Discussion II about the Suspension List

Quote: beachbumbabs

I did the suspending. That's a WHOLE lot of unsubstantiated vitriol right there.

I suggest you look at the suspension list and/or the last few threads that person posted before you make such accusations in the future.

My apologies for ruffling your feathers. I had no idea who you were or what your reasons might be. I just know that shoshone is name of a Native American tribe and that they are a segregated group of people.

I had already done as you suggested and looked up this person's threads. They are:

Can You Beat A Chess Machine? ##### 44 replies, 1011 views
Expected Number of Tosses of a Fair Coin ## 28 replies, 574 views

I think they are both very popular and very commendable, and I think the Wizard agrees. How do you identify a "sock" and why do you ban them?

Here's one for you: you have ten white socks and ten black socks in your drawer. They are not paired. You reach in and pull out two at random. What is the probability that they are of the same colour?

Quote: netzer

How do you identify a "sock" and why do you ban them?

We use a combination of intuition, server logs and pixie dust ( which shall not be explained further) to establish way beyond reasonable doubt if a new member is a permanently banned previous member. Some of these socks, like the one mentioned, do resurface with innocuous posts, but the banning is, nonetheless inevitable.
Banned forever = banned forever in any guise.

Quote: netzer

My apologies for ruffling your feathers. I had no idea who you were or what your reasons might be. I just know that shoshone is name of a Native American tribe and that they are a segregated group of people.

I had already done as you suggested and looked up this person's threads. They are:

Can You Beat A Chess Machine? ##### 44 replies, 1011 views
Expected Number of Tosses of a Fair Coin ## 28 replies, 574 views

I think they are both very popular and very commendable, and I think the Wizard agrees. How do you identify a "sock" and why do you ban them?

We have a poster, Mosca, who said it best. "You start with respect. You earn disrespect."

Many, probably most, moderated forums preview your comments. We don't. We have rules instead, to keep it civil here. Besides spammers, we don't just nuke. But members are only allowed to have one account, and they are responsible for posting within the rules. Posts that contain personal insults will cause a member suspension (usually not an immediate ban).

If a poster violates the rules several times, or is in gross violation, their account will be banned. Some of those people turn around and create another account. That account is called a sock (slang - from sock puppet or sock monkey, a cheap doll that speaks for you like a ventriloquist act).

We have various indications we can use to see if it's a duplicate account from someone previously banned. If it is, we will ban that account as well.

The suspensions for breaking the rules (which generally start at 3 days) are occasionally too much for someone who wants to continue an argument or harangue and can't wait it out. Some of them have made a sock account so they can post again right away. That will get both the original account and the sock account banned.

I think that covers your questions. Anything else?

Quote: beachbumbabs

We have a poster, Mosca, who said it best. "You start with respect. You earn disrespect."

Many, probably most, moderated forums preview your comments. We don't. We have rules instead, to keep it civil here. Besides spammers, we don't just nuke. But members are only allowed to have one account, and they are responsible for posting within the rules. Posts that contain personal insults will cause a member suspension (usually not an immediate ban).

If a poster violates the rules several times, or is in gross violation, their account will be banned. Some of those people turn around and create another account. That account is called a sock (slang - from sock puppet or sock monkey, a cheap doll that speaks for you like a ventriloquist act).

We have various indications we can use to see if it's a duplicate account from someone previously banned. If it is, we will ban that account as well.

The suspensions for breaking the rules (which generally start at 3 days) are occasionally too much for someone who wants to continue an argument or harangue and can't wait it out. Some of them have made a sock account so they can post again right away. That will get both the original account and the sock account banned.

I think that covers your questions. Anything else?

If you were a tree, would I want you as a neighbor?
I bet no one ever asked you that before?

Quote: billryan

If you were a tree, would I want you as a neighbor?
I bet no one ever asked you that before?

Nope, that's a first.

Probably, if you enjoy reading a good book in the shade of a tall oak, and don't mind the occasional bonk from a squirrel throwing acorns. Price would be yearly raking.

Quote: billryan

If you were a tree, would I want you as a neighbor?
I bet no one ever asked you that before?

