yguy

I've been asked by The Other Michael to email the admins with an explicit agreement to follow forum rules. Looking within, I find that I lack the wherewithal to do this, as such a statement would be, in my mind, an implicit admission that the posts referred to by TOM in his recent PM to me were violations of those rules. In my present state of mind, the charges are too silly to bother refuting, as they are in my view the product of, in one case, the childish overreaction by another poster to what I said, and in the other, overzealous moderation.

I haven't read the IIDB mission statement, but any organization with the goal of propounding its views implicitly believes that it is an advocate of truth, wherefore it necessarily exposes itself to the ideological marketplace in which some of its views may be challenged. To the extent that those views are held egotistically, such challenges, if at all credible, will be seen as mean-spirited. Those of you who have pointed out unpleasant truths to dogmatic Christians can identify, I trust. It is precisely this dynamic which I believe the mods/admins here have unwittingly become enforcers of in this case, and have allowed themselves to be manipulated by a few intellectual cowards who pretend to themselves that they despise my occasionally "obnoxious" behavior more than the intellectual content of my posts. Thus is truth sacrificed for the sake of civility - or, as most atheists would see it if the comparable thing happened on a Christian board, for the sake of maintaining a comfort zone.

So just do it. Don't wait another minute. Ban the y-man. If I get bored enough, perhaps I will do the requisite groveling. If not, nice knowing you.

pescifish

Without exception, all IIDB users agree to the Forum Rules & Policies during the registration process. Any conversation about a specific instance of moderation still must be conducted within the same rules and policies as the rest of the community of users across the rest of the board.

No one should be posting on the IIDB under any special provision without such an agreement to follow the rules.