Quote:
... It never was about me.
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Well, the post above earned me an immediate one week ban. A ban that I think was uncalled for. I did appreciate at the time that wktf apologized on his post before that one, really. That was nice of him, but my reply reflected that I thought he was still missing the point. Perhaps I should have added that last bit in order to make it seem less… confrontational. You see, I felt his apologies —which I never desired, by the way— were like the ones used by those who say "If I have offended anyone, I’m sorry", the keyword being "If". To me, people saying so do not really acknowledge they
may have made a mistake, but are rather only saying it in order to appease those who they consider… shall we say… easily offended.
I don't think I'm easily offended. There are many times I've refrained from posting as I knew nothing good would come out of it. And, frankly, most times it's not really worth it.
This, though, was a different kettle of fish. The way I see it, a quote (even one's own quote) on someone else's post shouldn't be edited unless there's a good reason for that. Now you guys may or may not agree on this, but I really don't think a typo is a reason good enough. I reckon mod powers should be used to enforce a board's rules, not out of 'vanity' (plenty of "" there). What's to stop a mod from editing a quote that was being used to call him/her out and say he/she was just "correcting a typo" afterwards? Nobody can modify a quote on someone else's posts, otherwise it'd lose its raison d'être. Nobody but mods, that is, in the exercise of mod duties - it shouldn't be because of wanting to look good, or at least I think so, as I find that a rather petty reason. I've been there, I've also noticed the odd typo of mine after having been quoted and have edited my original post, but out of respect I never would have touched my quote on someone else's post even if I could have. Which I can't do. Nor anyone, except for mods. You know, for modding reasons. But typos happen, they're not that big of a deal and most people don't pay that much attention to quotes anyway.
And no, Keith, "editing other people's thread titles (without being asked) because of a misspelling" has nothing to do with this. That is exactly one of the reasons mods have powers for. Correcting a misspelled title is in the interest of the whole forum for clarity and search purposes.
When I tried to log in here after a short while and saw the message "You have been banned for the following reason: Unreasonable discord" I didn't feel angry or flustered. I just felt disappointed. Was there a discord? Yes, obviously. Was it really unreasonable? I really didn't think so. Even if I had already conceded that some might see it as a tantrum on my part (hence my parodic use of quotation marks for the term "sullying" and my self-deprecatingly qualifying my complaint of "ridiculous drama"), I think I did give reasonable arguments and wasn't insulting. People may or may not agree on my perception of what the limits of a mod should be, but "unreasonable" or unreasoned it was not.
I also felt disappointed that I wasn't sent a PM warning or anything like that and only found out when trying to log in. Whatever sense of being part of a community you may have had gets damaged after that. Honestly, it all just felt like "Oh, yeah? So take that!", and the point still being missed. No, it wasn't about me. It was about perceived malpractice. I didn't need "an apology if I had felt offended". (Not a literal quotation here - see first paragraph.) I just wanted to at least raise a consideration of the act itself for a minute, not how it might have affected me. And I actually was going to leave it there. There was nothing else to add anyway.
But I just got a ban out of it.
Also, saying "This thread literally is 50% about a typo due to Shoo" is a rather Manichaean way to put it. I mentioned it on literally three posts, with only the middle one going fully into it and the last one being sort of a coda. It's not my fault the thread had (and still has) so little posts in it that those few posts and the ones other people may have posted after that amount to that ratio.
Now, some might argue I am NOW breaking the board's rules by discussing a decision to ban me. That's a fair point. But, you see, I had to get all of this out of my system in order to continue here still feeling more or less comfortable. Not that anyone cares. I just don't like being accused of being unreasonable when I'm not. I may be many things (like…
not a Jim Lee worshipper*), but I've always reasoned my arguments. If you guys don't agree a mod should refrain from entering other people's posts and leaving their marks there just because of their own typos, if you think that's me overreacting, that's fine, really. I don't see it that way, out of principle, but if everyone else is fine with it, OK, I just made my point and that's where it ends. I know where to stand now.
BUT, I'll say it again, it was not an "unreasonable" discord. I believe I was banned mainly because I didn't react how it was expected from me to what I felt were misguided apologies and instead replied stressing how this wasn't about me, as the post before mine implied. Yeah, I was the one upset by someone else meddling with whatever contents of a post of mine despite me not having done anything wrong, but the point wasn't how I felt about that - I was trying to raise a point about the ethics behind that action, whether it affected me or not. Even-if-it-was-just-a-bloody-typo.
So, what now? I could say what I've seen other people say in these circumstances, along the lines of "And now ban me, I don’t care". But I do. I do care. There are other places on the Internet to talk about toys. But I like it here. I still feel this is the best place for that. Therefore, after this post I would like to go on as if nothing had ever happened and I hope I'll be allowed to, but if I'm still deemed an unreasonable member and I'm banned again over this, so be it. Another week ban or a permaban, it'll make no difference. Just in case, I'd like to say goodbye to all of you guys, and see you elsewhere if need be. And thanks, jpuli, for getting my point.
* Now I've gone and done it - permaban it is.