What will your reaction be if you are suspended?

true

the first page of New Posts looks very different for me now

Man, don't jinx me! :grin: I'm enjoying the peace.

We'll see what their answer will be to my question.

the only one i knew was suspended was hawk, and only because robert talked about it. if i see people missing i assume they're taking a break especially this time of year

I keep trying to wrap my head around this thread. Suspensions and thread-locks of various durations lasting from a few hours/days to permanent were the norm when most of the participants on this thread first started posting. What would "my" reaction be if I was suspended? It would depend on if it was intended for a cooling off period because I had obviously lost the ability to carry on an adult conversation, or if the atmosphere of A2K in general and my participation in it were on completely different wavelengths.

I've mostly suspended myself for the past couple years. I miss the moderation (i.e., moderating) we had when folks like Noddy, sozobe and Kevin (timberlandko) were here to keep the peace in their own unique and wonderful ways. Folks like Hawk have embraced the "wild west atmosphere" (his words) of the post-Noddy/timber/soz era, whereas folks like me chose to separate. Most things in life cycle and it looks like A2K is cycling back to a moderating philosophy of yore. I embrace the concept.

A lot of this discussion appears to be about the suspension of one individual. I fondly recall many conversations with cjhsa about everything except politics. I sometimes wonder how he's doing and wish him well in life. I don't recall any fond conversations with the many personifications of Possum - however short lived each one may have been.

And that may very well be the case. I doubt it in a couple of instances based also on what Robert wrote: Specifically about accusing someone of being a pedophile, but I certainly don't know for sure.

I know gloating is unseemly so I prefer to call it schadenfreude.

Glad to see you on this. We know we have spatted.. you and I, but remain regarding you wildly well. I never not listen to you.

Oddly, I don't remember Possom, I must have been out to lunch or have yet another hole in my brain. The word makes me think of a certain cat.

I know that person from a zillion conversations on the boards or pm. He sent me his book, still have and I give away books. He has lived quite a life and I admire him many ways. He also spews stuff in anger, at me only once and we resolved, but more on people he smells as underbelly (my word).

He was seen last with a usual announcing of his distaste for another person here.
Unfortunately, it involved my scolding persona just after that, the scolding even I am not that fond of. I hope that wasn't a trigger.

I do disagree with him re the cats.

They could try and deny having been suspended.

"Timur and I just took some time off together..."

Buon Anno a tutti!

I've been on A2K for several years and on Abuzz before then. I don't recall when I gave up on the latter and found this forum and all the familiar User Names, but, like I wrote, I believe it was several years ago. Whenever it was, I don't recall any period of time when moderation was at a high level. At least I didn't run afoul of a moderator, but then it didn't seem like anyone did.

Since I became a "member", like you, I took a few breaks, For me the impetus was either dismay over the tenor of discourse and the behavior of certain individuals or dismay over my own loss of civility. Initially, it was easy to blame someone else for my loss of composure, but before too long I realized there was no one to blame but myself. Embarrassment as much as anything else would send me on a break.

In November of 2014 I realized participation in this forum was not a positive thing. For me, at least, the discourse had become repetitive, and tiresome, irrespective of whether or not the topics were new. As well, the constant fighting was a beating and I certainly didn't feel good about frequently slipping into it. I didn't make a distinct decision to disengage. Circumstances in my life were such that I didn't have a lot of free time to spend on-line and after a while I realized I didn't miss participation here. From what I can tell from my posting history, I removed myself from December 2014 through March 2015. It looks like I made one or two posts in April of 2015, but none in May. Apparently I started back in June but infrequently thereafter. It feels like I've only been truly back for a couple of months, but it could be a little longer.

Frankly I don't know if my return would have continued much longer because overall the forum hadn't changed, but with Robert's announcement of his intended changes, including "showing assholes the door," the tenor of discourse did seem to change and I was motivated to stay more mindful of my own behavior, not because I was concerned about being suspended, but because I didn't want to mimic behavior I was criticizing.

