I HEREBY STEP DOWN FOR NOW

[Alas]

I was going to post that I am actually sad that Shades stepped down, rather than just giving his mods the right to moderate somehow. But I really am still kind of an outsider, so I don’t know the way that could have worked. It just left me feeling bad for him and the whole place.

[Philo Sofee]

AM
Hey Shades. Check this guy out. This is the guy that confirmed your board was taken over by the progressive movement and turned into an ECHO CHAMBER. He’s actually happy happy happy to tell the truth and acknowledge the ECHO CHAMBER. And now that his friends are in charge I guarantee you the PMs between at least a dozen of the most progressive members are in overdrive and their little fingers are typing away trying to formulate a plan to get rid of me.

Hey Shades, check this guy out. It is his trolling that cost you your position. Without him I would not have complained and you would still be in charge.

[Philo Sofee]

For context: I came very close to stepping down yesterday over what I saw as very ugly comments directed towards Shades. It was just what Atlanticmike has been trying to do since the beginning. And, given the fact that I don't have a decades long relationship with people on this board, I have no doubt that there are forum members here who would throw me under the bus in heartbeat if they don't get exactly what they want. Why in the world would any sane person voluntarily put themselves in that position.

The only thing keeping me on the team right now is that Shades entrusted his baby to me. And I'll be damned if I'll betray that trust. So, I'm going to work with canpakes and xeno as a team to do what we think is best for the board. Right now, my general philosophy is to move toward Shades's Libertarian utopia and not away from it. That means adjusting enforcement and rules to take the place of the commitment to Libertarian values that form the necessary foundation of a free speech forum.

In law, we have a saying: hard cases make bad law. There's a corollary: any law named after someone is probably a bad law. Laws passed in hurry to address a single problem always suffer from the law of unintended consequences. The one thing about being a clone of Shades that I am not willing to drop is to approach problems dispassionately and with an aim to solve the problem without creating two new problems. So, if you're out for blood, you're probably not going to be happy with some of my recommendations. I will do the best to use my meager talents and limited good judgment to act in ways that I think are best for the good of the board.

If you have suggestions concerning rule enforcement or rule changes, please post them to the Rules and Moderators thread so that we don't miss any suggestions.

Thanks.

Res, you are a good man as Shades is.

[Kishkumen]

I was going to post that I am actually sad that Shades stepped down, rather than just giving his mods the right to moderate somehow. But I really am still kind of an outsider, so I don’t know the way that could have worked. It just left me feeling bad for him and the whole place.

There are ways he could have reached out to us. I wish he had. I don't understand why he stepped down without talking to someone through back channels. Why is it that the mods were unaware that he was stepping down?

Come on, guys. This is not the way to do things.

I, too, feel for Shades in this situation. At the same time, why has this been done in a way that makes a troll happy?

[Res Ipsa]

I was going to post that I am actually sad that Shades stepped down, rather than just giving his mods the right to moderate somehow. But I really am still kind of an outsider, so I don’t know the way that could have worked. It just left me feeling bad for him and the whole place.

There are ways he could have reached out to us. I wish he had. I don't understand why he stepped down without talking to someone through back channels. Why is it that the mods were unaware that he was stepping down?

Come on, guys. This is not the way to do things.

I, too, feel for Shades in this situation. At the same time, why has this been done in a way that makes a troll happy?

Shades moves in mysterious ways. I have a habit of trying to fix situations until I just can't. So maybe not so mysterious to me. At this point, it is what it is and we'll move forward as best we can.

[Chap]

Shades moves in mysterious ways. I have a habit of trying to fix situations until I just can't. So maybe not so mysterious to me. At this point, it is what it is and we'll move forward as best we can.

I think that there are some measures that Shades does not want to have to take himself, although he does not object to allowing them to be taken by others.

Now it is up to the mods. I am sure that they will be able to settle on appropriate measures in discussion between themselves.

[Kishkumen]

Shades moves in mysterious ways. I have a habit of trying to fix situations until I just can't. So maybe not so mysterious to me. At this point, it is what it is and we'll move forward as best we can.

I, for one, would welcome being corrected of my possible misremembering of the way trolling has been dealt with in the past. I recall Shades putting trolls on holiday. Anyone can step in to correct me in my error, if I am in error. What broke down that now we are sitting on our hands while a deleterious pest is having us all for breakfast? I feel like I am living in some kind of alternate universe of DM, where good people sit back and let bad actors have a field day. Kinda like the years of 2016-2020, when everyone watched a movement of kooks drag the country into a funhouse of horrors.

This is not a jab directed at you personally, RI. No one gets to this place alone. This is obviously a community problem. There is libertarian, and then there is voluntary sitting duck.

[Res Ipsa]

Shades moves in mysterious ways. I have a habit of trying to fix situations until I just can't. So maybe not so mysterious to me. At this point, it is what it is and we'll move forward as best we can.

I, for one, would welcome being corrected of my possible misremembering of the way trolling has been dealt with in the past. I recall Shades putting trolls on holiday. Anyone can step in to correct me in my error, if I am in error. What broke down that now we are sitting on our hands while a deleterious pest is having us all for breakfast? I feel like I am living in some kind of alternate universe of DM, where good people sit back and let bad actors have a field day. Kinda like the years of 2016-2020, when everyone watched a movement of kooks drag the country into a funhouse of horrors.

This is not a jab directed at you personally, RI. No one gets to this place alone. This is obviously a community problem. There is libertarian, and then there is voluntary sitting duck.

I get it and I don't take it personally. Can you recall who was put on holiday in the past?

[Philo Sofee]

What makes obvious trolling of this kind so terribly idiosyncratic that we are helpless in the face of it?

Honestly, we are not. Just put the guy on a holiday, as has been done multiple times in the past.

It really IS that simple... I mean LDSfaqs was put into Spirit Prison for crying out loud. That's not even banning, but it sure solved a myriad of problems. Stick the Trollers down in Spirit Prison and let them thrash at each other for a month or two. How is this so hard to grasp? DO I need to become a moderator to show how it is done?

[Atlanticmike]

I was going to post that I am actually sad that Shades stepped down, rather than just giving his mods the right to moderate somehow. But I really am still kind of an outsider, so I don’t know the way that could have worked. It just left me feeling bad for him and the whole place.

There are ways he could have reached out to us. I wish he had. I don't understand why he stepped down without talking to someone through back channels. Why is it that the mods were unaware that he was stepping down?

Come on, guys. This is not the way to do things.

I, too, feel for Shades in this situation. At the same time, why has this been done in a way that makes a troll happy?

You don’t feel for Shades. You guys pestered the living hell out of him for days to give up power to the moderators. Jersey actually melted down on him. You and the backwards professor were close to melting down. The Backwards Professor decided to throw his weight around and start typing in red ink and when Shades corrected him you guys went after Shades. I’m surprised he was able to survive what you guys put him through for two days. I really am. All you cared about was trying to find a way to shut me up. No one took the time to wonder how Shades was feeling about all this crap you guys were putting him through. Honestly. How many PMs have you guys sent him in the past week? I guarantee you between the 6 or 7 characters that kept this psychological coup d’état going, Shades has probably received at least 50 or so PMs. All begging him to give up something we all know he loves. And you retards decided to do all this just weeks after his divorce.