott lives in a basement, about a site I created for a friend about "ultra-sensitive people," about critiques of my poetry, and about anything else these low-lifes can think of to slime the newsgroup and ramble on about OT stuff. But that's the Team Dweeb plan. They have been *very* clear that they will continue their relentless and ever-widening attakcs, as long as Scott or I remain on RSA. They have no consideration for whether you, or other decent folks, are driven away. *Boots,* UglyTim and other are on record as saying exactly the same thing that Horvath and the sicko Dr. Rupert Hangnal say -- as all "flamers" say, in my experience as a moderator. "I can post whatever I want, wherever I want, and nobody can stop me. The more you object, the more I'll post OT flame stuff. To hell with what you and decent people think." Sometimes, as a moderator, I've had to "slime" slime, in the hopes that enough *other* people will finally speak out, as you have, rather than quietly slip away. Can a "moderator" moderate a board or newsgroup? Any "moderator" will tell you that the answer is "no," it's an impossible job. It's up to the *community,* not the moderator. And as long as decent people slip away and slime get freer and freer reign to drive away those who disagree with them and call them on their b.s., the group spins out of control and becomes the private province of the "slime." We're almost there, here on RSA. Thank you for speaking out, to try and stop it. I wish you had spoken out against the pattern, rather than only speaking out against me, once I reached the decision that slime can only be answered with slime. >Bert, sorry if my gentle criticism hit you wrong. I hope you will take it >in the spirit it was intended. Terry, I have taken the time to give you this long response (and to open up myself to be vulnerable to all the flame attacks that people will launch in response to this post, screaming that I'm a hypocirte but never thinking about what I'm saying) because I do take your comments in the spirit in which they were intended - in the spirit of a healthier RSA. Your criticism "hit me wrong" because I disagree with you most strongly. I hoipe I can say I disagree with you strongly, without that launching another "flame" attack. I have a lot of respect for you, and that gives me the hope and faith that I can. I disagree with you on only speaking out to criticize me, and not contributing to any effort to stop the flaming to which I object. It;s sad that the only way that I could get your attention on this was to act lile a Team Dweeber for a short period. Sindcerely, XlMeister P.S. I will respond to your sig line proposal in another post.