I just want to offer my thanks for the job of moderating you’ve done in the years I’ve been reading Qt3. This forum is one of my examples of moderating done very well: a light enough hand to avoid suppressing interesting people, while still not letting the place dissolve into chaos. Moderation is a thankless job, and you’ve done a great job at it.
I think the tapir jokes are there because the thought of a tapir being obscene is inherently hilarious. It’s like Hitchhiker’s, where making “Belgium” the most obscene word in the galaxy is a million times more funny than “fuck” or whatever it was in the original UK edition. People don’t (usually) say “tapir” as a way of doing a wink-wink nudge-nudge end run around the local posting rules; they say it because it’s amusing. (Sort of like, “Oh, fudgesicles!” Only much, much funnier.)
Anyway, it sounds like you’re burned out on moderating. Take a vacation. You’ve earned it! :>
(And I second the hope that you’ll appoint some additional moderators if you don’t want to be bothered any more; Qt3 is a great community, and it’d be a real shame for it to die out from neglect.)
I think the T-word has worked fine as way of being expletive without being overly (and NSFW-ish) vulgar, and - for better or worse - a piece of Qt3 culture. Tapir-themed threads not so much.
I do understand Tom’s misgivings even though I don’t fully agree. Tom may despair on behalf of mankind, but the fact is that a bunch of us simply will never grow up. That said, the basic rule if this forum is quite simple: Don’t be too much of a dick. If someone don’t get the distinction between a heated debate with a few veiled insults thrown in for good measure and posting Tapir images, I’d consider swift and permanent measure to be the only solution.
Resepctfully
krise madsen
PS: Qt3 going down the drain is a truly horrifying thought. Last time I was away from Qt3 for three days I experienced nicotine-like withdrawal symptoms.
haha. that dude, shortly after he was banned as ILTPS, sent me a pretty funny half-page e-mail about why i was wrong that valve doesn’t pay off hackers. called me all kinds of stuff. i’ll have to post it some day.
I would say that quick bannings, in some cases, are substantially less work than some of the behind the scenes dealings and conversations Tom has through PM, which we are never made privy to. Unless, of course, a bunch of morons insist on creating a 10 page thread about the merits of or justification required for a specific banning (And I do not mean Mr. Woo’s masterworks as they are simply colorfully informative ).
I understand the desire to know why someone got the boot, but since we agree its Tom’s Playhouse, calls for him to explain his actions are needlessly bothersome and, I would imagine, infuriating at times. Yet, he has still on occasion explained himself.
Dammit, Tyler, didn’t I tell you specifically to stop posting in this thread?
I’m not so sure. Lord knows I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, but even I figured out pretty quickly there’s a limit to how much douchebaggery you can get away with. Anyone not taking a hint when asked to tone it down a bit either doesn’t care or has a serious learning disability. I see no reason to waste any more time than necessary on them.
I had this thread pointed out to me after I used the word tapir as a substitute word for Qt3 forum denizens. I had no idea it was a word that had been substituted for a vulgarity in the murky past. My previous understanding was that the unofficial word for Qt3 posters was tapir, as arrived it in a relatively recent thread. Any mention of tapirs by me was said in that vein with absolutely no insult meant to anyone, least of all Tom. I certainly wasn’t using it as a “clever” substitute for any less savory words.
