Actions & Consequences

No, this is good. It needed its own thread.

<fixed>

Why is my post squished to the right??

Helloooooooooooooooooo! Can you see me?

wow, I kinda missed a show here

I had never any problem with Sunil, but then again I don't interact with him. So go ahead to discuss whether or not to let him back in

BUT THEN AGAIN, it does make you wonder why he has been banned everywhere already?
Perhaps he just doesn't learn

I sense from the rest of your post that this is done in a flurry of emotion, which of course is your right (and we do know the bit of history you have here with Erik), but this remark IS skimming the razor's edge, indeed.

Care to elaborate on what grounds you are not yet sure whether or not Erik is a racist?

Hmm. Very odd. I've been around here from the beginning and have been on other boards with Erik for many years and am surprised to see your comments, Ralph. For sure, he has strong opinions, but don't we all? I've never seen anything which would make me call him a troll.

thing is, he uses the world troll because that's what Erik used to Sunil

You spectacularly miss the point, Ralph.
Sunil was not banned for getting "almost everything right".
He was banned for exactly that part that YOU exclude as well in that statement.

Saying someone shouldn't even refer to themself as a human being, is a piece of shit and a racist is a powerfully extreme summation of anyone whose name isn't Adolf Hitler.

Well, I wasn't going to elaborate on this, but since it got its own thread, what the hell.

Here's how I observed the whole situation:

Sunil has from day 1 been an unusual character. No, I'm not pulling the "culture card" here, since we have lots of different cultures melting together here, rarely with any problems. Rather, you might say that he is not, perhaps, the "sharpest knife in the drawer". He reacts in simple terms to things ("Michael Jackson is awesome because his music is good!" etc.), he does not understand our tone, our sense of humour, our irony, sarcasm and references (then again, sometimes I don't either!) and he is FAR too sensitive to things he perceives as personal criticism, but which really aren't - again because of the language and humour barrier - but I've never - EVER - seen him instigate trouble on his own. He's not a troll. He just misunderstands things a lot, blows things out of proportions and overreacts.

Now, on the other hand, you have Erik, established board vet with an acerbic wit, a guy who tells it like it is, usually with few diplomatic terms. The rest of us know him and are used his prose and style - and even like him for it - but I can certainly see that it may be considered a bit "bully"-like to some.

Now put the two together and you've got dynamite! An oversensitive soul who doesn't understand our prose or tone and a confident man totally IN his element and with a kind of smart-ass tone. It's bound to clash, and bound to result in the verbal reactions it did.

Of course I am in NO WAY justifying Sunil's offensive tirade. I'm just trying to add a little bit of context. It was not a random outburst, but obviously triggered by Erik's "troll" comment and what Sunil probably perceived as him laughing in his face.

Since Sunil before this had a clean slate - really only guilty of being an odd-ball sprinkled with naïvité - I don't think his offensive remarks were cause for an IMMEDIATE ban. The "last warning" strategy that Demetris proposed, but which for some reason was abandoned, was the appropriate thing to do, IMO. Or at least let him in on "probation" now that he's learned his lesson. I doubt he'll do it again, but if he does, it's over and out. No complaints from me.

I never understood what there is to like about the way Erik does things. I think I get the tone of humour from everyone else on this board just fine, and I can´t remember having strong difficulties with anyone else here but Erik. His way of talking is provocative and bully-ish indeed. He likes to throws an ugly comment about someone else´s constructive idea for a topic and waits for the bomb to go off, and when it does, he laughs at people´s faces and asks them to grow a sense of humour. But there is nothing funny or likeable about it. At all.


What, for calling Erik a racist? I can easily see how someone could come up with the idea that he is. "Uh, I´m not American. I´m Canadian!". Yeah. Sure. Or was that considered to be HUMOUR, too?
No, I don´t think he is a racist. But someone who jerks around with other people like he does should be prepared to take some shit himself fro once in a while. To ban Sunil for ONE misguided rant on someone who has treated him like shit for the past months WITHOUT ANYONE stepping in and stopping Erik, that is spectacularly wrong.

Since you're quoting me, I just need to clear up any misunderstandings that may ensue here. I don't have any problems with Erik myself. We disagree on a lot of things, but I appreciate his input, we're usually able to debate things in a constructive manner and I'm able to "deal with" his acidic tone - I even have some of the same myself on occasion! The above post was simply meant to describe the differing persona and how it possibly ended up the way it did.