Post by Duke on Jul 8, 2020 18:52:24 GMT
I hadn't intended to start a thread for this, but my notes have grown to a bit more than I can store in my head.
For those who are unaware of it, I got a temporary lock-out from the official board for refusing to follow the self-appointed White Knight of the HERO System into one of his spirals of decreasing relevance and asked him to just skip to the end where he posts a dozen or so quotes from other forumites (some who haven't been around in a decade or so) about how right and wonderful he is so that he can deliver his finishing move with his custom pokemon card. (I believe I said "decreasing relevance." It's hard to finish that off without going totally off the rails, you know?)
I don't know who still reads anything here, but if you've been on the official board for any length of time, you've seen it at least twice.
If you haven't, and would like to, find something you really think needs improvement in a company product, and post about it. You'll have to play through the whole spiral to get to the pokemon card, though. It's a bit hard to do, as it _always_ starts with the opening insult that, for some reason, he seems to think is veiled. Remember when you were like- fourteen? Fifteen? Whatever age you were in high school, when you are convinced that you were "so much more intelligent" than someone else that you felt like you could insult them and they wouldn't even know it? (You know: before you figured out that you had been too damned stupid to realize that the truth of the matter is that they weren't going to bother acknowledging it? Mostly because you had proven just in the attempt that discussing something with you wasn't going to be remotely productive? Before you figured out that it doesn't work because, no matter _what_ you would like to think, there is not, never has been, and never _will_ be enough intellectual variance between any two competent adults to make that work outside of TV sitcoms?)
Anyway, you'll have to ignore at least one of those insults and head into the spiral. It forks here, because about half the time, there is a second, more openly derisive comment-- usually through the addition of an unnecessary adjective or adverb (again, "because I am _so_ much more intellectual than you are" ) designed to make you look either incompetent or paranoid. It's not intended for you, though; it's for the audience he assumes he's going to generate (you know: because he's saved all the quotes ). It's intended to paint anything you say next in a particularly negative light; call it an early attempt to "win" in the eyes of his audience, though at this point, there has been nothing discussed; just two insults.
You control the fork, though: you can either call him out on that unveiled insult (to which he will invariably reply "I didn't mean to offend," leading the next several replies-- if you have the stomach to play along-- to be filled with more of that "I'm going to use my staggering intellect to pelt you with the insults you can't detect" variety. Sadly, he seems to really believe you can't detect them. I believe the code word is "plausible deniability," but let's face it: you know when someone is being a dick just to be dick; am I right?
Now if you opt to not pick up on the open insult (the one intended for the audience; he wouldn't admit it openly, but he's pretty sure they wouldn't be able to pick up on that first "veiled" insult, either, so he's hedging a bet here-- anyway, if you opt not to pick up on the open insult intended to color everything you could say after that, you're on your way), then the blatant insults continue on. I have no real clue what the ultimate goal of that crap is; I mean, it's not like "I don't like this and I think it could be improved" is some sort of inviolable fact, or even a claim of one. At it's heart, it's a claim of "I don't like this." No matter what anyone has to say, you're not going to like it. Even _children_ get that, for Pete's sake. However, it stirs the wrath of the White Knight, who will come to insult you until you _do_ like it. No; I _wish_ I was kidding, but under the _hilarious_ guise of "having an intellectual conversation to prove that you really do like it," this guy shows up to insult you into liking it. It makes you feel like "Arthur, King, and your silly English Kuh-Nigits:" Agree with me, or I shall taunt you a second time! Yeah. That's.... that's kind of proving that "I am so intellectually superior that I can hide insults right in front of you," isn't it?
To be completely honest, I think his only end goal is to garner more quotes for the big splash page he throws out when you walk away in disgust. Yes; really. He's got a "finishing move!" He posts a dozen or two quotes from other forumites (some of whom haven't been active in a decade) that have all acknowledged his greatness in the past, and tops it all off with a homemade pokemon card of himself...... (Dude; you really need more animated smilies: it's hard to express just how insanely funny something is if you can't get slightly dizzy from the laughter ).
