Joel kicked out... I do not agree with this.

If Joel is wrong for writing the posts, then others are just as wrong for responding. We didn't "lose" members, they left of their own free will. Joel didn't ruin it for them they ALLOWED him to do it. We are only responsible for our own actions. People ALLOWED Joel to "take control" of a topic. They ALLOWED him to bait them into arguement. They DECIDED to pack up there toys and go home all on their own.

If we are going to start banning members for being annoying, the herd will thin quickly.....

I guess I can't really pinpoint what exactly Joel did "wrong." That's all I'm saying. Personally, I was FAR more irritated by the way that people seemed to follow Joels posts and tell him how wrong he was.

Would you (collective) allow Joel or anyone else to behave that way in your home or at your place of business? And if they did would they be invited back?? And if they kept coming back and continued acting that way after repeated warnings???
Why does Idog (admins and members) have to tolerate rude behavior????

Sorry, but there are not many people I've met over the internet that I'd even allow in my home once.

How exactly was he behaving? Sarcastically? Everyone but the dog is sarcastic in my house. Possibly "offensive" humor? I work in a machine shop and am married to someone who has been a machinist for 6 years--you do the math. If I refused to talk to all of the people in my life whose opinions on dogs I do not agree with I would have contact with only a handful of people. I guess that means I should be banned too I suppose[8|]

Meh--I just don't see what the bruhaha is about, it's just an internet message board, not life and death.

I will admit that I'm not in tears over Joels banishment. The majority of the time, I ignored him. I only felt the need to respond to him when he was spreading misinformation. The impression that I got from Joel is that of an attention whore. He loved the attention and when it was waning, he'd post things or start threads that he knew would get the attention back to him. Take a lookie at his last thread. It so happened to appear after several members came forward and shared very personal issues with everyone. He asked who was not on medication and posted a bunch of emoticons. When  people didn't find it funny, he then tried to claim that everyone misunderstood him. Kinda like when he used the word "faggot" to describe the way a Poodle looked and when everyone reamed him a new one he tried to claim he never knew that word was a derogatory one. I never got Joels humor and I have a vile sense of it. I still don't see what was funny about posting pictures of the Rodney King beating. The way I see it is if various people with various ways of thinking find no humor in him perhaps he wasn't that humorous at all.
 
I can see why people chose to leave the board. It's a pain in the ass to try to have a serious, and educational, conversation without someone jumping in and acting a complete fool. Message boards should be enjoyable and when someone makes it unbearable, why would anyone want to stay?
 
In the end, no one but Joel got himself banned. He was repeatedly warned and he repeatedly acted a fool. I'm just surprised it took this long and that it happened after several members who made a positive contribution left the board.

I've met many folks on the internet that I would welcome with open arms.  Many that I wouldn't but many that I absolutely would.
 
One of those being lamented for having been "run off" by Joel, actually made her own choice.  She began to stalk Joel and then would burn up the keyboard getting others to post in her support.  I got private emails from this person many times telling me what an absolute ***L))^^ he was and how she was going to get rid of him.  She was warned, and what she fired back to TPTB would make a drunken sailor blush.  I know this for a fact because that poster sent EVERYTHING to me.  And when she was suspended for continueing to hound Joel, she fired back even WORSE venom...and it was vile....and coming from an aging hippie, it had to be bad for me to say that.  And many of the others who left, left at the urging of this ONE particular person.
 
I think that it's important for everyone to realize that JOEL was not responsible for anyone leaving.  Those that left either left of their own volition, or  were asked to leave because of inappropriate choices that they themselves had made.
 
However, that said, Joel made the wrong choices and needs to live with those choices.  What's done is done and I think it best that we all move on.

Well said Glenda. I think what you touched on in that post is what irritates me most about this situation....

ORIGINAL: sillysally
Meh--I just don't see what the bruhaha is about, it's just an internet message board, not life and death.

 
Um, I'd be willing to bet that many dogs'  lives have been literally saved due to this board.  And as for the humans... there are a lot of us who are quite vested in this particular message board.  Whether it be length of time here, level of involvement, friendships made, respect for the breadth of knowledge, appreciation of the time and effort that folks spend responding to questions....whatever brings us here, I've always believed that there was something a bit special about this board, and I have (and still do) participate in several.

ORIGINAL: sillysally

it's just an internet message board, not life and death.

So hopefully now people will stop beating this dead horse for goodness sake! It's over... move on!

Agreed.  Lets stop giving Joel the attention that he's craving and MOVE ON to other stuff.
 
Anyone have a suggestion of whose butt I can oggle this year now that my favorite Red Sox rear is in the hated pinstripes?

Joel was a troll. Amazingly, there are not a lot of trolls on this forum that I've seen, but having spent time on other forums related to fish, people like him get the boot as soon as their trollish behavior is pinned. They often do get warnings too, however.
 
Here is a definition of an internet troll, in case anybody cares.
 

An "Internet troll" or "Forum Troll" is a person who posts outrageous message to bait people to answer. Forum Troll delights in sowing discord on the forums.  A troll is someone who inspires flaming rhetoric, someone who is purposely provoking and pulling people into flaming discussion.  Flaming discussions usually end with name calling and a flame war.  

 
 
I don't talk much on the board, mostly because there are those who know far more than me that can more thoroughly and correctly answer questions than I can. But, I was offended by more than one of Joel's posts... not because of their "bad" timing, but because many of them are what I consider sexual harrassment towards other members or women in general. I, however, recognized Joel as a troll, and chose not to "feed" the troll. Trolls whom are "starved" get bored and move on. I know it's difficult to "ignore" a troll, I've dealt/experienced several on other said forums. However, most people will recognize good information from bad information... If 10 people say this, and one person says that and says it rudely, they are likely to follow the crowd of 10. Simply report them to a moderator and move on. If you take the bait, they win and the game has just begun.

JOHHNNNY DEPPPP--he has his own cereal (POTC)--I'm thinking of buying it just so I have an excuse to stare at him first thing in the morning....

There's a POTC cereal?! [sm=eek.gif] What's it like? Nobody in my house eats cereal so I'm out of the cereal loop. []

Better yet...Glenda...Sillysally...continue this discussion (butts and cereals) in a new thread so this topic doesn't keep appearing at the top of the board.

ORIGINAL: glenmar

Agreed.  Lets stop giving Joel the attention that he's craving and MOVE ON to other stuff.

Anyone have a suggestion of whose butt I can oggle this year now that my favorite Red Sox rear is in the hated pinstripes?

 
Pinstripes make my butt look big.  Or, as someone said in another thread, maybe it's just my hippopotamus butt.  []  No one ever wants to oggle my butt. 
 
Is oggle how you spell that?  Seems to me it should be oogle.  Hmmmmm.

Done.  New thread in NDR under Posteriors, fanny's and butts!