where's JJ?

It's easy to spoof IP addresses these days. I'm sure if he wants to come back and post he will have no trouble.

 

Or,just use a different device and start a new account. On the other hand, he'll probably be less annoying, since he'll try to fly under the radar.

 

And post pictures of Jack Nicholson and/or pidgeons to random threads as retaliation.

 

Hey! I'm not retaliating for anything!

 

Yeah, you've been here too long and I would know, you're nothing like him.

 

There is a little bit of us in everyone.

 

Who's "us"?

 

Us is everyone.

 

Come to think of it, Jack Nicholson is cool... pidgeons are kinda cool, like, how they can fly but still cross roads walking like they don't give a shit.

Maybe it wouldn't be so much a form of retaliation as it would be a gift.

 

Why does this remind me of V for Vendetta?

 

There's a little bit of everyone in everyone!

 

A movie quoted me! Dude that is so cool!


I've actually never seen that movie so I had no clue. Seriously.

 

Only if you are a very hungry cannibal...or zombie, whatever.

 

Every time you smell a fart, you take in a little bit of someone else.....

 

I love you guys. I don't tell you this as much as I should.

 

Aww. I love you too!

I love all you people.

 

Can we just like each other a whole lot? I'm not big on commitment.

 

More the spirit of the message rather than the content. I'm reading the graphic novel now (a first for me) and the film is so different to the book!

 

Well back to bed for me. I've worn out my brain with enough usage for the next 6-12 hours depending on what my stomach tells me.

 

Good night!

 

I became aware that JJ was banned last night. He and I argued a lot, agreed sometimes. I think he's like a lot of folks here who cleve to opinions even in the face of overwhelming evidence that they are wrong, seeing their defense of those opinions as a defense of self. It's a facet of human nature that can be intensified in forums like these. This is why I argued against opening the Debate Room and why I almost never participate in it. And the simple fact is that if JJ had confined himself to topics involving writing, he wouldn't be banned. That's probably true of most banned members (I can only think of one who may have gotten banned for a writing-related post).

 

I'll probably get banned because I like Prologues...

 

Think of it this way: we're citizens and the mods are cops. But friendly cops, the kind that buys kids ice cream, and you invite them over to play cards.

The debate room is like driving. It's harder than walking. There are rules.

Some people can't handle driving. They drive too fast, or too slow, or drink and drive, or text and drive. This is where the cops come in, to make sure nobody gets hurt. If you can't handle driving, you have to be the responsible one, and not drive.

Just because a few people can't handle driving, doesn't mean everyone can't.

JJ wasn't even banned because of the debate room, so.....

 

But - and this is the only comment I'll make on the topic of an owner-approved area of the forum - the mentality that drives the 'discussions' in the Debate Room is like a gas. It's hard to contain in one area. It wants to leak out. It wants to spread. It is the nature of a gas to go where it is not. The fact that this happened outside the Debate Room is proof thereof.

The fact is that @EdFromNY is quite correct. When I make choices as a mod, my mindset is that of an accountant's. I think of things in term of GMROI: Gross Margin Return On Investment. The Return, or profit, is measured in value added to the venue's purpose, which is writing. When the profit outweighs the cost, then I stay my hand. It's worthwhile to keep the investment around. When it doesn't, and the item is costing me more than it earns me to keep it in stock, then it has to be liquidated. I know that sounds terribly cold, but it's my way of trying to stay impartial when I'm thinking with a human brain that is geared, like all human brains, toward being partial.

 

Science time, kids!

But the mentality is a constant, it was here before the debate room, is now, and ever shall be, world without end...
(My sentence started to sound like the Glory Be)
My point is that before the debate room, there was still that mindset. I remember it quite clearly. Now, at least some of it is contained.

I remember the last part from a message you once sent me. I shall remember it on my road to mod-dom.

Yeah, I've always wanted to be a mod on a forum.