Anyway, turns out there is a way to beat that! There is a way to walk out of it entirely, and leave nothing to mock, meaning no big pokey-finish (poor guy. No; I'm being serious here! I really do kind of feel bad for him, knowing just _how important_ that finishing move is to him.... ).
If you're wondering, the key is to inadvertently (and I really mean that; it was a total failure to proofread before posting, because I wanted to say my piece and _go_) dropping an f-bomb. Seriously: it was _not_ intentional, and it was _entirely_ my fault. I can't really _prove_ it was unintentional, but keep in mind that I had promised the moderator-we-all-actually-like that I would be extra-mindful about that, and I let him down. Anyway, I got a PM about an hour later from another forum member pointing out that I had done it, and I went "Crap! I promised him I wouldn't do that!" and went back to edit it out (and proof-read it; which I should have done to begin with), but at that point, White Knight Against Dislike had already quoted it for posterity, so I just let it be.
Earned me a point "that will never go away" (la-da-de-dee-da. Not actual heart-felt flippancy, but honestly, if there is no chance at all for redemption, just how g-damned much _contrition_ do you expect? F*k it; I'll get a tattoo and wear it around your mom's house, ya know?) This one wasn't from moderator-we-all-like, though (though honestly, I don't deny that I _did_ earn it by failing to take the simple precaution of proofreading), but from moderator-we-all-suck-up-to-out-of-fear-of-his-crazy-ass-mood-swings-and-unabashed-double-standards. Again: I don't think it was a crazy-ass mood swing that inspired this: I _did_ earn it; I cop to that, and I copped to it when called out on it (though I have also copped to not voting straight-up Liberal or straight-up Smooth-belly, and that _does_ tend to knock you way, way down on the double-standard scale over there....) I simply don't want to "name names," so I'm using descriptors that I suspect we are all familiar enough with.
Though I _do_ have to wonder how it would have gone down if instead of dropping my own F-bomb, I had instead quoted the F-bomb that moderator-we-all-suck-up-to-out-of-fear-of-his-crazy-ass-mood-swings-and-unabashed-double-standards had left in the Corona Virus thread...? Bah-- it probably would have been just as deleted. You know: like the comments of the people who suggested he was breaking the rules and might want to edit that post all disappeared.
But we'll never know.
Still, that was just a warning; that's not what got me the Time Out. I got that by attempting to extend an olive branch: as I stated, I understand just how important that shrine-to-myself finishing move is to White Knight of Dislike, so I attempted to offer him a counteroffer to make up for my lack of interest in being insulted for three or four pages (because, dammit, I am _too damned accommodatingly kind_, even to dickheads ) and sent a message to the effect of "I have no interest in being the target of your latest White Knight against the guy who had the audacity to say that there is a HERO product he has no interest in using" campaign (Frankly, there's more than one: as a general rule, I don't like urban fantasy, but I bought both UF HERO and MHI, because I _do_ want to support HERO, and they have some ideas I can use elsewhere). Let's just skip to the part where you put up your shrine of "Hail you" quotes from the last decade or so and then you finish me off with your homemade pokemon card and maybe this entire thread can be salvaged for the purposes of its initial creation.
That one didn't even get through moderation. No; seriously. Double standard? Maybe. Crazy-ass mood swing? Maybe. I can get a warning and a "point that you should really, _really_ care about in spite of being able to _nothing_ to make it ever go away!" for a straight-up rules-violating, has-a-special-sticky-thread-talking-specifically-about-this-particular-violation F-bomb, but offering an olive branch and a speed solution to a disagreement that prevents it from devolving into page after page of insults pretending to be "rational discussion," all of which is intended to either convince me to use something I _don't_ have any use for?--
as an aside:
Let's take a quick survey: Just how many insults does it take you folks to become convinced the guy insulting you is totally right? Really? That many? Hell, it's no wonder he goes on for page after page after page, then.
