Banned again … How do you spell relief? *Update #3!*

**WARNING** DO NOT PROCEED PAST THIS POINT IF YOU ARE AFFLICTED WITH ANY OF THESE CONDITIONS:

• Terminal anality – This suppresses your sense of humor.
• Uncontrolled self-righteousness – This leads to terminal anality.
• Fragile ego disorder – This leads to uncontrolled self-righteousness.

The rest of you, enjoy.

Ok, this is funny. Yesterday, the 3rd thread in two days designed to complain pretty much specifically about me and a few others was created. People whinging about this or that without anything specific just teeing off because their lives suck in some undefined way.

So I get this notice this morning from the DPReview Admins …



Obviously, the attack pack and associated sycophants hit the button a lot more than I thought they did … *half* the complaints in the entire system? Wow.

Interestingly though, I quite agree with them that a holiday is in order. FTF has become a bit of a wasteland lately … not much interesting happening, partially because Fuji is doing nothing interesting and partially because the forum is overrun with people who are starting at the beginning. Not that there is anything wrong with that … just that answering the same set of questions year after year gets old. So I totally agree with the mods … 3 weeks off sounds great.

I have to finish processing the Josh Ritter concert plus the opener – Basia Bulat – and the WIntersleep concert from last night, where I recorded parts of the two openers – Rah Rah and Besnard Lakes – with the F300EXR and then every single minute of the Wintersleep performance with the Panny ZS3. Lots of work there … I expect to do 20+ videos to add to my YouTube channel, which sits at 93 videos right now …
So my hat is off to the attack pack … you got me again … and to clarify the number of bannings, I have *not* been banned 14 times … I would be willing to stipulate to 9 :-)

Update: Dave says that “things have started changing”, yet the “gagged and handcuffed” thread degenerated into an insult fest with the attack pack being dominant … this should give DPReview moderators a fairly clear insight into the real trouble makers. So apparently self-righteously hammering the complaint button does not give one any credibility or perspective …

Further note on bans. For those that do not read the comments on my posts, Billx08 and Rattymouse were both banned. I suspect Bill’s was similar to mine, although likely only 7 days. Ratty is gone *permanently* … a gross overreaction in my opinion. Although Ratty gets invested in certain feelings (HS10 bad, X100 good) he is also interesting and enthusiastic. But he teed off on the moderators pretty harshly and started the third toxic thread of last week.

Yanko started the first, Richard the second. Ratty was the third man in, and even in hockey that can be a real problem … :-)

Anyway, I hope Ratty decides to appeal his fate. Update: He did not have to. DPR said they made a mistake, he is only gone 6 days.

Here is something  a lurker on the forum sent me …

It is cute …

• Snow White is, of course the new female member of the pack. She does play the role of shepherd now and again …
  
• Dopey would probably map to someone who posts nonsense technical comparisons and information :-)
  
• Grumpy has been permanently banned, as all he ever did was post threads that crapped on the forum …
  
• Doc is an intellectual, and if there ever was one on the attack pack, he is long gone …
  
• Happy … I got nothin’ …
  
• Bashful could be someone who is demure right up until the knife goes in … any ideas?
  
• Sneezy could be someone who is invisible for long periods and then returns to spray the forum violently …
  
• Sleepy is slow and heavy lidded … well that could be anyone in the pack or even a whack job who likes to stalk me from his crib …

Thanks to the unnamed lurker who sent that … it is a fun exercise :-)

Update 2: Ted (tdkd13) was also banned, and that makes zero sense to me.

Update 3: Royslaw started a 4th toxic thread yesterday to continue a long and very boring argument on concert shooting. But it was dripping in arrogance as a direct attack on stephen 06. He’s gone today.

And down in the comments section, I single out one member for special treatment … and here is why:

(name removed to avoid the threat of fictitious legal action :-) So, for everyone else - What to do ? When these folk return, if it is just the same old nonsense,
complain. 

In fact, DPR says to do just that. That's right ! Push the button and state your case. Is it a shame to do so ? DPR rules state - " ... Have a complaint about a particular poster? 

Contact us immediately, don't antagonize the situation by replying ... "Simply,
no matter who it is, follow this advice."

The arrogance implied in that message is staggering. DPReview moderators have two jobs, and they hate the moderating one. So they often go with sheer volume (popularity contest) … and what is he calling for? Higher volumes … complain, complain, complain … no doubt the true sheep in the herd will ignore the shame they accrue and follow suit …