There was a time, back in '04 I think, when we had a "hot women Olympic athletes" thread going and it got pretty close to open nudity on a couple of occasions, IIRC. Dan walked us slowly back from the ledge on that one, again if I'm remembering things correctly back then. That was back when Mr. Tibbs ruled the roost, though, so you'll understand our dementia, of course. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

That post was from 2014

With all the debate on Duffy’s ban and questions on what was said and speculation. . What about windy ? He made one or two off hand comments in the one thread and got the boot. Or was there more I missed ?

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

I think his expulsion from Mordor ( ;-) ) was also as a result of his body of work, not any singular or particular post or thread.

Windy could be a bit starchy, and pedantic (but so can I) in his replies to others' OPs or their own replies on various other threads, but I never sensed any "meanness" (that and "mean" are apparently the words of the day in the LR) from him, and he corrected me on my rhetorical, historical and other missteps on a number of occasions.

It's all good, in my opinion, and if I or anyone else screws up we should be called on it and not hold any sort of rancor over it. That's what I mean by my observation that we used to made of sterner stuff.

Actually, I considered both him and Duffy my brothers from another mother. :-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

i think you guys are missing the bigger point here. you're obsessively philologizing, comparing this phrase to that, seeing if you can create an asshole meter by which users should be rated, calling foul on the moderation if an 8.2 asshole got banned while an 8.35 remains.

there's about a dozen people, give or take (i lost count) who're gone, mostly from this forum, some from the other forum, over the last few days. here, there were 3 or 4 initially, and then the rest because they felt the need to make as snarky a comment as they could muster in response to the bans, and whose humanitarian visas were consequentially revoked.

so, fine, write your hagiographs for the departed. i'll give you the space. just, to post here there's a simple guide: as opposed to the one-off impolitic remark made in haste or in the heat of battle (which can happen to any of us), if your mission is to try to get banned because of what you write, you'll probably succeed.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I just want to make it clear here that Duffy was never actually Midwestroadie. He once did a username change, I noticed it, and coopted the name Duffy for a bit to fuck with him. It was maybe 2-3 hours in total, during which time he snagged Midwestroadie and messaged me saying, "I want my username back." "I want to give it back to you," was my pretty simple response. I am not Duffy, didn't post Duffy posts, nor did he post Midwestroadie posts. Someone messaged me recently thinking we may have been alter egos. Nope, I'm not that clever...nor am I that crude...nor am I that consistently knee-jerk.

That happens here during every Olympic games.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

I'm a little perplexed with regard to the consternation these bans have stirred up.

Duffy was sometimes entertaining, but mostly just posted about how the government is never held accountable, police are bad, Duffy's awesome and gets laid a lot, or X poster is a moron. Oh, and he occasionally posted a funny meme. He spent about a month during election season claiming that anything he didn't agree with was "fake news." If you pushed his buttons, he was absolutely mean. Whether you let his meanness hurt your feelings is another question, but there's no doubt he could be mean just for the sake of being mean.

Windy, was combative, arrogant, and consistently trying to pick fights, especially with JSA.

I didn't find, as some others seem to, that either guy contributed a lot of meaningful, insightful, or valuable content. Now, there's obviously no rule that you have to do that, and I didn't really have any problem with both of them remaining around. There have been lots of LR regulars over the years that weren't here to contribute a ton. I just mostly stopped reading their posts, and I guess I'm not sure why some people seem so upset that they're gone.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

I've been a long time lurker on here and the main forum, probably since close to the beginning. I've seen all of the bad behavior and have seen people come and go (and come back, at times.) Long ago I decided to not post very often because I didn't want to get sucked into pointless arguments, which is something I'm certainly capable of doing. Some on here really do seem to try to push it as far as possible with their BS. I'm no fan boy, but I don't get how some people on here simply refuse to understand what Dan is doing. Yes, the most snarky poster from either forum, IMHO, has yet to be banned (I think), but that's not my call. Honestly, I'm surprised several of you who continue to push the envelope with DE and his site haven't been given the boot yet. I'm fairly certain his site would survive without you.

How about a 5 star rating system like Amazon/other online retailers that we can use to rate each other? Anyone with a 1 star rating automatically gets the ban hammer.

Jeezus...11 pages and still going...

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Gnothi Seauton.

So, what you're saying is that you think Trump and Hillary should both be in jail with Duffy. Gotcha. :)

You are a wise person to not let yourself get drawn into the LR. Posting here is kind of like visiting Hotel California.