It depends

I know a lot of people who enjoy smoking trees

Quote: beachbumbabs

We have various indications we can use to see if it's a duplicate account from someone previously banned. If it is, we will ban that account as well.

I think that covers your questions. Anything else?

Yes! Could we be friends? I added a probability puzzle for you.

You said "We have various indications we can use to see if it's a duplicate account from someone previously banned."

I fail to see how this could be reliably done. A web surfer can always use something like a Tor browser to conceal his identity. This sends http transmissions through several hops on their way to their destination and is frequently used by hackers and people engaged in illegal activities. It can also be used to access the Dark Web and various "onion" sites offering drugs, guns, and contract services for rape and murder. I have never seen a news report of a perpetrator using this browser being traced back to his true location.

I see from the Suspension List that this person used several other aliases. If you would be so good as to list them I should like to look up these previous posts and learn what made them so offensive.

Good Cheer!

Quote: netzer

Yes! Could we be friends? I added a probability puzzle for you.

You said "We have various indications we can use to see if it's a duplicate account from someone previously banned."

I fail to see how this could be reliably done. A web surfer can always use something like a Tor browser to conceal his identity. This sends http transmissions through several hops on their way to their destination and is frequently used by hackers and people engaged in illegal activities. It can also be used to access the Dark Web and various "onion" sites offering drugs, guns, and contract services for rape and murder. I have never seen a news report of a perpetrator using this browser being traced back to his true location.

I see from the Suspension List that this person used several other aliases. If you would be so good as to list them I should like to look up these previous posts and learn what made them so offensive.

Good Cheer!

As a moderator that imposed some of these bans, I decline to work through those previous events to justify them for you. It's enough of a chore moderating the forum, which often involves trawling through historical data (which is not available to you)

Permanent bans are what they are. They are not imposed without quite strong evidence. To reveal all our evidence and methods would weaken our ability to moderate the forum: You mention TOR. We know that a 'sock' using TOR might be better able to evade detection. So, well done in informing any wannabe sock of a resource that he may not be aware of. Would you have me or the other moderators provide a list of all the other ways they could pull one over on us? Not happening.

Quote: OnceDear

As a moderator that imposed some of these bans, I decline to work through those previous events to justify them for you. It's enough of a chore moderating the forum, which often involves trawling through historical data (which is not available to you)

Permanent bans are what they are. They are not imposed without quite strong evidence. To reveal all our evidence and methods would weaken our ability to moderate the forum: You mention TOR. We know that a 'sock' using TOR might be better able to evade detection. So, well done in informing any wannabe sock of a resource that he may not be aware of. Would you have me or the other moderators provide a list of all the other ways they could pull one over on us? Not happening.

I don't know how you mods do it, and I really don't want to know, but I have a sort of question that I hope isn't to far OT?

I get calls almost every day on my home phone, and caller ID says it's our local water dept. So I picked up the first one [a few months back] and it is that recording which is the last half of a message saying something about my credit card, and the last half of the last half of the message gives a clear and concise phone # for me to call, and it's really important.

I wonder how many people get burned by this scam ?

Hard to believe some 3 letter agency doesn't "plumb" these folks up and tell them to quit spoofing, using the water dept. phone #?

Where I live, if there is a water leak, it isn't something to ignore. Our yearly water rates are set in this quarter and it is pretty expensive.

So, I hope someone can figure out the question in this screed?

Quote: michael99000

As far as established/active members being suspended , I’d say 80% of those suspensions are due to the personal insult rule.

There is really no way around it. Any forum that facilitates discussion of topics like politics , or gambling discussions between APs/regular bettors and those who work for the casinos is going to get heated and go beyond just “I disagree with you “

You can warn and suspend and suspend even longer, it doesn’t deter it.

Some of the most wrongful suspensions have been for:

1. "Naive"
2. "Troll" as in "you are trolling", which is a modern term for something people do on social media not a mythological creature who hides under a bridge. {headslap}
3. Saying that an action is stupid.

We wind up with the kind of blood-less chat that Simon and Garfunkel sung about in "The Dangling Conversation."

Quote: petroglyph

I get calls almost every day on my home phone, and caller ID says it's our local water dept. So I picked up the first one [a few months back] and it is that recording which is the last half of a message saying something about my credit card, and the last half of the last half of the message gives a clear and concise phone # for me to call, and it's really important.

