Sad day.
He has had mod/admin powers as part of helping with the Discourse transition.
Ah, right.
He cared enough about Qt3 to put his money where his mouth is, and for that he has my respect.
But was that because he cared about Qt3 or because he wanted to be able to influence the way it operates? And when he didn’t get that influence he took his ball and went home? I guess we’ll never know.
I am not blaming Wumpus for leaving. But it does sound like he thought the forum would become something it has never been.
Jeez, man. He told us right up there in his post. Has he ever given us reason to disbelieve him?
I just don’t get the “and in good conscience” can’t be connected with part.
That’s pretty simple. If Tom calls all the shots and then doesn’t remove someone who is advocating an alt-right viewpoint (let’s just say this is the least controversial take on what gman has been saying in these threads), then wumpus can’t support Tom as that is indirectly not refuting that viewpoint. Simultaneously and maybe just as importantly, wumpus believes in communities in a way that’s a little different than the way most of us do, and he can’t aid and abet Tom running the site in the way he runs it, as the end-all arbiter. Because wumpus believes that means this whole community is doomed (see example g).
I think he’s pretty clear, and I doubt I cleared anything up, but that’s my take.
To add a little of my own feelings into the mix, I feel pretty uncomfortable myself these days with this board. I wouldn’t recommend it to a friend for fear that they’d stumble on the wrong thread and think I wanted to have anything to do with that shit.
If it weren’t for what are essentially internet friendships I have with many of you chaps, I’d hit the road too. I don’t have wumpus’s conviction, which is something I always appreciated even when sometimes vehemently disagreeing with him.
I thought it was because he wanted to promote his product. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Well this sucks. I found @wumpus often lacked tact in how he approach things, and he was often a little zealous in what he perceived was right whether it be regarding Qualcomm or spammers, but I can’t really fault a guy for passion for the site and the community.
Wumpus, I really wish you’d reconsider leaving the site entirely. I totally get wanting to step away from the sponsor role, but I’ll miss your posts (even the ones I strongly disagree with).
Seriously? You have a chip on your shoulder about Wumpus if one judges simply by your posts in this thread. Wumpus is a loooong time member. He has always been outspoken and has rubbed people the wrong way. But he’s also been consistent in his message about caring about online communities in general and Qt3.
And he’s put his money where his mouth was. Supported Tom and dragged us into the modern software era. I was amongst those resisting the move. But the forum software is so much better now. Especially on mobile.
And yeah. It’s given him a way to promote his product and get a big forum on it and iron out kinks. But it’s also given us very responsive forum software support, with the devs popping here to reproduce and fix bugs.
What’s the point of you questioning his motives now?
Yeah, that’s unfair. He cares, he just didn’t want to share a forum with that oddly polite alt-right guy and the usual response of “ignore him, or don’t visit P&R in the first place as sequestering that sort of bullshit is what P&R is for” didn’t suffice.
I must admit ignorance here but is it clear that this guy is an alt-right sort of character or is he just a conservative spin doctor? Or are we saying they are functionally the same now? My eyes have glazed over most of his posts to be honest, though i know several long standing posters have accused him of being an alt-right type, and i’m not interested in splitting hairs. I’m just wondering if writing for Breitbart (or whatever he does) or writing for National Review = alt-right now or if there is something more specific.
I don’t read P&R but from the many reported posts he talked about preserving white european culture and such, which is pretty clearly not about conservative small government, low taxes, and family values.
As someone who is basically a total newbie/lurker on the forum, I can say that at a few points while browsing the site, I was wondering if, by posting, I’d be associating myself with people with distasteful beliefs and who I’d rather not associate with, even when discussing things that are only tangentially related. As I’ve read more, I’ve since discovered that, for the vast majority of users here, that is not the case. That being said, I can see how other users who are not willing to spend that kind of time on the forum could quickly come to a different conclusion, leave, and never think twice about it.
If one of the forum’s goals is to grow and encourage thoughtful/meaningful discussion, which it seems to be, then I think it is incumbent upon those who run the show to eliminate/excise voices that are disingenuous, toxic, or arguing in bad faith. Like it or not, politics suffuses everything in society today, and by allowing those kinds of voices, even just as an attempt to encourage discussion or be tolerant of multiple points of view, you will be seen (rightfully or not) as endorsing those views.
I’d like to participate in the community more myself, since there are a lot of great voices, ideas, and discussions here. I would be lying, though, if I said that I felt comfortable doing so when the group knowingly allows those kinds of disingenuous figures to be a part of the discussion. It’s very easy for one bad-faith actor to poison the well for discussion everywhere if they’re not caught and stopped before too much damage is done.
Basically, this is my long-winded way of saying what others have put more succinctly earlier in this thread: beware the company you keep.
Why should what GMan does have any reflection on you? Anyone viewing the threads he participates in can only come away with the conclusion that while he is allowed to participate his views are not being welcomed. That sound slike the definition of snowflake behavior if I ever heard it. GMAN is literally verbally attacked by probably every third or fourth post directed at him. If merely allowing him to post insults you then maybe the problem is you.
Personally I don’t get the holier than thou feeling people have that anyone who defends Trump is not worthy of being on the forum, or for that matter alive. If anything I think that attitude is extremely embarrassing.
To say that a forum must echo your own thoughts is pretty close minded. Now I can understand disliking what he says, but the sooner the forum gets over the “he must be educated and screamed at” the sooner he will go away and die a quiet death, so to speak.
According to one poster on QT3 that would eliminate about half the forum.
So are we going to have a Board of Bad Faith, or a Committee of the Good that decides by fiat who to ban? No, this is Tom’s place and rightfully or wrongly, he gets to make that decision.
This is a really good post. Thanks for sharing.
When would be the appropriate time for e to question his motives? Sure would hate to rub you the wrong way.
And yeah, I have issues with the way wumpus carried himself here. Specifically the weirdly paternal attitude he had around requests for features. “Oh, you say you want thing? Well I have all these reports that say you really don’t.” But I can live with that, because I can’t really make myself care all that much about forum software.
But as a guy on the outside looking in, yes this absolutely has all the appearance of a guy saying fuck it, I’ll just take my money and support and go find a forum that’s run the way I like.