So, my post earlier in the thread was pretty ... non-committal. I had no idea this was going on until I was asked my opinion of the situation.
It's taken me a bit to process - like Steph, it doesn't happen at a pace resembling something like speed.
Mostly because what I, also, viewed as awkward behavior got, in my perception at the time, attacked needlessly (the whole tagline changing thing back in the stone age) and I stood up for him in a probably (definitely) very shitty way and it fucked up a friendship (Actually, more than one. Actually, quite a few with most of the LA-istas) that were important to me. Very important. And, to an extent, fucked up my interaction with Nilly when she was in Los Angeles. I have to take responsibility for MY shittiness in how I handled sticking up for P-C, but now, to find out that he's been doing this shit to people I care about - despite my lack of board involvement for a huge amount of time - AND I stuck up for him once upon a time?
I'm fucking pissed.
And I've been pissed for most of the past 24 hours.
So - yeah. I'm all for the banning. I'm voting.
And to msbelle and Kat G - I really am so very sorry.
I'm gonna be over here, being pissed and adding this to the list of shit I can beat myself up about, even though there really is no need because people like him are good at this and it was 12 years ago.
Aims if you've ever done anything to me, I don't remember it or it has been long forgotten. Thank you for the thought though. have some ice cream.
I'm reading the things. I'll vote for a ban. I'm sorry everyone.
What I'm reading is so familiar and too close to a recentish toxic destructive ex, I can't even come close to having a productive discussion. But I'm here, and I got y'all's backs.
Wow. I'm kind of astonished. I had managed to forget the stories about following women around, and the never-ending drama about his folks' expectations & marriage prospects etc. I had also managed to forget the story about his visit with Jessica, which I had heard via backchannel. (How did I manage to forget all that?)
Me, I always thought P-C was personally awkward IRL, too glib and name-dropping online, more interested in himself than in anyone else, and more than a bit of a celebrity-hound, but not actually toxic. Turns out I was wrong. Possibly I found him unthreatening because I'm older than him and in no position to do anything for him, so he never latched on in any way (yay).
I had no idea that SO MANY people found him intolerable. It's like someone lifted a rock and all the bugs went skittering away.
beth, Karl, DX, Juliana, Aims (Empress!), it's so lovely to see your pixels, whatever the reasons.
(I still don't remember the stuff about following women around, but I was still pretty new back then, too, and I might have missed it.)
I too vote for a ban. This merits more words than I can effectively thumb type, and I appreciate the ethical wrangling and thorough discussion of the community.
will we have an admin available to set up the poll?
I will take care of that.
I remember the anonymous women, and someone famous whom he spotted and followed and approached, and she was on her own time and not doing an event and was a little brusque with him. And he got shirty about it in the retelling, and was called on it, and meekly apologized... and apparently kept doing exactly the same thing, just more subtly and flatteringly, having apparently heard the message not as "Don't do that" but "Do it better."
That skinny little blonde Mischa Whatsis from that show I've still never watched(Every time I see her, though, think of that first, bet she'd love knowing that!)
Kinda wish he was a Ronda Rousey fan.
Yes, He was my biggest MARCIE.
I'm blown away by how many of us felt like something was wrong, but thought that it was just ourselves. Like many, I thought the problem was with me because clearly people I trusted had a different reaction. Except, turns out they didn't. Turns out, when I feel like something is wrong, that usually eventually proves to be the case. I was uncomfortable around him here and on Facebook, but really thought he was one of the most popular board members. I thought I was the only one who was squicked, and was being too sensitive. Lesson to self: trust my own feelings even if they don't fit with what I perceive others to be feeling.