I used to work in the telecoms industry, way before Caller Id was implemented.
When a call is made, especially an international one, the callers line Id is passed from carrier to carrier and eventually to the call recipient. Unfortunately, with the conspiracy of a telephone service provider, the calling line Id can sometimes be spoofed. It MAY be possible to spoof without such conspiracy, but usually conspiracy is the way, either deliberately or carelessly. Such spoofing is pretty rare in the UK, maybe because of tight regulation and maybe because we have fewer telecoms providers.

Quote:

I wonder how many people get burned by this scam ?

Hard to believe some 3 letter agency doesn't "plumb" these folks up and tell them to quit spoofing, using the water dept. phone #?

Too many, unfortunately. The scum behind these scams should be disembowelled and hanged by their entrails. Absent of that option, the conspiring telecoms providers should be regulated to oblivion, and citizens should be better educated to the risks. But as a nation and society, you need the will to do so. Now.... how does society impose regulation and education without some sort of central... powerful body, maybe one controlled by the people? Or, you could just cut taxes and let the suckers defend their own interests.

Quote:

Where I live, if there is a water leak, it isn't something to ignore. Our yearly water rates are set in this quarter and it is pretty expensive.

So, I hope someone can figure out the question in this screed?

Technically, the answer is out there. But it's not just a tech problem.

Quote: OnceDear

You mention TOR. We know that a 'sock' using TOR might be better able to evade detection. So, well done in informing any wannabe sock of a resource that he may not be aware of. Would you have me or the other moderators provide a list of all the other ways they could pull one over on us? Not happening.

Well hello, Pixie Dust!

If I fail with Beachbumbabs might I have a chance with you? At least you're British. My mother is British, my father is Dutch. I speak both English and Afrikaans.

I don't think I have let any cat out of the bag; if anything I think I have wised you up a bit. When a person accesses a web site his browser sends not only an IP address for reply but identifies itself. You could inform any registrant using the Tor browser that you do not accept connections from its ilk.

I read the Wizard's posting on this question and noted his lament that this poster would have been a good contributor to the forum. I had responded to one of his threads and the Wizard himself decided to make a contribution to it. Presumptuous of me perhaps, but I wonder: does the forum thrive because of you or in spite of you?

The Wizard and I are getting along quite well and in time I might be given authority to investigate your actions on his behalf and to compel you to reveal your methods and justify your conclusions.

Quote: netzer

Well hello, Pixie Dust!

If I fail with Beachbumbabs might I have a chance with you? At least you're British. My mother is British, my father is Dutch. I speak both English and Afrikaans.

I don't think I have let any cat out of the bag; if anything I think I have wised you up a bit. When a person accesses a web site his browser sends not only an IP address for reply but identifies itself. You could inform any registrant using the Tor browser that you do not accept connections from its ilk.

I read the Wizard's posting on this question and noted his lament that this poster would have been a good contributor to the forum. I had responded to one of his threads and the Wizard himself decided to make a contribution to it. Presumptuous of me perhaps, but I wonder: does the forum thrive because of you or in spite of you?

The Wizard and I are getting along quite well and in time I might be given authority to investigate your actions on his behalf and to compel you to reveal your methods and justify your conclusions.

You have my vote if you're running for next moderator of this forum!

Quote: FTB

You have my vote if you're running for next moderator of this forum!

Netzer/Nathan 2020


ZCore13

You know, someone was once banned for "hates math"
I'm not sure if that explanation still exists on the record or not.
I wonder if another reason for a ban could be "acts too much like 1BB"?

Quote: petroglyph

I get calls almost every day on my home phone, and caller ID says it's our local water dept. So I picked up the first one [a few months back] and it is that recording which is the last half of a message saying something about my credit card, and the last half of the last half of the message gives a clear and concise phone # for me to call, and it's really important.

Around here, (northern AZ), they constantly rotate numbers. Sometimes it's mine, which I only know because people have called "back" to see what I wanted. I frequently get calls from numbers that claim they are "local people" or businesses, but they never are. I don't even pick up the phone any more, but in the past the most prevalent ones would be the Microsoft scammers and debt reduction scams.

