The Commons Free Speech Area

Good morning Diners.  It seems some of us have been placed in a new grouping and banished from the Diner Forum.

All functions of posting, replying, contacting members through PM, leaving, accessing files etc have been taken. A much worse situation than the Dungeon, which I predicted would happen once the dungeon was introduced.

This of course is the exact opposite of what RE told the main forum. The Liar and Charlatan said we were to post all complaints here away from the main board so as to not be upsetting his bummy lickers.

It would appear that we have no choice as usual but to accept this school boy tantrum from the Great Blowhard and make the best of it.

Should we stay and try and make this a place of conversation amongst ourselves?

It is a bit refreshing to be away from their obnoxious fumes of self love and censorship.

I will await further comments from our other members;  just wanted to get some communication started.

Enjoy the Easter Holiday and the fresh air.    GO

Testing for Auto edit

Testing

Appeared in preview page of previous postings I tried to make but appears at the moment to be gone.  TESTING

I note that the password I used in setting up this forum is no longer functioning, so you guys are now free of my wicked Admin ways here.  I registered a new ID as a plain old member.

Your IDs are still active on the Diner, and you can still post up there, though it is moderated.  If a post does not appear there, you can post it here instead.

If you want to make categories like this here and pitch me in one, you can find the switches on the Admin page.

RE

You haven't been banned from the Diner board.  You are just being moderated so that we can talk about something besides the fact you are unhappy with the Diner Admins.

RE

I note that the password I used in setting up this forum is no longer functioning, so you guys are now free of my wicked Admin ways here.  I registered a new ID as a plain old member.

Your IDs are still active on the Diner, and you can still post up there, though it is moderated.  If a post does not appear there, you can post it here instead.

If you want to make categories like this here and pitch me in one, you can find the switches on the Admin page.

RE

Thanks for the info RE, there will be no categories here. The grouping Newbie is of no meaning here and part of the installed software. No rank or special groups here, let me assure you. The Admin attribution here is for enabling forum setting tasks and dealing with spammers should that problem arise. Of course I have been designated only 1 of other admins here when you set up this forum, so I can only speak for myself. If any of the other admins sees fit to invoke a punishment I cannot prevent or interfere with their freedom. You have my solemn promise that any member so treated will be released immediately upon my becoming aware of it.

 I have activated my own forum and am in the process of trying to get it ready. There will be one Admin there to perform forum functions and perhaps another if I am ill or away for a while to aid and takeover in my absence. In that forum Golden Oxen's First Amendment Forum there will no censorship or groupings, I can assure you of that.     GO

It appears that the others placed on this board do not wish to participate and continue to post elsewhere. None have even chosen to log on.

Since I am taking the opportunity of opening my own forum on the Diner it is pointless for me to post in both places.

I shall of course remain here if needed in the future.

Any one interested in joining my new forum is more than welcome. I would really enjoy your fine company. While I expect it will be a quiet place, your casual readership would be most welcome as well. 

Members who used to contact me at the diner with gold questions or comments on the PM board are again advised that I am not allowed to reply.  Kindly direct your PM comments to me here or on my new forum. Golden Oxen's First Amendment Forum.                    Thanks and regards. GO                 

Oh GO, don't become so despondent! The fundamental issue from my perspective is that I've been subject to this kind of censorship almost since Day 2 at the Diner, hell, the moderators have had to approve probably half the posts I've ever made.

So lets discuss how we got here. RE lied to us (hardly unexpected based on past behavior) when he said he was moving the regulars to "the island of the blonde haired and blue eyed", in part because he sure appears to shoot off his mouth before engaging his brain.

There is a reason why posters are banned as a matter of course, rather than moving the true believers to an island every time the bad acts of TPTB become visible (we'll call that the emperor has no clothes scenario). The 4 or 5 regulars will have just as much of a pain remembering passwords and shifting their habits, and really, why should the chosen ones be inconvenienced? So RE shifts about 10 seconds after he thinks he has the final solution to censor those who dare to think (some would call it lying, it is more indicative of poor planning, demonstrating yet again some fundamental disconnect between real world results and RE's claimed intelligence).

So, everyone who has interesting things to say, or thinks about topics outside the permitted bounds, are banned. He plays semantic games so he doesn't have to call it banning, but it really is the war-mongers "love it or leave it" response, except RE can kick everyone out of the country who dares to ask any questions. Wouldn't Johnson and Nixon LOVED to have had the same power?

Which brings us back around to the basic fascism angle of RE...comply or be cast out. So we are cast out, unless we submit to the kind of censorship that armies impose on their folks during wartime, making sure they don't send letters home daring to discuss the horrors of where they are, lest they reveal something the army doesn't wish the cheerleaders back home to know.

So now the Diner can be moderated to keep any post daring to express a contrary position out. Clean, allows RE to pretend he advocates free speech (same as Dick Cheney and the energy panel in the Bush administration, remember that one?) and continue to concentrate on his audio clips.

