Seamus Haley
Big Game Hunter
On Bob Clark's forum this time...
Sooo... a few days ago (probably no more than a week), a buddy of mine sends me a link to the Bob Clark Forums as there's a thread about venomoids running and it looked to be shaping up in an interesting manner. Always up for the topic, I wander over and check it out and find it basically to be what I thought it would be. A load of garbage.
I've never liked the Clark forums, registered there a few times (don't know if they delete inactive registrations or if server moves at them or what) on and off over the years when there was a topic of particular interest at the time but never stuck around afterwards and became an active member. The entire attitude rubs me the wrong way and the method of moderation and the highly selective enforcement by SOME of the moderators smacks of the sort of thing I never tolerated with KS or on AOL. It's essentially an ego driven circle-jerk, with the same questionable characters patting one another on the back over every post and with post count totals being mistaken for education or credibility or general knowledge. Heck, even the post count related titles support this sort of cloistered mentality.
At any rate... a few of the biggest egomaniacs over there were in a heated argument over the subject with such noteable and respected hot keepers/educators as Scott Bice, B.W. Smith, Tanith Tyrr and Gregg M (sorry if I misspelled anyone's name). The moderators and their faithful lap dogs were extremely offensive and disrespectful to the highly credible individuals they were arguing with and the thread was eventually locked down (And I seem unable to locate it... whole thing deleted?).
Skip forward a short period of time...
There was a thread running concerning the legal troubles that Black Knight has been having and the abrupt inability to buy direct from the manufacturer, as it progressed the subject shifted very slightly to alternative mite treatment options. Tanith mentioned a method which she has used for years, one of the moderators contradicted it's effectiveness and safety and she returned with a comment stating that it had been used in a reliable manner by zooligical institutions. One of the lap dogs then essentially told her that she knew nothing when it came to the education and experience of the moderator, casually dismissing her position and the moderator claimed she was quoting her responses off a credible website, then provided said website.
The website he provided happened to be Tanith's.
I, as well as a few others who had been treated in a less than respectful manner (we didn't have five thousand posts, who were we to argue? clearly post counts indicate general knowledge) found this to be hilarious. I added the quote by the lapdog as a link to my signature on the site, it was identical to the one at the end of my signature here and on a few other forums where I thought people might enjoy it. When someone sticks their foot in their mouth that badly, it's amusing.
I was sent an email by Jay Owens asking me to change my signature, I returned an email declining to do so, as I saw nothing whatsoever wrong with it. I got no further response but my signature remained unchanged.
The moderator who had made himself look like a fool then EDITED my post, removing that line from the signature, he threatened to ban me if I posted it again... Guess he didn't like being seen as what he is. I posted again of course, as I feel I was in the "right" in my position of retaining it... it didn't violate any of the rules of the site, it wasn't vulgar or offensive or gratuitously advertising anything.
Needless to say, my posts were deleted, I got an error message telling me I had an invalid username or password when I tried to reply to another thread and it seems *that* entire thread has dissapeared as well. Luckily, as a veteran of the kingsnake censorship wars and similar events on AOL's forums, I had the sense to save a copy in advance, so that the blunder can be immortalized for all time via another forum/web host.
At any rate... This is identical to the garbage that happened on Kingsnake and borders on the paranoid egomania displayed by Mario Stinso. I figure this serves as fair warning to anyone who might be inclined to register and post over there that you're going behind the Iron Curtain of forum dictatorship and you mustn't offend the wretched little minds who base their self esteem on their status in a web forum.
Below is the text of the first page of the thread wherein Lyncheyez makes himself look like a nit-wit. Take careful note of how, when his apparant mistake is pointed out, he doesn't apologize, he tries to attack her again. The guy just doesn't learn... and apparantly doesn't have to since he's a moderator. Anything which identifies his lack of common sense can be deleted for his protection.
Warning- LONG
Here is the email Jay sent me earlier. After my response, no immediate action was taken to edit my signature or ban me, so I figured maybe he had seen that trying to force me to edit the link wasn't really even handed or "fair" but I guess it was simply delayed...
I'd also like to point out that the moderator mocked himself. I didn't show up at his home and force him to act like a dink, he chose to do it on his own. Maybe because he felt threatened by a group of obviously more experienced herpers... I dunno.
Here's my response...
As that was from my sent mail folder, I don't have the header attached but I'd be happy to forward it to anyone if Jay disagrees with the contents I have posted. I did happily invite my banning and really don't regret it. I won't be crying myself to sleep over my inability to post on a forum that's of questionable character to start. I simply figured that, if they were going to be trying to censor something as foolish as a signature with a quote, correctly attributed and a link to a thread on their own boards, that it was the likely next step anyway.
Unfortunately I didn't manage to save the response Randy posted inside MY post (he edited his response into it) on the second page and, as I can't remember it exactly I won't even try to give specifics. It was basically a threat though... edit his embarassing episode out of my signature or be banned. Perhaps someone else who saw the thread between the time he posted and the time it dissapeared will have something a bit more specific.
At any rate... It's something to be cautious of. Be sure to tip-toe on the Clark forums or you might set off the basket case inner circle.