If you are getting half messages it's probably because they are using outdated software which sometimes has problems understanding both when an answering machine starts and if it's a person. If it really was your water company it is unlikely it would do that and you'd get the complete message. If I kept getting those I'd call the water company just to make sure they knew about it.

I don't do it any more, but I used to sue telemarketers so I learned a lot of how they work. But as anything else they keep evolving and will continue to do so. There's been a few businesses around here who got scammed on their electric bill but they seem to have moved on to other locations.

Quote: netzer

Presumptuous of me perhaps, but I wonder: does the forum thrive because of you or in spite of you?

Go take a look at the much less Moderated forums related to gambling and let me know what you think.

They're pretty easy to find. The thread with the most posts, at any number of these lesser-moderated Forums, will be dedicated to this Forum (in general) and some of the specific posts will be griping about this Forum's Moderation.

One of the Forums I'm talking about otherwise has a few okay threads. The other one is mostly a guy talking to himself in the thread about this forum and a bunch of Roulette stuff in the other threads, for whatever reason.

Quote: Hullabaloo

I don't do it any more, but I used to sue telemarketers so I learned a lot of how they work. But as anything else they keep evolving and will continue to do so. There's been a few businesses around here who got scammed on their electric bill but they seem to have moved on to other locations.

I worked telemarketing once upon a decade ago. Not that you could really give telemarketers that much worse of a name, but these are the sorts of scams that give telemarketers a bad name. Unfortunately, these sorts of scams are now more prevalent than actual telemarketing, it seems. Actual telemarketers had increasing amounts of trouble converting cold calls because everyone assumed that they were calling with some sort of scam.

More of the calls than not were at least semi-legitimate, but the outright scams swung the public perception way towards everything being a scam.

Anyway, we did credit cards and credit card service products, mostly. We also did political-type stuff. Instead of over the phone risking their information that way, now they go on and put it online risking data breaches (doesn't it seem like every other month some major company has a breach affecting 100 million, or some such number) or doing political surveys on some site that's tracking their activity.

Kind of a loosely appropriate topic for this thread and the need for Moderation, really. It only takes a few clowns to screw up an Internet Forum which may have had majority decent posters. Signal-to-Noise, that sort of thing.

Quote: netzer

Well hello, Pixie Dust!

If I fail with Beachbumbabs might I have a chance with you?

Sorry, I'm spoken for. Maybe Nathan or Zenking $:o)

Quote:

I don't think I have let any cat out of the bag;

Nor do I. We have some socks that don't use tor and some that do other stuff'

Quote:

if anything I think I have wised you up a bit.

Think again. I pre-date the internet, but I'm quite familiar with user agent strings etc. I'm not the one that does coding on THIS site. so I cannot say whether it filters on them.

Quote:

I read the Wizard's posting on this question and noted his lament that this poster would have been a good contributor to the forum. I had responded to one of his threads and the Wizard himself decided to make a contribution to it. Presumptuous of me perhaps, but I wonder: does the forum thrive because of you or in spite of you?

Good question, but I take my instructions from Wizard, Opinions flow many ways between moderators and site owners.

Quote:

The Wizard and I are getting along quite well and in time I might be given authority to investigate your actions on his behalf and to compel you to reveal your methods and justify your conclusions.

That's nice. Till then...

Quote: netzer

Well hello, Pixie Dust!

If I fail with Beachbumbabs might I have a chance with you? At least you're British. My mother is British, my father is Dutch. I speak both English and Afrikaans..

Since South Africa has the same 5 digit postal code as the US, as a postal worker I occasionally got a lost mail piece, usually from the UK. Got my trusty pen and boldly wrote SUID AFRIKA! That’ll frost their balls or amuse them. Occasionally I would readdress as Union of South Africa. Loved being a manual clerk. Oh I am Dutch and a former stamp collector.

Quote: Dalex64

You know, someone was once banned for "hates math"
I'm not sure if that explanation still exists on the record or not.
I wonder if another reason for a ban could be "acts too much like 1BB"?

Well since 1BB is no longer a member here (Wink Wink), F that POS. May he slip and fall in a puddle of AIDS.

Quote: netzer

Here's one for you: you have ten white socks and ten black socks in your drawer. They are not paired. You reach in and pull out two at random. What is the probability that they are of the same colour?

