Regarding Atlanticmike . . .

[Chap]

Much good sense from Alas. I hope that he/she stays around.

The apartment analogy is telling, and its application to the troll problem is very elegant - and highly relevant. I hope that Shades draws the lesson in the paragraph below.

...

My suggestions as an outsider?

1. You have moderators. Turn them loose and let them moderate. You called the exterminator, but then didn’t let them kill any rats out of fear that somebody’s cat or dog would die. But cats and dogs don’t survive well with hundreds of rats eating all their food and wading through troll poop. Let the mods moderate and put one mod as head mod, in charge of banning. Let the mods vote on banning. But trolls and rats need exterminating. They never will make good house pets.
...

[Dr. Shades]

“Canary in the coal mine” means, if I am willing to work with and rehabilitate Atlanticmike instead of just banning him, how much more willing will I be to work with you when you break the rules?

[Chap]

“Canary in the coal mine” means, if I am willing to work with and rehabilitate Atlanticmike instead of just banning him, how much more willing will I be to work with you when you break the rules?

I'm sorry, but I don't think you are using that metaphor in its proper sense.

Long ago, coal miners would take a canary with them into their mine, as an early warning of dangerous gases. The bird would react to a very small quantity of the gases, much too small for a human being to smell, by falling off its perch unconscious. The miners then knew that they had to get out quickly, even though the situation seemed to all human perception to be perfectly safe.

The metaphor therefore refers to a situation where no-one suspects that there is a problem, but the reaction of a very sensitive entity shows that a dangerous problem is building up unnoticed.

The AM problem (preceded by the Cultellus problem, and the Binger problem, and ...) is one that many posters have been shouting about for months, in the effort to get the authorities - ultimately yourself - to take notice. We are hardly canaries, are we?

[Chap]

Just to stop this thread ending up as a discussion of the use of metaphor - let's get back to the point with Alas's spot-on analogy.

Time for the exterminator to be called in, Shades.

Much good sense from Alas. I hope that he/she stays around.

The apartment analogy is telling, and its application to the troll problem is very elegant - and highly relevant. I hope that Shades draws the lesson in the paragraph below.

...

My suggestions as an outsider?

1. You have moderators. Turn them loose and let them moderate. You called the exterminator, but then didn’t let them kill any rats out of fear that somebody’s cat or dog would die. But cats and dogs don’t survive well with hundreds of rats eating all their food and wading through troll poop. Let the mods moderate and put one mod as head mod, in charge of banning. Let the mods vote on banning. But trolls and rats need exterminating. They never will make good house pets.
...

[Kishkumen]

Maybe I am misremembering, but I recall a time when it was not uncommon to give a poorly behaved poster a temporary break from the board. Why wasn’t AM treated the same way? Were the mods not empowered to do so? Was Shades bending over backwards to be nice to AM?

I don’t know. I am not really happy that the outcome was Shades taking a break himself. I would rather he had returned to old form, at least as I remember it, and give a troll a holiday away from the board.

But all these things are out of my hands.

[Atlanticmike]

Maybe I am misremembering, but I recall a time when it was not uncommon to give a poorly behaved poster a temporary break from the board. Why wasn’t AM treated the same way? Were the mods not empowered to do so? Was Shades bending over backwards to be nice to AM?

I don’t know. I am not really happy that the outcome was Shades taking a break himself. I would rather he had returned to old form, at least as I remember it, and give a troll a holiday away from the board.

But all these things are out of my hands.

You just strong-armed your friend into giving up his power. You just strong-armed your friend into restructuring his board into something he actually doesn’t want and you told him he needed to do it for his own good. That’s insane and mentally abusive.

[Marcus]

Much good sense from Alas. I hope that he/she stays around.

The apartment analogy is telling, and its application to the troll problem is very elegant - and highly relevant. I hope that Shades draws the lesson in the paragraph below.

...

My suggestions as an outsider?

1. You have moderators. Turn them loose and let them moderate. You called the exterminator, but then didn’t let them kill any rats out of fear that somebody’s cat or dog would die. But cats and dogs don’t survive well with hundreds of rats eating all their food and wading through troll poop. Let the mods moderate and put one mod as head mod, in charge of banning. Let the mods vote on banning. But trolls and rats need exterminating. They never will make good house pets.
...

Good points.

[Atlanticmike]

Much good sense from Alas. I hope that he/she stays around.

The apartment analogy is telling, and its application to the troll problem is very elegant - and highly relevant. I hope that Shades draws the lesson in the paragraph below.

Good points.

The apartment analogy is trash. This place was infested with cocky delusional rats and vermin before I showed up.

[Marcus]

I noted this on the other thread also, but It’s worth noting here also, Kishkumen made a great point about a temporary break being a good thing for persistent troublemakers.

[Atlanticmike]

I noted this on the other thread also, but It’s worth noting here also, Kishkumen made a great point about a temporary break being a good thing for persistent troublemakers.

Hey Shades. look here man. The sharks are already circling and discussing my potential ban. Not the three moderators. The regular posters. Let me say that again. The regular everyday posters within hours of you giving up your power are discussing on the open forum what should be done to me.