tee hee!

Here’s what led to my change of mind:

On the grandfathering issue, I finally realized that if I lost, I ultimately won. Say what? My objection was that issues decided by consensus didn’t have the authority of a vote. But if the grandfathering proposal passed (which is a given) then they would have the authority of a vote, which satisfied my objection. Suddenly it made more sense to be for grandfathering then against it. And since I was the one arguing so vehemently against it, it made more sense to concede than fight it.

The other train of thought:

1. Hey, arguing about this stuff is painful.
2. Gee, there’s dozens of people in hundreds of posts telling me over and over that they’ve been through this before, it’s painful, and it’s best to accept what’s been decided and not discuss it any more for a while.
3. Huh, maybe I should shut up and listen to these people.

Uh, seriously? Seems to me like something we probably should've had all along. A pretty standard ass-covering measure.

I quite, quite agree. I don't think it needs to be posted on every page, but just something that states explicitly that individual posters are responsible for the contnet of their posts.

hairpats and grooming gestures all round

Yep. We just need wording Fay, I like him in slash, and when he's not involved with my girl, it's okay.

Something like "Opinions and comments by individual posters reflect the opinions of the individual and do not reflect the views of buffistas.org. Buffistas.org does not claim responsibility for the views of individuals."

Or something.

If it's helpful, the official WMBR disclaimer reads: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not necessarily reflect those of WMBR, its staff or management, the Technology Broadcasting Corporation, or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Yeah, that helps. (In case it wasn't blindingly obvious, I was also rewording a disclaimer from somewhere.)

Now it's time for rewording fun. Oh boy.

I shortened the slug for the voting thread and added the "Hie thee..." part to the description ('cause Nutty is funny). If there are strong objections, I can change it back or to something else.

Thanks, bicyclops. Seriously, come over to Natter whenever you want to talk about anything.

And yeah, that means I'm accepting the war thread as dead. Wolfram, I'm sorry if this makes you feel like what little support you had is deserting you, but at least to me, it seems like time to throw in the towel. Well past time, actually. I won't withdraw my seconding of the war thread should it ever be allowed to be put on a ballot, but don't count on my support or my vote from here forward. Sorry, man. I know you care a lot about this.

First of all, I want to say that I appreciate being part of a community where respect and personal feelings are more important than “issues”. If only the world was more like this board.

I have been posting here for several months now, and I believe that my posts have been courteous and respectful throughout. In the last few days I’ve been a bit persistent about a position I felt needed to be hashed out, partly because I was feeling like the new system wasn’t being given a chance to work and we’ve spent weeks here hammering that system out. I also felt that if I stopped supporting my position, it would be because people wanted to stop the argument, and not because the position was wrong. Which to me is not a good enough reason to drop something.

Well, it should have been a good enough reason. Over the weekend I’ve Doblerized, and though some things may be important enough to inadvertently cause this much dismay and hurt feelings, the war thread issue isn’t one of them. So I want it to go away. After careful thinking about this, I realized the issue has already been decided.

Yesterday, I challenged the board to provide a link to the consensus that old issues were subject to the (to be determined) moratorium period. That place wasn’t found. However, whether or not old issues are subject to the moratorium period is the next issue queued for a vote. If the board decides that old issues may be revisited under the new rules, and not subject to the new moratorium, then the war thread issue is next for the discussion since it’s gotten four “seconds”. If the board votes that old issues are subject to the moratorium, then the war thread issue is moot and dead until the moratorium is over. Does everybody agree with that?

Finally, I’m really not privy to much in the way of back channel and I don’t know if I’ve made any enemies over this. I doubt I’ve made any friends. I want you to know the feeling is far from mutual. I appreciate the respect and courtesy I’ve been shown throughout, and have tried to disregard anything that was less than that. I especially appreciate the posts from people like DavidS, Betsy, Askye, Deena, (I know I’ve left a bunch of people out) who honestly attempted to discern what I was trying to say and help me to understand them in return. In the future I will try not to let this thread get so adversarial.