I make it 9/19 however that will not be very satisfying to the readers of this thread who crave drama so I offer some more provocative replies.

- How do you assure the selection is random? I assume the different colors were laundered at different times so naturally they would be separated in the drawer. You would also have a bias upon selection. A right handed person would favor the right side of the drawer. Do you even know what random means?

- What kind of slacker is so lazy he can't match pairs of socks?

- No self respecting AP would waste money on socks. I only wear Sperry deck shoes with no socks
………………... - What kind of hippie loser doesn't wear socks?

- I call BS on the whole sock story. Who has a drawer full of socks of only black and white of equal number?

- Even if they are the same color, are you telling me that all of your black socks are exactly the same length, texture etc. ?

- Why are you picking socks at random? Black and white socks can be easily identified even in dim light.

- So you don't care what color socks you are about to wear so long as they are the same color? That's ridiculous.

- If you don't care which color socks you wear why didn't you just pick three socks and then you would be assured of having two that match?

- Why do you spell color with a "u"?

Quote: OnceDear

As a moderator that imposed some of these bans, I decline to work through those previous events to justify them for you. It's enough of a chore moderating the forum, which often involves trawling through historical data (which is not available to you)

Permanent bans are what they are. They are not imposed without quite strong evidence. To reveal all our evidence and methods would weaken our ability to moderate the forum: You mention TOR. We know that a 'sock' using TOR might be better able to evade detection. So, well done in informing any wannabe sock of a resource that he may not be aware of. Would you have me or the other moderators provide a list of all the other ways they could pull one over on us? Not happening.

Would you mind fetching my slippers when you get a free moment? Thank you in advance.

Quote: billryan

Would you mind fetching my slippers when you get a free moment? Thank you in advance.

would you like the pink fluffy ones or the ones with kittens on?

Quote: JimRockford

I make it 9/19 however that will not be very satisfying to the readers of this thread who crave drama so I offer some more provocative replies.

- How do you assure the selection is random? I assume the different colors were laundered at different times so naturally they would be separated in the drawer. You would also have a bias upon selection. A right handed person would favor the right side of the drawer. Do you even know what random means?

- What kind of slacker is so lazy he can't match pairs of socks?

- No self respecting AP would waste money on socks. I only wear Sperry deck shoes with no socks
………………... - What kind of hippie loser doesn't wear socks?

- I call BS on the whole sock story. Who has a drawer full of socks of only black and white of equal number?

- Even if they are the same color, are you telling me that all of your black socks are exactly the same length, texture etc. ?

- Why are you picking socks at random black and white socks can be easily identified even in dim light.

- So you don't care what color socks you are about to wear so long as they are the same color? That's ridiculous.

- If you don't care which color socks you wear why didn't you just pick three socks and then you would be assured of having a two that match?

- Why do you spell color with a "u"?

I know an AP who doesn't own a pair of pants or socks. Rumor has it, he may have bought a pair of pants and one sock.

Quote: Mission146

More of the calls than not were at least semi-legitimate, but the outright scams swung the public perception way towards everything being a scam.

It wasn't just scams, and the industry itself is to blame. They'd spoof or hide their number so people wouldn't know who it was. They'd set their dialer to call more people than they could handle so they would always be 100% busy, even though they were well aware that meant scores of people would get up to answer the phone with nobody on it. Some call centers had a three "no" rule; they keep pitching until the homeowner, who probably had no need or want of the product, made 3 negative assertions. Even if you were not interested and told them so they'd still call again unless you knew the magic words: "Please place me on your do not call list", (and in many cases, it had to be just the right phrase; "please don't call me again" didn't cut it..)

The industry, at least the bad components of it, killed it. People got tired of all the shenanigans, scams or legitimate.

Quote: JimRockford

I make it 9/19 however that will not be very satisfying to the readers of this thread who crave drama so I offer some more provocative replies.

- How do you assure the selection is random? I assume the different colors were laundered at different times so naturally they would be separated in the drawer. You would also have a bias upon selection. A right handed person would favor the right side of the drawer. Do you even know what random means?

- What kind of slacker is so lazy he can't match pairs of socks?

