Ban-a-thon

[Foodstamp]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

Since a lot of ink has been spilled over what happened, my impression on the communion thread:

blah blah blah

It was mentioned in the thread that English was not the native language of some of the people that got angry over the thread. Sarcasm often doesn't translate well through written text, and if they truly did not speak English as a first language, can you imagine how hard it would be to "get" the joke, especially since not everyone spends as much time on the forum as some of us.

Are you suggesting that the people who got upset in that thread be punished for not getting the joke?

[pyg]

What are you all talking about, neither Squirrelloid nor myself have posted anything in this thread.

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by Foodstamp

It was mentioned in the thread that English was not the native language of some of the people that got angry over the thread. Sarcasm often doesn't translate well through written text, and if they truly did not speak English as a first language, can you imagine how hard it would be to "get" the joke, especially since not everyone spends as much time on the forum as some of us.

Are you suggesting that the people who got upset in that thread be punished for not getting the joke?

I did put a big disclaimer on how much I thought Verjigorm was responsible.

Peter was directly and specifically attacking and baiting Maerlande. Even if english is somehow not his first language, that is no defense of his conduct. And if you actually read my post you'd know that. (Edit: Not that you can read it anymore apparently, although the original thread speaks for itself).

Edit Edit: I also never suggested anyone get punished.

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

Peter was directly and specifically attacking and baiting Maerlande. Even if english is somehow not his first language, that is no defense of his conduct.

This is the thread:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=45501

I certainly was out of line in that thread by the end of it, no doubt about that, and I accepted so publically in my last post in that thread... while most of the rest of you were busy trolling for responses.

I was trolled by Maerlande in post #10, when he explained that this wasn't a thread with serious posts, that his posts #1 and #5 were "irony" (not any definition of irony I know of covers that), and people should seek information other places to understand what it was about and that he knew perfectly well what he was doing and didn't seek help in a thread asking for help after both I and Verjigorm had tried to give helpful advice based on what was written in the first post.

It may not have been his intention to troll for responses with that response, but that is certainly the effect such a post has on people who have tried to give helpful advice and haven't yet realized that it is to be an evening with otherwise well-known posters spamming worthless and trolling posts all over the place and mocking those who don't "get it" in a puerile protest against something they see as a great injustice.

I swallowed his bait (whether he intended it to be so or not) hook, line, and sinker and answered in post #19 that I would have to beg to differ with his conclusion that he knew exactly well what he was doing, which, given the information provided until then in the thread about the in-game situation he was describing was a very reasonable answer, and suggested that in case he was using his so-called "irony" again, he was wasting other peoples' time with his posting.

Which was, as it turned out, most definitely the case. My advice was completely worthless due to not understanding the constraints of the game has was talking about, but as Maerlande apparently had no intention whatsoever to enlighten those of us who were trying to help him based on what he wrote about the constraints of the game, I find it hard to fault myself for giving worthless advice in this case.

In response, Maerlande in post #21 told me that it was only wasting my time if I was stupid and didn't understand what the thread was really about and he threw in the standard "But I'd never call you stupid. That's a banning offence." - this is a typical weasel attempt at evading forum rules by pretending not to be breaking them or, more charitably, an attempt at appearing witty while directly insulting somebody to their face.

Grame Dice in post #22 was the first poster to actually provide useful information on the situation Maerlande was talking about (which situation was not the one he wanted to discuss, apparently, because he didn't want any help despite asking about it - he just wanted to post another "sombre" thread as part of his forum spam).

I returned to the thread, threw my hands up in disgust at the by now rampant trolling, and posted a post #32 declaring my disgust with his trolling tactics and not intending to write a serious thread with an appropriate subject/OP - and performed a counter-weasel after suggesting that he post threads in a sensible manner by saying "Failing that, you can act like a real smeg-head, though I'd never call you a smeghead. That might a banning offense (depending on the amount of Red Dwarf sympathizers amongst the moderaters)."

By this time most everybody and his goat who were "in" on the joke/crisis/whine were posting trolling posts in the thread, and I wrote a sorrowful post as #48 in which I stated that the I despised the sort of in-jokes and trolling that the rest of you were imposing on the forum, that I hoped it wasn't a sign of things to come, and that we were probably all in violation of the forum rules by that point in the thread (with a few exceptions in which I did specifically NOT include myself, because I quite agree that my counter-weasel in #32 was probably over the line).

"Specifically attacking and baiting Maerlande"? Rational minds beg to differ if one assumes, as I do, that the purpose of threads are to discuss whatever topic is raised in the first post.

[Sensori]

Originally Posted by Peter Ebbesen

I was trolled by Maerlande in post #10,

No you weren't. I can see he just explained the reason behind the thread and that the situation sort of related to something that really happened. In fact, what he was trying to do was to get you and the other guy out of the thread civilly before it would turn into a flame war.

And the form of irony he was using was the kind used in this particular picture. Since he had actually gone through a situation much like the one he actually described, but he knew exactly what had gone wrong and whatnot.