Second survey: You've changed your mind and gotten on board with the cool kids because you were insulted into it. How much respect do you have for yourself now? How much respect do you think they have for you?
Better to keep let them doing their insult thing forever, I think. That way, at least you can still respect yourself. Is the respect of an anonymous internet stranger worth your own self-respect? How about if you know that you won't have his respect anyway: he insulted you into agreeing with him. Like he was twelve. He knows it, even if you don't admit it. He's not going to respect that (because unlike a twelve-year-old, adults file that stuff away for reference material on how to manipulate you in the future). It's really a lose/lose thing. Stick with yourself: you won't let you down.
Oh-- sorry;
getting back on track:
Offering an olive branch is categorized by moderator-we-all-suck-up-to (well, _I_ don't, clearly, but there's the self-respect thing we just talked about going on, and I choose dignity) as abusive behavior.
No shit!
Abusive behavior!
So I've got me a Time Out.
It's rather ironic (Yeah; I know: _technically_ it's not ironic, but this is a conversation. Conversationally, it's ironic. ) that I get the Point of Damocles _and_ a Time Out shortly after I've already publicly stated that I intend to quit that board once I'm done with the store anyway-- No. I don't think there's a connection; I think it's just amusingly coincidental. I also think it makes it damned hard for me to care.
Chris, I appreciate your willingness to forward the scanning updates, Sir. I'd like to get one more book done tonight. I will shoot you an e-mail when it's ready. I've tried to make this super-easy (it's not polite to ask a favor and then not do all you can to minimize the impact of said favor, after all) by building the update in the next post, as I go along. I'd wanted to get all six of the "that size" books done today, but I had yet-another company-oriented road trip today (you know: on my _vacation_! ) that hasn't left me with a whole lot of scanning time. Still, I'm plugging way. Crap. I need to edit that into the update.
I am not going to question it; I've been on the board for years-- long enough that I've had years-long absences. I have seen moderator-we-all-suck-up-to-in-action, and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I was judged by one of the foremost experts on abusive behavior. Who am I to argue with that?
For those who are unaware of it, I got a temporary lock-out from the official board for refusing to follow the self-appointed White Knight of the HERO System into one of his spirals of decreasing relevance and asked him to just skip to the end where he posts a dozen or so quotes from other forumites (some who haven't been around in a decade or so) about how right and wonderful he is so that he can deliver his finishing move with his custom pokemon card. (I believe I said "decreasing relevance." It's hard to finish that off without going totally off the rails, you know?)
I don't know who still reads anything here, but if you've been on the official board for any length of time, you've seen it at least twice.
If you haven't, and would like to, find something you really think needs improvement in a company product, and post about it. You'll have to play through the whole spiral to get to the pokemon card, though. It's a bit hard to do, as it _always_ starts with the opening insult that, for some reason, he seems to think is veiled. Remember when you were like- fourteen? Fifteen? Whatever age you were in high school, when you are convinced that you were "so much more intelligent" than someone else that you felt like you could insult them and they wouldn't even know it? (You know: before you figured out that you had been too damned stupid to realize that the truth of the matter is that they weren't going to bother acknowledging it? Mostly because you had proven just in the attempt that discussing something with you wasn't going to be remotely productive? Before you figured out that it doesn't work because, no matter _what_ you would like to think, there is not, never has been, and never _will_ be enough intellectual variance between any two competent adults to make that work outside of TV sitcoms?)
Anyway, you'll have to ignore at least one of those insults and head into the spiral. It forks here, because about half the time, there is a second, more openly derisive comment-- usually through the addition of an unnecessary adjective or adverb (again, "because I am _so_ much more intellectual than you are" ) designed to make you look either incompetent or paranoid. It's not intended for you, though; it's for the audience he assumes he's going to generate (you know: because he's saved all the quotes ). It's intended to paint anything you say next in a particularly negative light; call it an early attempt to "win" in the eyes of his audience, though at this point, there has been nothing discussed; just two insults.
