Congratulations to IIDB admin and II BOD

[Gurdur]

Up till now I have kept my mouth shut, because there are members of the HH whose feelings I care about, because they are HH members. They cared about IIDB; they cared about IIDB's mission, they cared about secularism, they gave you, IIDB and II, they gave you tens of thousands of dollars in donations. And now you've really just dumped all those people and their best wishes for you in the shitcan.

I congratulate you for collecting all those donations --

and then by your own stupid, willful refusal to fulfill your legal obligations as a registered charity, you made sure that the concrete details of IIDB and II finances were first published here, on the Heathen Hangout, by a complete outsider, till you lost your nerve and were forced -- after 4 years of your refusals to fulfill your legal obligations, of your refusals to answer questions -- to publish the details on IIDB. And you were forced by the actions here.

I congratulate you on your sheer technical incompetence in using vBulletin. When even I, as one individual, can do far better a job on the technical side of using vBulletin and the net, when a Google search for "IIDB finances" very quickly brings up the Heathen Hangout, when you -- a team of over 8 admin at all times, so obviously out of your unwillingness to do any work, have left so much potential unrealized, so much work undone, then it's really so achingly mindbogglingly incompetent of you all, isn't it?

I congratulate you on how you have handled the banning of Janice Rael, EverLastingGodStopper (ELGS). Brilliantly done in just the right way to bring maximum discredit upon II and IIDB. And oh so unnecessarily.

I congratulate the sheer suicidal genius you have used to artificially magnify the way the current shitstorm has happened. It was out of your desire to crush and hide all dissent over my banning that, among other things, led to your completely reworking your Questions & Complaints forum so that only mods and admin could answer any poster creating a thread now, and other posters could not join in.With the totally just-so-unintelligent consequence of making sure that now, instead of facing only say around 3 different protest threads, you now have over 40 different protest threads, including all the ones that you've already hidden completely from view or simply deleted.

I congratulate you for the fact at least one of your IIDB admin had no idea at all that ELGS had been banned -- until he saw all the protest threads. Now THAT is sheer artistic brilliance!

I congratulate ELGS for helping create this monster. I congratulate ELGS for jeering at dissenters and for making "That is mere personal abuse" a forbidden phrase in PA&SA on IIDB. I congratulate ELGS for very deliberately helping create an admin/BOD enviroment where dissent from the board posters was prohibited. I congratulate ELGS for having herself hoisted on her own petard. I congratulate ELGS for lying about IIDB mods as a group in public; for jeering nastily at IIDB moderators as a group, holus bolus.

I congratulate IIDB admin and the II BOD for enabling ELGS to help with these suicidal actions of yours. I congratulate you for doing so very much to dash people's good wishes for you, for damaging the cause of secularism so very much.

I congratulate you for banning at least 4 or 5 people over the last 2 hours.

I congratulate you for treating your moderators like shit. And now, oh dearie me, you're having BIG problems finding new moderators. And you'll be losing some as a result of tonight, won't you? I congratulate you, Maverick, and you, The Other Michael (TOM), very personally. Oh, and crazyfingers, you may no longer be an admin, but by hell, you most certainly deserve some personal congratulations for all this too -- a result of your very own work. Oh, and let's not forget Vorkosigan, same again.

I congratulate you all for the habitual, exceedingly self-pitying way you all bitch about having to do any admin work. Well, sonnys, you've got one hell of a lot more work to do right now, don't you?

May you long live with the consequences of your actions. The wheels of consequentiality grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small.

____________________

Edited to add:

IIDB crisis associated threads Tracking Thread here

[Detrs]

What the hell have I been missing over there?

[Mason]

This is serious internet drama.

[Master Taran]

Gurdur, it's time for you to get some sleep. I know the sun will soon rise your time. Get some sleep youngster.

[Gurdur]

Originally Posted by Detrs

What the hell have I been missing over there?

Just the usual net drama stuff, but about 4 years of it all collected into one night's sudden huge shitstorm.

[Detrs]

Originally Posted by Gurdur

Just the usual net drama stuff, but about 4 years of it all collected into one night's sudden huge shitstorm.

Ah. I'm morbidly curious to actually read what went down if at all possible.

[Gurdur]

Originally Posted by Detrs

Ah. I'm morbidly curious to actually read what went down if at all possible.

It's a very long story. Perhaps someone else can do it, or I could try tomorrow or so. Too late for me tonight. I'm taking advice and going off to bed soon. But it is a huge thing, covering space on at least 5 different bulletin boards -- and it only started tonight. It's also extremely serious --- this is not some flash in the pan, this is really heavy stuff that just BLEW right up like Krakatoa in one evening.

[atheistica]

5???? post links!!