Sooo... I'm off to load this saved page and correct all those signature links I've posted.
Sooo... a few days ago (probably no more than a week), a buddy of mine sends me a link to the Bob Clark Forums as there's a thread about venomoids running and it looked to be shaping up in an interesting manner. Always up for the topic, I wander over and check it out and find it basically to be what I thought it would be. A load of garbage.
I've never liked the Clark forums, registered there a few times (don't know if they delete inactive registrations or if server moves at them or what) on and off over the years when there was a topic of particular interest at the time but never stuck around afterwards and became an active member. The entire attitude rubs me the wrong way and the method of moderation and the highly selective enforcement by SOME of the moderators smacks of the sort of thing I never tolerated with KS or on AOL. It's essentially an ego driven circle-jerk, with the same questionable characters patting one another on the back over every post and with post count totals being mistaken for education or credibility or general knowledge. Heck, even the post count related titles support this sort of cloistered mentality.
At any rate... a few of the biggest egomaniacs over there were in a heated argument over the subject with such noteable and respected hot keepers/educators as Scott Bice, B.W. Smith, Tanith Tyrr and Gregg M (sorry if I misspelled anyone's name). The moderators and their faithful lap dogs were extremely offensive and disrespectful to the highly credible individuals they were arguing with and the thread was eventually locked down (And I seem unable to locate it... whole thing deleted?).
Skip forward a short period of time...
There was a thread running concerning the legal troubles that Black Knight has been having and the abrupt inability to buy direct from the manufacturer, as it progressed the subject shifted very slightly to alternative mite treatment options. Tanith mentioned a method which she has used for years, one of the moderators contradicted it's effectiveness and safety and she returned with a comment stating that it had been used in a reliable manner by zooligical institutions. One of the lap dogs then essentially told her that she knew nothing when it came to the education and experience of the moderator, casually dismissing her position and the moderator claimed she was quoting her responses off a credible website, then provided said website.
The website he provided happened to be Tanith's.
I, as well as a few others who had been treated in a less than respectful manner (we didn't have five thousand posts, who were we to argue? clearly post counts indicate general knowledge) found this to be hilarious. I added the quote by the lapdog as a link to my signature on the site, it was identical to the one at the end of my signature here and on a few other forums where I thought people might enjoy it. When someone sticks their foot in their mouth that badly, it's amusing.
I was sent an email by Jay Owens asking me to change my signature, I returned an email declining to do so, as I saw nothing whatsoever wrong with it. I got no further response but my signature remained unchanged.
The moderator who had made himself look like a fool then EDITED my post, removing that line from the signature, he threatened to ban me if I posted it again... Guess he didn't like being seen as what he is. I posted again of course, as I feel I was in the "right" in my position of retaining it... it didn't violate any of the rules of the site, it wasn't vulgar or offensive or gratuitously advertising anything.
Needless to say, my posts were deleted, I got an error message telling me I had an invalid username or password when I tried to reply to another thread and it seems *that* entire thread has dissapeared as well. Luckily, as a veteran of the kingsnake censorship wars and similar events on AOL's forums, I had the sense to save a copy in advance, so that the blunder can be immortalized for all time via another forum/web host.
At any rate... This is identical to the garbage that happened on Kingsnake and borders on the paranoid egomania displayed by Mario Stinso. I figure this serves as fair warning to anyone who might be inclined to register and post over there that you're going behind the Iron Curtain of forum dictatorship and you mustn't offend the wretched little minds who base their self esteem on their status in a web forum.
Below is the text of the first page of the thread wherein Lyncheyez makes himself look like a nit-wit. Take careful note of how, when his apparant mistake is pointed out, he doesn't apologize, he tries to attack her again. The guy just doesn't learn... and apparantly doesn't have to since he's a moderator. Anything which identifies his lack of common sense can be deleted for his protection.
Warning- LONG
Here is the email Jay sent me earlier. After my response, no immediate action was taken to edit my signature or ban me, so I figured maybe he had seen that trying to force me to edit the link wasn't really even handed or "fair" but I guess it was simply delayed...
I'd also like to point out that the moderator mocked himself. I didn't show up at his home and force him to act like a dink, he chose to do it on his own. Maybe because he felt threatened by a group of obviously more experienced herpers... I dunno.
Here's my response...
As that was from my sent mail folder, I don't have the header attached but I'd be happy to forward it to anyone if Jay disagrees with the contents I have posted. I did happily invite my banning and really don't regret it. I won't be crying myself to sleep over my inability to post on a forum that's of questionable character to start. I simply figured that, if they were going to be trying to censor something as foolish as a signature with a quote, correctly attributed and a link to a thread on their own boards, that it was the likely next step anyway.
Unfortunately I didn't manage to save the response Randy posted inside MY post (he edited his response into it) on the second page and, as I can't remember it exactly I won't even try to give specifics. It was basically a threat though... edit his embarassing episode out of my signature or be banned. Perhaps someone else who saw the thread between the time he posted and the time it dissapeared will have something a bit more specific.
At any rate... It's something to be cautious of. Be sure to tip-toe on the Clark forums or you might set off the basket case inner circle.
Sooo... I'm off to load this saved page and correct all those signature links I've posted.