You control the fork, though: you can either call him out on that unveiled insult (to which he will invariably reply "I didn't mean to offend," leading the next several replies-- if you have the stomach to play along-- to be filled with more of that "I'm going to use my staggering intellect to pelt you with the insults you can't detect" variety. Sadly, he seems to really believe you can't detect them. I believe the code word is "plausible deniability," but let's face it: you know when someone is being a dick just to be dick; am I right?
Now if you opt to not pick up on the open insult (the one intended for the audience; he wouldn't admit it openly, but he's pretty sure they wouldn't be able to pick up on that first "veiled" insult, either, so he's hedging a bet here-- anyway, if you opt not to pick up on the open insult intended to color everything you could say after that, you're on your way), then the blatant insults continue on. I have no real clue what the ultimate goal of that crap is; I mean, it's not like "I don't like this and I think it could be improved" is some sort of inviolable fact, or even a claim of one. At it's heart, it's a claim of "I don't like this." No matter what anyone has to say, you're not going to like it. Even _children_ get that, for Pete's sake. However, it stirs the wrath of the White Knight, who will come to insult you until you _do_ like it. No; I _wish_ I was kidding, but under the _hilarious_ guise of "having an intellectual conversation to prove that you really do like it," this guy shows up to insult you into liking it. It makes you feel like "Arthur, King, and your silly English Kuh-Nigits:" Agree with me, or I shall taunt you a second time! Yeah. That's.... that's kind of proving that "I am so intellectually superior that I can hide insults right in front of you," isn't it?
To be completely honest, I think his only end goal is to garner more quotes for the big splash page he throws out when you walk away in disgust. Yes; really. He's got a "finishing move!" He posts a dozen or two quotes from other forumites (some of whom haven't been active in a decade) that have all acknowledged his greatness in the past, and tops it all off with a homemade pokemon card of himself...... (Dude; you really need more animated smilies: it's hard to express just how insanely funny something is if you can't get slightly dizzy from the laughter ).
Anyway, turns out there is a way to beat that! There is a way to walk out of it entirely, and leave nothing to mock, meaning no big pokey-finish (poor guy. No; I'm being serious here! I really do kind of feel bad for him, knowing just _how important_ that finishing move is to him.... ).
If you're wondering, the key is to inadvertently (and I really mean that; it was a total failure to proofread before posting, because I wanted to say my piece and _go_) dropping an f-bomb. Seriously: it was _not_ intentional, and it was _entirely_ my fault. I can't really _prove_ it was unintentional, but keep in mind that I had promised the moderator-we-all-actually-like that I would be extra-mindful about that, and I let him down. Anyway, I got a PM about an hour later from another forum member pointing out that I had done it, and I went "Crap! I promised him I wouldn't do that!" and went back to edit it out (and proof-read it; which I should have done to begin with), but at that point, White Knight Against Dislike had already quoted it for posterity, so I just let it be.
Earned me a point "that will never go away" (la-da-de-dee-da. Not actual heart-felt flippancy, but honestly, if there is no chance at all for redemption, just how g-damned much _contrition_ do you expect? F*k it; I'll get a tattoo and wear it around your mom's house, ya know?) This one wasn't from moderator-we-all-like, though (though honestly, I don't deny that I _did_ earn it by failing to take the simple precaution of proofreading), but from moderator-we-all-suck-up-to-out-of-fear-of-his-crazy-ass-mood-swings-and-unabashed-double-standards. Again: I don't think it was a crazy-ass mood swing that inspired this: I _did_ earn it; I cop to that, and I copped to it when called out on it (though I have also copped to not voting straight-up Liberal or straight-up Smooth-belly, and that _does_ tend to knock you way, way down on the double-standard scale over there....) I simply don't want to "name names," so I'm using descriptors that I suspect we are all familiar enough with.