- No self respecting AP would waste money on socks. I only wear Sperry deck shoes with no socks
………………... - What kind of hippie loser doesn't wear socks?

- I call BS on the whole sock story. Who has a drawer full of socks of only black and white of equal number?

- Even if they are the same color, are you telling me that all of your black socks are exactly the same length, texture etc. ?

- Why are you picking socks at random? Black and white socks can be easily identified even in dim light.

- So you don't care what color socks you are about to wear so long as they are the same color? That's ridiculous.

- If you don't care which color socks you wear why didn't you just pick three socks and then you would be assured of having two that match?

- Why do you spell color with a "u"?

I actually have 2 sock drawers. They’re all black. White socks are for people who say garbage instead of trash, photo over picture, sofa over couch, and spell words with extra U’s or the abomination that is “aluminium”. If you say those things ironically, then you’re fine. Otherwise, I’m judging. From the great US of A to the once great England, #BlackSockPrideWorldWide

Quote: Hullabaloo

It wasn't just scams, and the industry itself is to blame. They'd spoof or hide their number so people wouldn't know who it was.

Yes and no. The industry did this when it came to outsourced dialers, (out of country, often from the Philippines) but companies dialing out from somewhere within the country are supposed to show a callback number that is operational for callback purposes. In our case, we would show a number that would call the credit card company for whom we were contracted. On political campaigns, you would actually call us back directly, believe it or not.

Quote:

They'd set their dialer to call more people than they could handle so they would always be 100% busy, even though they were well aware that meant scores of people would get up to answer the phone with nobody on it.

I forget now, but if you are calling from within the country, there is a maximum percentage of, "Abandoned Calls," that is permissible. You obviously wanted to have a non-zero abandon rate, (or you're being inefficient) but too high an abandon rate can get you fined and also absolutely does not help with sales, because now you've ticked off a potential buyer. Some abandons also come from the dialer mistaking a human as being an answering machine.

Quote:

Some call centers had a three "no" rule; they keep pitching until the homeowner, who probably had no need or want of the product, made 3 negative assertions. Even if you were not interested and told them so they'd still call again unless you knew the magic words: "Please place me on your do not call list", (and in many cases, it had to be just the right phrase; "please don't call me again" didn't cut it..)

We refer to those as, "Rebuttals," and our standard was two rebuttals and one probing question, in R-P-R order, on cold calls. On calls to clients who already had that credit card; (for fee services or to offer other types of cards) it was one probe; one rebuttal. They didn't want us being overly aggressive with people who were already customers, for obvious reasons.

The standard for, "Do Not Call," varies by client and campaign. The DND list also does not apply to any entity with whom you have an, "Existing business relationship," though they may put you on it as a courtesy, and should. Again, we required more explicit verbiage on cold calls to actually do it, which I disagree with, because people who do not want to be called by you again are extremely unlikely to accept the card in the future. Probably just hoping someone else answers the phone.

Political, Survey and Charity campaigns are exempt from Do Not Call regulations and a number of other individual state oriented things.

Quote:

The industry, at least the bad components of it, killed it. People got tired of all the shenanigans, scams or legitimate.

I don't look at the scammers as part of, "The industry," and, "The industry," had its good and bad components. Honestly, were it more strictly regulated, it would probably still be viable. It's too late now, though.

We weren't without sin, especially not on our political campaigns:

https://wizardofvegas.com/articles/do-not-trust-the-polls/

But, what we did on those was basically harmless to the person being called.

The credit card company who contracted us also got in some trouble with the verbiage of their, "Disclosures," and calling scripts on a few fee products, but those cleared their attorneys with a thumbs-up, so were not the fault of the company I worked for. The credit card company was made to refund EVERY SINGLE CUSTOMER on two of its fee products.

