[Discussion] Punishment for darthdavid

[Publius]

In light of Surlethe's remarks, this Senator withdraws his statements in darthdavid's favor. He is amenable to any punishment that his fellow Senators may feel appropriate.

[Joe]

I'll keep this discussion open for another day and then start a poll thread, so get in your final words now.

[Edi]

I've stated my preferences, but like Nit, I consider those the bare minimum. Senators are also advised to take a look at the offending thread and a certain rather revealing comment by another poster near the beginning of the third page. That'd be in addition to the PMs Surlethe got.

Edi

[Surlethe]

darthdavid has private messaged me with this message:

1) That was last year; I'd actually forgotten about that plan on a consious level untill after I was already on my way to NYC.
2) What you posted in the thread, and appearently were sent, wasn't the whole message

Since everyone is so tasteless anyway I figure it won't be lowering the bar too low If I fake my own death. Starting 2 days before april fools. I'll ban everyone from sdnet who isn't in on it from my instant messaging accounts so they won't see me when I'm online then I'll make a phoney post to testing claiming to be a family member who found the forum in my bookmarks and wanting to let everyone know that I passed away. Then on april 3rd or 4th I'll come back and let everyone know it was all an april fools prank. I'll probably let wong and maybe a supermod or two in on it so they can help anyone who's truely distressed/not ban me when I come back. And ofc since I've told you you'll be in on it.

Now In my plan back then the prank was alot more vicious, believable and in some ways smarter. However that was litterally a year ago. I didn't remember talking it through and deciding it was a bad idea and I did it late at night to boot so it was of poor quality in addition to being in poor taste. And it didn't follow that plan.
and to set the record straight,
3) He didn't say it was a "bad idea". He wrote this in response to the pm where I told him the idea:

That ought to be good. Of course you'll get your ass flamed off for it, but I'm guessing you're used to that, what with Spanky et al doing it every time they get an excuse anyway.

The main problem I see is that the mods who keep saying "Oh, it's only a joke! Get over it!" each year are also the ones who side with Spanky. So you're proabably going to get flamed both ways from the staff.

Feel free to tell them it was me if you end up putting this in the thread.

[Ghost Rider]

So he's using the defense that "you allow other things and tell people to get over it!!!!!"

I believe the lesson to learn is called tact. Same reason as I don't conspire with Dalton and claim I blew his head off and mailed it to Zaia

This is fucking ridiculous. It was a piss poor prank and actually touches a nerve with more then a few, a few I know who actually did what DD joked, and somehow I doubt they find it oh so funny. Since this is discussion, I'll leave it at that.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Oh nice. So he defends himself by saying that he could've pulled an even more stupid prank, yet he didn't choose to do so? And the fact that he considered a prank where he fakes his own death to be smarter than an attention-whoring where he threatens suicide indicates a level of idiocy which outweighs any minor contribution that he may have made to the board in his history here. Ghost Rider's remarks on the matter only cinch it for me:

Ban him.

[Mad]

So he's using the defense that "you allow other things and tell people to get over it!!!!!"

No, you misread. According to darthdavid, the second quote in that PM, containing "Oh, it's only a joke! Get over it!", did not originate with darthdavid, but was PMed to darthdavid.

I still don't know how effective a temp-ban would be. While I agree that a perm-ban is overkill, a temp-ban is... easy. He doesn't post for a while. Big deal. darthdavid only feels the heat when he posts and people respond to him. As Knife alluded to, a titling would mean he interacts on the board and people could "rub the salt in" while the event is still fresh in their minds.

On the other hand, a temp-ban would be a period where he can't post any emo stuff to the board, and thus can't attention whore for that period of time.

So I'm still undecided on whether or not to temp-ban, though a titling with the associated restrictions is certainly required.

[Ghost Rider]

So he's using the defense that "you allow other things and tell people to get over it!!!!!"

No, you misread. According to darthdavid, the second quote in that PM, containing "Oh, it's only a joke! Get over it!", did not originate with darthdavid, but was PMed to darthdavid.

Ah, thank you for the correction. The rest still stands on my thoughts of the matter.

[Broomstick]

My tolerance for the sort of "joke" Darthdavid pulled has always been pretty much zero.

Since I put my self-murdered sister's ashes in the ground, though, I've become orders of magnitude less tolerant.

And that's aside from the other suicides that have touched my life.

I did not respond to that thread because I did not think I could keep control of my temper and might say something that would get myself banned.

I haven't said anything until now because I realize that I'm not rational on the subject, but as you might guess, I'm in favor of a permanent ban because, frankly, I don't ever want to communicate with such a person again. Indeed, on a gut level I'd like to see him scrubbed from the board entirely but I realize that probably is an over-the-top reaction and too extreme for his actions.

[phongn]

Temporary ban, at a minimum.

[Connor MacLeod]

Its pretty obvious that its unanimous that his joke was in poor taste and poorly received, so that deserves punishment. In addition to that, it seems kinda clear that this is something of a pattern for the guy, and that (plus the fact I'm still annoyed over his "apology") tends to blunt any regret he may feel in my mind.

That siad, he's not quite yet at the outright troll level that earns a permanant banning (I mean, there's alot of people I'd rate on his level that we've still kept around. I won't name names this time, though.) Whether or not he does is entirely up to him, but I think its quite clear that our tolerance for his behaviour is minimal at best if he persists.

A temp ban would perhaps be the most suitable, possibly with restricted avatar/sig priveleges if warranted after banning. It would serve as both punishment for the poor taste of his joke and also as a warning that he's on rather thin ice and should make a serious efforrt to shape up, because I doubt he would get a second chance (and probably not even deserve one.)

[Coyote]

Well, he did pretty much the same damn "joke" before and went through the "sorry, poor taste" go-round. For some reason I get a distinctly uneasy feeling about DD. Like a smell... a dirty old gym-sock smell. That's it. A sock. Puppet.

No reason why, but that's the feeling I get from this guy. With no proof, temp ban amd priviledge loss, possible VI.

[Joe]

OK, that's enough. Would a moderator please lock this thread?

[Dalton]

OK, that's enough. Would a moderator please lock this thread?

Done.