Well, I'm a jailbird. I got booted for 3 days during a rather nasty face-off with a paid tout. Seems he had neglected to mention he was a paid tout, and we got into a "heated exchange". Jill (Bob was yet to arrive) booted us both while she tried to figure out who started it.
I could have reacted two ways. One was to e-mail her and get all huffy about how I was innocent and demand this and that...and the other was to let her know that I understood what she was doing, and that was fine, when she got the thing sorted out, to let me know and I would do whatever she thought was right. I chose Door #2.
2 days later, I was back on, and that was the last I ever heard of it. (The tout never came back, I french-fried him nicely.)
The "rules" are a bit vague as far as "offending" people. There are a couple of people on SI that I find totally offensive; every post offends me. But they do not offend everyone else, and so the dudes stay and spew. One of them has calmed down a bit since I took him on about 6 months ago; he now posts every once in a while on a stock thread, which I assume is part of his probation after getting booted for a week.
SI Admin Bob is a cool guy, IMHO. SI has a purpose, and he has to police it. He can't read every post. The only time (as far as I know) when he finds out about some "offensive" post is when somebody complains. Then he has to go back and find out what started it, and make a judgement call about "Ft. Bob", as it has come to be known.
I think he leans on the side of forgiving. I also think he is a human being, and if somebody is booted or warned, and gets shi**y with him, it makes the call easy. Kinda like Judge Mills Lane.
I know they have an attorney, because recently some guy claiming to be an attorney served a poster on SI. I mean the service papers were published on SI. I PMed Bob, because I had never seen this before. He had not either, I assume, and said thanks he would check with the legal dept. (The posts are still there, BTW, which is interesting.)
Overall, I believe that the stock threads are for stock talk, and the Coffee Shop is much looser. It's hard to get booted if you post a flame on the Flame Thread, (which is why I have sometimes posted my nastiest flames there and then posted the link to the rummie I wanted to flame, he he he...) but if you get real snotty and personal on the Poetry For Kids Only thread, you could get booted.
Also, I think Bob warns people when he can. I think he is as fair as he can be.
So basically, I think it's a bit like COPS. If you are the guy that looks at the cop and says, "Hey, you got me, fair and square.", you are cool, no big problem.
If you are the guy with the long hair and the tattoos and the Very Bad Attitude, like "Screw you, pig!" you get the Large Lump On the Noggin.
I have made an art of flaming, (examples: #reply-6844368) and I have not been Lumped yet.
Here's one I wish I wrote, and one I did write: #reply-7099487
BAWK! |
