Almost any thread on the board that reaches twenty pages rather obviously needed to be started. People have things to get off their chest, and they need to be said. Nothing is gained by witholding genuine thoughts under some nebulous fear of what others may think of you when you say them. That idea is exactly counterproductive to whatever progress a discussion of any kind can produce.
eyepen wrote:At a minimum the body count is Uncle $cam, wombat, smiles, vigilant, maybe lily pat, and maybe some more. People have been banned around here lately tinkering with your sensitivities.
Eyepen, I know at least one thing about your perversely disingenuous statement above: it is wrong. Uncle $cam has some bruises, maybe, but he has my support, and he knows it. Wombaticus Rex has made it quite clear, several times, that he can take it. Elfismiles is all grown up, and can clearly handle this kind of attention and questioning with aplomb. LilyPatToo has had her story told by Cosmic Cowbell, with the result that it is clear that she is a genuine article. And vigilant...
Vigilant has been banned
twice from this forum, but is posting on this very thread, as you very well know.
eyepen wrote:My post count may be low but i'm not a newbie to these alley ways by a long shot. Everybody here knows me even if they don't realize it. I've been through these dusty hallways a long time and I am friends with a lot of people here.
So in other words, you are admitting that you are a user posting under an alias. Fine. Who are you and how many aliases have you had here? Come fucking clean. Quit jerking my chain, and reveal why it is that we should know you. You've lied to Jeff already in this thread, as well as pointed readers to the very pages which sort of started this issue, TLS, so decloak and clarify, you mother.
Enough of that.
Here's my thing: compared2what? is one of my personal heroes here. I support her prose, her persona and her pratfalls, unreservedly, as people do for those they consider to be superlative artists and friends. There will be those of you who may feel that you'll have a hard time dealing with her after "what she did". She hinted to me that she was going to do the spoiler, so I wasn't really surprised by this thread. But I have to say, I was, and remain, an admirer of her courage to say what she thought she must. That's a hard thing to do sometimes, and this must have been one of those times.
But - Jeff, the admin of this board did
not formally apprise me that Et in Arcadia Ego was still an at large here. And I wish he had, as the lack of that information has left me feeling a bit adrift. It would not have changed my decision to take on the "responsibility" of moderation, but it would have changed the tenor of that decision. So in many ways, I was as surprised by many aspects of this thread and the various twists and turns as anyone else here. If I had been consulted directly about the tactics shown here, I would have advocated that Cowbell's narrative be brought into the discussion at the outset. It might have backgrounded the uninvolved board members, and drawn them in as a community.
As for the various folks here who have avoided responding in this thread, I applaud you. You have shown reserve, or disdain, or contemplation, or apathy, but you have shown it. Rock on.
The most dangerous traps are the ones you set for yourself. - Phillip Marlowe