[Detrs]

Originally Posted by Gurdur

It's a very long story. Perhaps someone else can do it, or I could try tomorrow or so. Too late for me tonight. I'm taking advice and going off to bed soon. But it is a huge thing, covering space on at least 5 different bulletin boards -- and it only started tonight. It's also extremely serious --- this is not some flash in the pan, this is really heavy stuff that just BLEW right up like Krakatoa in one evening.

Sleep well.

[Gurdur]

This is truly getting bizarrely weird.

Now IIDB, the board, are answerable to the legal charity II, and their Board Of Directors (BOD). Now ELGS was tossed out of the BOD (largely her own fault), but then also banned from the board (a completely seperate action) -- and the chief boss of the BOD does not seem to know why ELGS was banned from the IIDB. Neither do at least one, maybe two, maybe more, IIDB admin.

IOW, most of the actually responsible, controlling officials seem to have no idea just why ELGS was banned from IIDB.


Take a look at this:

The only person who knows with certainty the reason that she was banned from IIDB may be the person who carried out the ban, and the actual reason(s) may not completely jibe, at this point, with some of what you have read or will read elsewhere.

-Don-

Please re-read that again, and again, and again. That was written by Don Morgan, big head honcho. The biggest. Suddenly whipped out of cyber-retirement to post again on IIDB normally, something he has not done for years. Here is the link to the thread containing his post.

So II BOD are saying they don't know what's going on on IIDB, even though IIDB is responsible to them and controlled by them. Not all IIDB admin know what is going on either.

Just how much more of a mess do they want to make this all? This makes Brown of FEMA look like Albert Einstein. This makes Bush look like Churchill. This is incredible.

[Don Alhambra]

To use the standard reply in this kind of situation:

Don't hold back, Gurdur, tell us what you really feel!

[Puck]

It's, as Gurdur said, all a long time coming. I've been following events as much as I care to, but none of this is really a shock. When there's a elephant in the living room, and anyone who points it out is instantly muted, sooner or later, that elephant will shit in the living room, and ain't no one going to be able to deny it then.

'Course, in this case, the zombies may well deny it long enough to appease the sheep. Meantime, it's a big ole fucking shit storm, indeed!

[Gurdur]

OK, at least 5 bans and now at least 2 self-bans, ominously including Gooch's Dad.

When you get such serious people, who are not flamers, and who are very dedicated to promoting secularism, like Gooch's Dad, suddenly wanting permanent self-bans, you're in deep shit and you've FUBARed yourself.

DM mentioned the threat of closing down the IIDB completely (a threat made at various times over the last 6 years). Matt the medic has made a public offer to take over IIDB from their poor little wasting hands. The protest threads are continuing to be made anew, and I assume continuing to be "disappeared" as well. Various II BOD and IIDB admin are now simply refusing to provide any more information, seeing as to how they completely fucked it all up by answering with contradictory statements on it all in the first place. Now they're hiding behind the bog-standard and in this case extremely dishonest defence of, "You don't know so you can't comment", a sheer lie in view of the way they first made their answers, and a sheer comedy in view of the way that they've shown that they themselves often don't know exactly what's going on or just why ELGS has been banned from IIDB.


Talk about pointless masochism. JamesBannon on IIDB repeated the point of artificial amplification by making everything by force into huge numbers of one-man-band threads, and various people have stated they will not donate to IIDB in future.

Oh dear:

Originally Posted by lippard answering Officially on IIDB

If you're aware of a better price for a service that provides a server and reliable bandwidth for this level of traffic, provides backup services and has good customer service and upstream connectivity, I'm sure that information would be taken into consideration. Rackspace is .....

OK, OK, that one just cracks me up laughing out loud in real life. Yes, I know of better hosting. So does Matt. So does JREF (a comparable-sized board). So does CF. So does most other medium and biggish and big boards. There are great honking big threads on vbulletin.org and vbulletin.com and other admin-boards on this very issue, and they're very bloody helpful. So why the fuck are IIDB and II such incredibly sloooooow learners on that score?

[Garnet]

Plognark summed it up quite well:

Originally Posted by Plognark

Others have expressed the sentiments I would share over the banning of ELGS, and other members going back over the several years I've been a member here, so I feel no need to rehash all of the specifics.

I would just like to note my disappointment with the overall direction this board is taking. These actions are not at all fostering any sort of community or internet refuge for atheists and free thinkers.

This site is turning into a haven for misanthropes and hate mongers. Those who can play the game of skirting the rules better, regardless of how disruptive or outright destructive they are to the sense of community here, are given preferential treatment.

There is too much adhering to the letter of the law and not enough adhering to the spirit. Hell, I was even caught up in it myself in my stint as a moderator, so I understand that it's no easy thing. However, it would seem that the secrecy and bureaucratic application of the rules is doing more harm than good with regards to the stated mission of the board.