The disclosures were certainly not our fault, and we absolutely DID NOT use their calling scripts because the scripts were ambiguous garbage. Ironically, the scripts that we did promote (TSR's could actually say whatever they wanted as long as it was true) were much more upfront and told the customer what would happen compared to the CC company's scripts. The CC company's scripts made it sound like a free service was being added on, then you'd get to the disclosure and the client would be like, "WHAT!? This COSTS something!!??" You generally want the client to know it costs something before the disclosure...lol

As far as offering new credit cards to existing cardholders or cold calling for new cardholders, we were pretty clean on doing that for the most part. They eventually sent cold calling to the Philippines, so we only called existing cardholders. Not cost-effective for us to do it, "Conversion Rate," was too low. The Philippines could sell 25% of the people that we did and it would be more profitable, their conversion rate was generally about 40% of what we were doing. We kept all the things with existing cardholders, though, because they didn't want people from outside of the country calling existing cardholders.

Quote: RS

I actually have 2 sock drawers. They’re all black. White socks are for people who say garbage instead of trash, photo over picture, sofa over couch, and spell words with extra U’s or the abomination that is “aluminium”. If you say those things ironically, then you’re fine. Otherwise, I’m judging. From the great US of A to the once great England, #BlackSockPrideWorldWide

White socks are acceptable if someone is wearing black shoes, black pants, and they're Michael Jackson. In Las Vegas it should be no socks after the first week in May and only closed toe sandals after that. No one wants to see nasty feet and no one should have to deal with nasty foot sweat. Grey sweatpants are always the way to go, but only if it comes with hashtag, poundsign, GSP.

(Rubbish is preferred over both trash and garbage)

There are people who actually pick up a receiver to personally answer ringing phones in their homes? And keep the ringer on in order to continue doing so? Still? Why? If someone ever picks up a ringing phone at my home, or you even hear a ringy-dingy sound in my place at all, call the cops, because someone with a weird archaic phone answering fetish has broken into my house.

My mom will not get rid of her house phone. It's not even a cordless phone.

Quote: DrawingDead

There are people who actually pick up a receiver to personally answer ringing phones in their homes? And keep the ringer on in order to continue doing so? Still? Why? If someone ever picks up a ringing phone at my home, or you even hear a ringy-dingy sound in my place at all, call the cops, because someone with a weird archaic phone answering fetish has broken into my house.

I'm talking about a decade ago, so many of those people are now dead. More of them are dying. Some of them died today.

I don't personally find the value in paying for cable with all of the entertainment available online, but for those who do pay for cable and internet...landline phone service is practically free (in some cases) with the package deals. In fact, with Comcast several years ago, there was one six month period during which it would have cost more (I was still married at the time and my ex-wife refuses to not have cable) just to have cable and internet. Having the landline included was $10 less per month. Weird, I know. My guess is Comcast sold calling lists to other companies and those calling lists made them more money than the clients were saving, in total. You also had your people that still paid for the phone services, of course.

The landline percentage will continue to decrease until it is almost nothing.

Well I do get called Dead by some, and I actually do still have one of those basic hard-wired lines in service, at least in theory, and mine does cost practically nothing even though not bundled with squat. I get closer to getting rid of it altogether year after year, but for a trivial amount It still (barely) has a few uses for me that are not exactly what Alex G. Bell first had in mind back in the day.

But I don't have it for going ringy-dingy at me, so it doesn't, and I think I'd have to look up the number to get it right. And any nitwit who tries to make a buck with his larcenous voice by actually dialing whatever the Hell that number might be is welcome to speak to an automated robotic device to his predatory little heart's content, until they starve to death for all I care, or else have their robot yak it up all day long with my robot and maybe make a date to do a robot lunch together, won't bother me a bit.

Quote: DrawingDead

And any nitwit who tries to make a buck with his larcenous voice by actually dialing whatever the Hell that number might be is welcome to speak to an automated robotic device to his predatory little heart's content, until they starve to death for all I care, or else have their robot yak it up all day long with my robot and maybe make a date to do a robot lunch together, won't bother me a bit.

Christ. Would you prefer they be unemployed? I'm not talking about you at all, but it seems with some people, if the complaint isn't Government benefits it's what a person does for a living.

I don't like, "Nitwit," I worked with a lot of good people at the call center. Lots of single mothers who would have been sucking more from the taxpayer, as certain Rightists hate, if they didn't have the job there. We're talking at an area in the teens% in unemployment rate at the time with an actual labor force participation rate of maybe 60-65%. Simply put, not a lot of jobs available. The hell does anyone want these people to do? Die? Live exclusively off the Government?