As opposed to the people who often responded with posts that consisted entirely of "You're a Trump ballwasher". And they made it very clear, they weren't talking about golf balls (even though that gif would show up every so often).

Duffy had a point of view and expressed it. Many people misrepresented it, and attacked him for it. He may have fought back with strong attacks, but I don't really remember him attacking anyone out of the blue, usually only after being attacked himself.

That looks like some strange mythical goat-horse-kangaroo-llama hybrid. No wonder Mitt Romney is pounding on it in defense of all things good and Mormon.

I "think" I knew that you two were not the same person although how you got to co-op each other's name is another thing. Didn't think it could be done here.

A glitch in Dan's matrix!

What length stirrup should Duffy use on his new horse, named Velotron?

There, that should be good for another 86 pages.

that actually was more/less suggested in the other forum. i know your idea is in pink, but to be clear my goal is to ban no one. people whine and bitch about bans because, i think, they see it as an assault on something dear and rare in this forum: the ability to say what you want, unchecked, unfiltered, in front of some reasonably smart fellows instead of yelling your gripes to paint on a wall, which is what it's often like in other loosely moderated forums. that's a special thing. it's a lot cheaper than therapy. i get that. i will always try to preserve that. anybody else who wants to preserve that is a cherished member of this community.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Wait, you're still here?! Thought you were part of the ban clan. Guessing Vitus has departed for greener pastures. JSA? You still here?

The level of discourse has certainly dropped off over the years. I don't blame Dan. It is a national epidemic. The LR, to its credit, was slower in its devolution than others. Why have the posters like Rob Cunningham abandoned the LR? I know why I stopped posting. Just curious if others have any thoughts in this regard?

Cheers.

No real complaints from me over how you run this place. I agree with the analogy that this is basically a party in your house, and you are free to remove people for whatever reason you want. Someone who is normally a good guest but makes a mistake and shits in the corner of the living room is less likely to be kicked out than someone who constantly walks around spilling drinks on people, knocking over furniture, and trying to start fights.

I think the reason this thread is still going is because people either didn't witness what happened to cause the removal of some guests, or saw it and don't understand your reasoning of why one person's actions were deemed worse than another. Many of these people likely want to know the reasons because they may be afraid of facing the same fate, and without knowing specifically what line they can't cross, have no idea exactly where they stand. The majority of us are used to the Western system of laws where people have the right to a fair trial, and the public (for the most part) has the right to know what crimes people have been convicted of. Laws are written and published so that everyone has access and can know what actions result in what punishment. I don't feel that you need to meet that standard, but I do think that is what is causing distress to so many here.

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Starting from scratch...

Sure, there are other people who also only post to stir the pot, or to toss in some partisan insults. I'm not arguing that Duffy or Windy should be banned more or less than anyone else. Just expressing puzzlement over the degree of consternation some people seem to be feeling.

Duffy may have had a view point, or he may have been trolling, or both. His best trick was posting for pages and pages espousing a point of view, and then claiming that wasn't what he meant at all, and everyone else was too stupid to understand his satire/game. It was really kind of like a person who says something really offensive, and then realizes no one else agrees with him, so he tries to claim it was a joke that no one else was smart enough to get.

Again, that's fine, and I'm not arguing he did or didn't deserve a ban. It's just weird to me that there are a couple of threads still going on lamenting his and Windy's departures.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

And Dan confirmed it was not. Or is he lying about that, too?

Forge did the same: accused me of contacting Dan about him, when that just wasn't the case (I checked all my sent PMs, and Dan confirmed it wasn't me).

Why do you think I did that?

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----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

I'm here. I'm a fucking delight! I don't believe I have done anything ban-worthy. I haven't been warned before.

BCtriguy1 has never been a ban candidate, to my knowledge. I think vitus is taking a breather.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

Well now we have some more investigating to do:


there's about a dozen people, give or take (i lost count) who're gone, mostly from this forum, some from the other forum, over the last few days. here, there were 3 or 4 initially, and then the rest because they felt the need to make as snarky a comment as they could muster in response to the bans, and whose humanitarian visas were consequentially revoked.


We have an actual TwitchHunt on our hands.


There were several people that seemed like they were just upping the ante lately until they could get a reaction. Windy was engaging for a long time, then over the last few weeks seemed to do nothing other than make personal attacks. Duffy was that guy who snaps at works and flings poo at the wall, then everyone just shrugs and says, 'who didn't see that coming?' Then there is the poster or two who post ban seem to have been attempting to be martyrs on the Duffy alter. Sounds like they may have succeeded.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.