[AspenMama]

Don't know what to say-- where to start even. I've been absent.

Perhaps I got while the getting was good. I wish I knew what happened to someone behind the scenes that vanished. I am worried about him-- he had some major health issues and my last communications with him were rather scary.

[Garnet]

There's a certain member with health issues I've been frettin' about for a while.

[Kim o the Concrete Jungle]

I liked II when it was just a library, a newsletter, and a heavily moderated feedback page.

[Seeker630]

Fuck---as most of you know by now, I was a long-time poster and member over there. Last year I was a contributing member. I never paid any attention to the politics of the board. A few of you are aware of why I left there 11 days ago. I left not because of what was done--------but rather because of what was NOT done.

Reading this thread shows me just how much in the dark I was, and how bad the situation is getting over there. I don't know if I'll ever go back now---and after having invested 7 years in the place.

I ask you.

[fromdownunder]

A lot of the bans are not "bans". They are now "suspensions" Orwell would be proud!.

There is also a thread on ~E~ started by a Mod (soon to be ex-Mod?) to discuss the current situation. It has been going for a while without becoming an un-thread, so I suppose TheOtherMichael, who I understand is a key player in this entire mess must be asleep at the wheel.

I am so glad I do not post there much anymore. It has really hit the fan. And it could not happen to a nicer bunch of power hungry pricks.

Norm

[Gurdur]

Originally Posted by fromdownunder

A lot of the bans are not "bans". They are now "suspensions" Orwell would be proud!.

Yes. It enables them to avoid reporting them on their Bans thread --- Suspensions are not reported on it.

Moreover, many of those suspensions were originally set for 2 years suspension -- and then later the particular users were informed their Suspension had been reduced from 2 years to one month.

As an admin, all this mess horrifies me. What really gets to me is that I am proud of my board; if there is anything to reveal about its workings (bannings, policy and suchlike), then I want to reveal it myself -- and not have someone do it for me on some other unconnected board. I cannot get over the sheer idiocy of IIDB admin having everything revealed about what they do, not on IIDB, but on totally seperate boards by other people. That disgusts me. Have they no pride in their board at all?

[Gurdur]

Interestingly, DougP asked straight out on IIDB if the banning of ELGS from IIDB was a unilateral decision by T.O.M. -- and DM in answer evaded the question.

Link:

Originally Posted by DougP on IIDB

.... 3. The ban was a unilateral decision of The Other Michael
4. Spherical Time was de-adminned for defending ELGS

Originally Posted by DM in answer

.... 3. [See below.]
4. Untrue for the reason that there were other issues that led up to this action.

With regard to 3., I know that the ban is under review. That does not mean, of course, that it will necessarily be rescinded.

That is a straight, obvious evasion, and a rather interesting one. It looks like the answer is "Yes", and they're not too happy with The Other Michael (TOM) at all.

Guess why lippard and DM, dragged out of long cyber-retirement, are so active in Q&C answering people, and TOM is not answering people in public at all?

[Gurdur]

And now the IIDB MCR seems to be leaking out all over the net like a broken pipe.

From yet another wholly seperate board comes info that it was indeed a unilateral decision by The Other Michael (TOM) to ban ELGS from IIDB, and to de-mod Spherical Time. This goes against all the IIDB admin rules, AFAIK; while one admin may ban someone for emergency reasons (such as spamming), it has to be confimed by the rest ASAP; and a normal banning requires a thread and informal vote within the IIDB ACR (Admin Conference Room, i.e. the hidden subforum for IIDB admin as a group).

TOM acted against all normal IIDB admin procedures, IOW. There has been some suggestion by other IIDB admin that "maybe" it was an emergency action, but really, had it been an emergency action you would expect those selfsame IIDB admin to actually know, wouldn't you? Instead of tossing out vague possible reasons for excuses?

And once their MCR starts leaking out all over the net like this onto way other boards, they have great big problems, don't they?

[Gurdur]

Quotes from the IIDB MCR were posted on IIDB by Pavlov's Dog in a thread here and a thread here. One thread seem to have been "disappeared" already, the other thread has had its quoted material edited out of it by IIDB mods. The quoted material was purported to be from the IIDB MCR, and consisted of quotes from The Other Micheal (TOM), and seem to have been fully genuine. They confirmed what was said in my last post just above.

[Master Taran]

What do y'all expect from fuckwits that believe themselves better than the general membership, just because their, what. Mods, Admin or the Illuminati BoD.

[SiliconWolf]

Until recently, I have always figured that the various complaints about the moderation there were either 1) people blowing things out of proportion, or 2) something that was only happening in the political forums, which I rarely visit. Apparently the real answer was 3) something that doesn't happen to me because I don't usually make any waves.