NationStates Jolt Archive

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=561705

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13872345&postcount=34

A flame, as well:

So now your doing well at the behest of the exploitation of others and your happy about it? You know Yootopia I think you maybe clinically psychopathic, but then again libertarianism does take a great amount of amorality to accept.

Its not necessarily trolling unless the OP posted said rant in order to get a collective rise out of the NS forums.
For all you know the OP fervently believes in what they've posted.

Its not necessarily trolling unless the OP posted said rant in order to get a collective rise out of the NS forums.

Exactly.

That diatribe is well within Andaras' generally acknowledged world view. It's also in his standard overinflated manner. We've never banned people for posting their views (no matter how idiotic) and we're not going to start now.

Refute him or ignore him.

What about this (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13872702&postcount=2)?

And then there's this (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13872945&postcount=69). A confession of trolling in all but name.

Hack has ruled on your first link -- with the bolding and the quote, you signposted it quite clearly, so you can be sure he saw it -- and I'm puzzled how the second one (a post that says, essentially, "I'm not gonna play with you guys, you're meanies") can be read as trolling.

Look, I acknowledge that many posters disagree with Andaras, and others find his posting style off-putting, but if we banned people for that, the forums would make a great setting for a Gothic romance -- eerie, sepulchral, deserted.

Well that's a bit of a slippery slope. I think I can pretty much guarantee you that banning any one - Andaras for example - for rule violations - constant trolling and flamebaiting for example - is not going to lead to the End Of Nationstates As We Know It. Nor is it going to lead to the End Of The World As We Know It.

I've been punished here for "trolling" when I was not lying or making up anything, but just expressing my belief. To me that says that even if Andaras DOES believe we're all racist, Nazi, fascist, "bourgeois" idiots who are brainwashed, it can still be trolling. So the "But he really does believe it" defense somehow doesn't ring true with me.

I'm not trying to drag this on forever, or make a mountain out of a mole hill, but doesn't directly insulting another player (in this case, Yootopia), by calling them "clinically psychopathic" constitute a flame?

There have already been two moderator opinions on this.

I suggest people use the ignore button if they can't stand the posts they are reading.

I've been punished here for "trolling" when I was not lying or making up anything, but just expressing my belief. To me that says that even if Andaras DOES believe we're all racist, Nazi, fascist, "bourgeois" idiots who are brainwashed, it can still be trolling. So the "But he really does believe it" defense somehow doesn't ring true with me.

It also has a great deal to do with the way you say it. Andaras has gotten in trouble for the way he voices his opinions. Apparently this time the way he's saying it isn't deliberately offensive.

<snip rhetoric> ... To me that says that even if Andaras DOES believe we're all racist, Nazi, fascist, "bourgeois" idiots who are brainwashed, it can still be trolling. So the "But he really does believe it" defense somehow doesn't ring true with me.

I didn't rule it "not-trolling" on that basis, but because it was, to me, so generalised and predictable that it lacked any specifically personal sting.

For example, I expect fundamentalists to describe all others as "heathens" and Randites to go on about "welfare statists". Similarly, this was par for the course from a Stalinist/Communist.

Andaras has gotten in trouble for the way he voices his opinions.Indeed he has.

but doesn't directly insulting another player (in this case, Yootopia), by calling them "clinically psychopathic" constitute a flame?Yeah, I already ruled on that. It seems Yootopia has a thicker skin than you do.

We're done here.