The beauty of audio clips being the education of those who can't read I suppose...interesting that RE is shooting for the lowest common denominator. Just another piece of the puzzle as to why someone who claims to be smart is just so damn dumb sometimes.

Quote

Oh GO, don't become so despondent! The fundamental issue from my perspective is that I've been subject to this kind of censorship almost since Day 2 at the Diner, hell, the moderators have had to approve probably half the posts I've ever made.

Hi MKing, That is another item we differ on my friend. I have never been subjected to that sort of insulting behavior in my two years on the diner.

Hell, I go in KNOWING that the result of free wheeling intellectual questioning is likely to get me banned....people don't set up forums for a "studious, fair and thorough discussion", they set them up to provide a place for like minded folks to agree with each other, providing that portion of self reinforcement that they probably don't get in real life. Doom being a PERFECT example.

I've watched Doom boards where the folks in charge had to hide their online thoughts from the mediator in their divorce, for fear that being exposed would cost them their children. Bad enough that they have that to worry about, but then they have to be laughed at when they tell mom and dad that they think the world is ending, can you IMAGINE how nice it must be to talk about one's fears in front of the sympathetic?

Like coming out of the closest, I bet it is almost cathartic to most. "Finally!" they say..."I have found my PEOPLE!! I really am not crazy!!"

It is all quite interesting...but the last things these folks are looking for is an honest conversation, particularly with the likes of me. I question everything, a natural characteristic that was just fine tuned by my career as a scientist where it was encouraged. Rewarded. Looked upon with respect.

But sweet jesus don't ever turn such analytic horsepower loose in a web forum, folks just naturally go nuts. And it is all because the belief system comes FIRST, and then the web forum allows the circular logic, justifications and rationalizations to begin.

Your attitude is understandable, but I would rather not post than subject myself to censorship by the most hypocritical lying people imaginable.

Why not? As has been mentioned, we are all subject to it, in one form or fashion. Can't yell fire in a theater for example. So RE wants to pre-screen everything said on his forum. Well, besides the creepiness of anyone so insecure that they require such a thing, it is his forum, and to be honest, a thorough look at his postings, stories, and rationalizations for why he landed where he did in life would lead folks to believe that such egomaniac behavior fits right in with why he is where he is.

RE didn't choose the end of the road because he was scared of doom and needed mountains to hide from zombies (see his most recent in-car video? He has as many zombies around him as any place in suburban US, with the SUVs, chain stores and infrastructure to match), he choose the end of the road because he can't stand people. He admits it. So Doom comes to him from ANY other route than buying into whatever the hysteria of the day is..RE wants to see the world he hates, the world that kicked him out after all the advantages it gave him from the get go, he wants to see it DIE. Watch it cower and scream and shrivel up and disappear....not because he honestly thinks Doom is happening, but because he hates everyone and they DESERVE it.

Matt Savinar once let such a slip leak out as well, you see, he wanted, and said it, that he wanted Hummer drivers to DIE. He HATED the symbol of wealth they represented, of excess, and it became his focus while he was living in some little apartment trying to figure out how to profit from pimping peak oil. RE isn't much different, although his profit aspirations haven't seen daylight yet, but I'm betting his reaction to more people watching his stuff is giving him delusions of grandeur, those advertising dollars flowing in from google, maybe selling his rants on DVDs like they do at TAE, getting some paid travel to talk as an internet "authority" ala Heinberg and Foss and such.

Would you like to calculate the odds? If you understand the background, it makes perfect sense, the internet does a fantastic job of taking little nobodies and making them into talking heads and by extension "experts". It was one of the reasons I have always been forbidden to go to ASPO conferences and whatnot, the real experts end up wanting nothing to do with the fake ones because they are afraid they'll lose credibility by being seen with nutbags.

 Surprised to find that you no longer can receive a PM or reply to one is something you can ignore as well. Don't you think that goes a bit beyond being a liar and model of hypocrisy as well as delusional blowhard?

I think RE's behavior fits right in with run of the mill egomaniacs.

Whatever the case, great to hear from you, censorship by them is something you can apparently laugh off, and I envy your disposition.        GO

Oh, once you get comfortable confronting landowners pointing a gun at you and resolving those situations without any holes in ones hide, egomaniacs matter...why?

Tiny fish in microscopic ponds sure can have the delusion of grandeur their relative size gives them, but are irrelevant to great whites.

Blah.

You know, it is damned difficult to get people to chat on a forum overall.  I hope you can get something going here, but it is tough to do.

I am also not half so difficult as you guys make it out to be.  long as you don't constantly complain, I post up your stuff.  I'll even take off the moderation if you keep to topic for a while.

i been at this game way longer than you guys, and because of that the Diner is not a no-show personal website.  If you can make this site popular , I am all for this. It is not easy to do though, so second guessing me on how I do it is ridiculous until you can do a better job with it.

RE