John, I accept the extremity of your feelings, but I have to confess to not understanding it at all. What did he get away with? End-running some rules but at the same time creating a niche of his own where he was becoming accepted. I quite enjoyed him over in Movies. I have no feelings of betrayal or anything of the like knowing he really was the person who was banned.

I'll say one last thing and that's it.

My problem with meiskie, after he became Schmoker, was that when he sent me an "apology" email (which I no longer have because my yahoo account freaked out at one point), he was apologizing for how unpleasant things got when he was being accused of being meiskie. He said he wasn't, he didn't do those things, and he didn't know why he was being accused of them and he was sorry if he'd made anyone upset.

The whole email was a lie. He was meiskie, he knew exactly why everyone was upset about the Schmoker/meiskie situation.

If I come off sounding like a self righteous bitch because I refuse to like Schmoker/Anametha or give him a second chance, frankly I don't care.

He built his entire relationship with us by lying about who he was and used his new identity to circumvent his punishment.

I'll say it again---if he really respected this community, if he really wanted to be a part of our community, he would have accept his suspension and waited out the two months and then come back.

I really can't over-emphasize The Yoko Factor here. Regardless of what we thought of it, he is gone and of his own choosing. I'm with Laura, let's drop it.

I really can't over-emphasize The Yoko Factor here.

Amen. He was a problem in every incarnation. Now he's gone. Let him be gone. We're having an excellent jock strap discussion in Natter. Come join that instead.

Okay, you know what? There has been enough. Enough hand wringing, enough finger wagging, enough misery. We've had ONE problem, ONE ban. It's unfortunate, I agree, but mieskie/Schmoker/Anaethma is not worth all the angst that has poured down on him! It's over. Can we let it go?

[eta significant crosspost with Cindy and Dana]

Nobody is saying anyone has to like him.

But saying that common courtesy doesn't apply to someone because of that?

I've already cried for a good solid hour over this when it first got brought up again. Please, let's let it go.

And no new thread. He wasn't that important.

I've had my say. So mote it be.

Yes, please. Come explain to me why jockstraps are buttless.

And no new thread. He wasn't that important.

A poor attempt at humor. But I just heard a rumor of a jockstrap discussion so I am outta here.

John, forgive me, but you weren't around during the time between the last Mieskie uproar and the current sitch. (And I'll say right off that the fact that you felt you needed to absent yourself is probably the one thing about this all that bothers me the most.) But. After the banning, and the subsequent taunting, which was quite offensive, Mieskie did come back under a new name, and demonstrated that what we'd tried to impress on him earlier actually had sunk in. Though he was still a little more confrontational than is the norm around here, he was quick to tone down or apologize when warranted, and his posts became more about the shows and the community than about trying to provoke a reaction.

I do think it's very unfortunate that none of these lessons could have been learned before we got into the unpleasantness surrounding the banning. And it's nobody's fault but his own that they didn't. I wish he had waited the two months and then returned, under whatever name. And I wish he hadn't felt the need to lie to people who asked him directly who he was. Again, these are actions for which he bears the responsibility, and he is now (rightly) paying the price.

But some of us learned to like him in the interim, some of us felt he brought a perspective to the board that was worth having. And his response to the stompies, that he did not choose to drive this community into turmoil again, tells me that he learned to like and understand us too. The mieskie we first knew would have been delighted to see the chaos and upset that his asking to be reinstated under his old identity would have caused.

I take that change of heart as genuine. I'm sorry that the fact that some of us wish the situation hadn't gone down this way, and believe that some acknowledgement of the changes we saw is due, is so upsetting to you. I really wish it wasn't so. But I'm equally upset at the notion that holding this perspective means we must've gone over to the dark side.

x-posty will all the people asking us to drop this, which I'm more than happy to do. Last word from me on this subject.