Though I _do_ have to wonder how it would have gone down if instead of dropping my own F-bomb, I had instead quoted the F-bomb that moderator-we-all-suck-up-to-out-of-fear-of-his-crazy-ass-mood-swings-and-unabashed-double-standards had left in the Corona Virus thread...? Bah-- it probably would have been just as deleted. You know: like the comments of the people who suggested he was breaking the rules and might want to edit that post all disappeared.
But we'll never know.
Still, that was just a warning; that's not what got me the Time Out. I got that by attempting to extend an olive branch: as I stated, I understand just how important that shrine-to-myself finishing move is to White Knight of Dislike, so I attempted to offer him a counteroffer to make up for my lack of interest in being insulted for three or four pages (because, dammit, I am _too damned accommodatingly kind_, even to dickheads ) and sent a message to the effect of "I have no interest in being the target of your latest White Knight against the guy who had the audacity to say that there is a HERO product he has no interest in using" campaign (Frankly, there's more than one: as a general rule, I don't like urban fantasy, but I bought both UF HERO and MHI, because I _do_ want to support HERO, and they have some ideas I can use elsewhere). Let's just skip to the part where you put up your shrine of "Hail you" quotes from the last decade or so and then you finish me off with your homemade pokemon card and maybe this entire thread can be salvaged for the purposes of its initial creation.
That one didn't even get through moderation. No; seriously. Double standard? Maybe. Crazy-ass mood swing? Maybe. I can get a warning and a "point that you should really, _really_ care about in spite of being able to _nothing_ to make it ever go away!" for a straight-up rules-violating, has-a-special-sticky-thread-talking-specifically-about-this-particular-violation F-bomb, but offering an olive branch and a speed solution to a disagreement that prevents it from devolving into page after page of insults pretending to be "rational discussion," all of which is intended to either convince me to use something I _don't_ have any use for?--
as an aside:
Let's take a quick survey: Just how many insults does it take you folks to become convinced the guy insulting you is totally right? Really? That many? Hell, it's no wonder he goes on for page after page after page, then.
Second survey: You've changed your mind and gotten on board with the cool kids because you were insulted into it. How much respect do you have for yourself now? How much respect do you think they have for you?
Better to keep let them doing their insult thing forever, I think. That way, at least you can still respect yourself. Is the respect of an anonymous internet stranger worth your own self-respect? How about if you know that you won't have his respect anyway: he insulted you into agreeing with him. Like he was twelve. He knows it, even if you don't admit it. He's not going to respect that (because unlike a twelve-year-old, adults file that stuff away for reference material on how to manipulate you in the future). It's really a lose/lose thing. Stick with yourself: you won't let you down.
Oh-- sorry;
getting back on track:
Offering an olive branch is categorized by moderator-we-all-suck-up-to (well, _I_ don't, clearly, but there's the self-respect thing we just talked about going on, and I choose dignity) as abusive behavior.
No shit!
Abusive behavior!
So I've got me a Time Out.
It's rather ironic (Yeah; I know: _technically_ it's not ironic, but this is a conversation. Conversationally, it's ironic. ) that I get the Point of Damocles _and_ a Time Out shortly after I've already publicly stated that I intend to quit that board once I'm done with the store anyway-- No. I don't think there's a connection; I think it's just amusingly coincidental. I also think it makes it damned hard for me to care.
Chris, I appreciate your willingness to forward the scanning updates, Sir. I'd like to get one more book done tonight. I will shoot you an e-mail when it's ready. I've tried to make this super-easy (it's not polite to ask a favor and then not do all you can to minimize the impact of said favor, after all) by building the update in the next post, as I go along. I'd wanted to get all six of the "that size" books done today, but I had yet-another company-oriented road trip today (you know: on my _vacation_! ) that hasn't left me with a whole lot of scanning time. Still, I'm plugging way. Crap. I need to edit that into the update.
I am not going to question it; I've been on the board for years-- long enough that I've had years-long absences. I have seen moderator-we-all-suck-up-to-in-action, and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I was judged by one of the foremost experts on abusive behavior. Who am I to argue with that?