I feel positive about A2K again and regardless of why the environment has altered, I'm glad it did and I intend to avoid being any part of returning it' to it's prior shabby condition. I never was civility personified and I'm sure I won't be now. I have a temper and find it difficult to let challenges pass or pass on an opportunity to smack old foes, but it will be a good test. If I can't keep a lid on it, then I shouldn't and won't participate any longer.

It may turn out that, for me, the discourse will continue to be repetitive and ultimately boring, and so I will disengage again, but at least that decision will not be accompanied by disappointment with myself.

We'll all see, won't we?

Thanks for your thoughts.

I get you on all that.

Read down to the 1911 season:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty_Cobb
Apparently a slur is a slur, whether or not the target is a member of the slurred group.

Yes.

I was going to pick out bits and pieces to agree with but, yes, I agree in large part with all of this. I'm not sure when or why you returned, but I do believe that whatever it was that brought many of us here in the beginning is, and has always been, the desire to communicate and discuss topics of interest with folks who do and don't agree with us on principle.

@everyone too...



Could someone kindly point me to Robert's announcement? And please forgive me for asking, but who is Robert?

Oh, regarding the question... hum... It's hard to say really. I don't imagine myself doing something worthy of being suspended... but now I am unsure what exactly is it you have to do to BE suspended? I would be sad. That is the honest truth. I would come back the right way when I could, but yeah, my heart would hurt for a while.

The guy who made this site called himself Craven de Kere for a bunch of years but later explained his real name, Robert Gentel.

I'm not going to look back now, tired, but a bit ago, after years away working on his real life projects, he came back with plans in mind.

Able2know reg info and take note it is reg to GANDI SAS that happen to be a cloud service and a reg company for owners of websites so no publicly available information on the true owners whatever their names might be,

Fine. But this site is called "able2know.org":


GANDI SAS manages more than 1,800,000 domain names from 192 countries, first among domain name registrars in France, sixth in Europe, and in the top 15 worldwide. (According to their website.)

Your are right and I am wrong.........

http://able2know.org/topic/305632-1

Here's his thread about "assholes" being shown the door.

There is another one which I believe was entitled "A2K Sucks" in which he laid out some of his plans for change. You should be able to find it under the "Popular" tab.

As was pointed out, Robert is the creator of this site. He is also the owner which is of great significance because as the owner, he makes the rules.

As far as I know this has always been a free site, and while I seem to recall adverts at one time, there haven't been any for a long time. I don't believe Robert makes any money on A2K (or if he does it's minimal and mysterious - for me), but he has other internet projects/products that apparently do pay the bills for his business and himself. He has said that A2K is a hobby and his favorite web endeavor, and overall, I think the majority here will agree that he is, essentially, a benign ruler; often an absentee owner.

When and while he is disengaged from A2K (presumably working on other projects) the site generally suffers. He is far too left-wing for me to ever nominate him for A2K's Top Poster , but he's among the most interesting. But it isn't the absence of interesting topics or comments that causes A2K to suffer during a Robert hiatus, it's the unchecked growth of chaos.

In general free speech has been an important underpinning of the forum's operation, as well as the concept of control through user policing. He introduced a number of features intended, in part, to allow users to address behaviors and content they felt was offensive or simply not interesting, like the "thumbs up & down" and "ignore." They are differing opinions about the utility of these features, but I think it's safe to say they haven't been wildly successful in terms of their intended effect.

For whatever reason, Robert has returned to A2K recently and announced plans for what seem to be rather significant changes. He has already implemented a more aggressive approach to moderating content and behavior. Whether this is merely temporary until other interests demand his attention, remains to be seen. There are "moderators" here other than Robert, but my sense is that when he is absent, the moderators tend to become more passive. That may be because he wishes to be involved in final decisions, or without him available for consultation, the moderators feel less empowered. This is just speculation on my part, the moderation process is not laid out in TOS. Some people here may know the identities of the moderators (other than the moderators themselves of course), but I don't. I believe they are also users of the forum and thus perhaps they have reservations about using tools like a suspension as respects other users. Again, speculation. I certainly would not say that there is a band of brown shirted moderators governing A2K with cattle prods and cat-o-nine-tails.

This may be more than you asked for, but here it is.