If they are cold calling me at home, they are effectively unemployed. And going hungry.

Quote: DrawingDead

If they are cold calling me at home, they are effectively unemployed. And going hungry.

Probably. The call center at which I worked closed several years ago. (I had already left, but that's unrelated. I did leave because I saw the writing on the wall, though I thought it would take a little less time than it actually did to close.) There's a different call center in the same building, but it employs far fewer people. I'm not sure what they do there. I think they're inbound, though.

Quote: TomG

White socks are acceptable if someone is wearing black shoes, black pants, and they're Michael Jackson. In Las Vegas it should be no socks after the first week in May and only closed toe sandals after that. No one wants to see nasty feet and no one should have to deal with nasty foot sweat. Grey sweatpants are always the way to go, but only if it comes with hashtag, poundsign, GSP.

(Rubbish is preferred over both trash and garbage)

Nah, rubbish is a terrible word. It’s just as bad as pronouncing “tomato” as “tomato” (you know the pronunciation I’m talking about).

I don’t wear sandals, but if I did (were to? do? Wtf grammar), I would ABSOLUTELY 10000% wear socks with them. Maybe crocs + sandals. Not cuz I think it’s a sexy look or anything, but it makes a lotta people mad for some reason and I think it’s hilarious.

A tasteful ankle bracelet.is acceptable.

now what did Darkoz do to be Red?

He dared to speak freely of the secrets previously known only by the select, protected and favored teacher's pets.

He also mentioned two members of the site whose names were redacted by admin due to privacy concerns.

Other than that I'm as baffled, befuddled and bamboozled by it as you are.

Did Boz’s “insult/slander” post get edited or something? I’m not seeing the supposed insult or slander in the one listed.

Quote: RS

Did Boz’s “insult/slander” post get edited or something? I’m not seeing the supposed insult or slander in the one listed.

It is here.

Quote: Wizard

It is here.

Yeah, I think he might have already looked at that and he still doesn't see why he was suspended for it. I really don't see it either. The suspension is certainly weak.

What was considered slander? That Michael Bluejay was considered to be a Trump supporter based on his avatar? I didn't think he was a Trump supporter, but come on, Michael should just state, "No, that's wrong. I don't support Trump." and just let it go.

Or was it Boz's general descriptions of Democrats could be thought of as insulting? But again, meh.

I received a complaint and the complainant took it quite literally and seriously and demanded justice. My efforts to diffuse the situation behind the scenes failed. I am not happy with the whole situation either, but I did what duty required of me.

Boz's recent body of work hasn't been super awesome but, for the millionth time ppl, block button.

Quote: Wizard

I received a complaint and the complainant took it quite literally and seriously and demanded justice. My efforts to diffuse the situation behind the scenes failed. I am not happy with the whole situation either, but I did what duty required of me.

IMO, your duty is to enforce the rules as you see fit.....not suspend someone just because someone is throwing a hissy fit. So, respectfully, I disagree. However, it is your house and your rules and you can do as you want.

Can you write which part of Boz's post the complainant had issue with? Partially because I (and I suspect others) still aren't quite sure what the issue was as well as because it's something that I (and again, others) would probably want to avoid writing in the future so we/they don't get suspended.

Isn't the job of a moderator to look into complaints and judge the circumstances? To suspend anyone simply because a member is having a hissy fit over an insult no one else sees is unfair, ridiculous and not a very well thought policy. The unintended consequences of this are mind bottling.

Quote: Wizard

I received a complaint and the complainant took it quite literally and seriously and demanded justice. My efforts to diffuse the situation behind the scenes failed. I am not happy with the whole situation either, but I did what duty required of me.

Sounds a bit like the Qfit / KJ debacle.

A "can't win" situation for you.

Hey, Admins. I think Nathan is posting way too much! Can you suspend her? ;)

Quote: RS

it's something that I (and again, others) would probably want to avoid writing in the future so we/they don't get suspended.

I suspect it's more who the complainer was than
the complaint itself. I wouldn't worry about
it. About 7 years ago there was a picture
on here with Nareed in women'c clothes.
I made a remark that it reminded me of
a certain movie character and, oops, 3 days.
Nareed complained loudly and that was it.
I thought it was a compliment I was giving
and still do.