RationalLunacy
Meeeoooowwww!! Pffffft!!!
Imagine you're a stand-up comedian performing to a packed house. Your show isgoing well, and you have the audience doubled over with laughter. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, you start getting heckled. You look around to see where the obnoxious voice is coming from, and you realize that the heckling is being hurled at you, not from the audience, but from backstage. You recognize the voice -- it's the stage manager of the comedy club heckling you! You continue the show and try your best to ignore the insults being hurled at you from behind the curtain. After your performance, you depart the stage to go back to your dressing room, only to be stopped by the stage manager and his assistant, who warn you that if you continue offending the audience with your off-color humor, you will be banned from the club. You look at them incredulously, because you know you've not offended anyone, and the audience finds you amusing. You dare not say anything, though, because the comedy club staff do have pull with the owners, and can make or break a comedian's career. For some reason, they don't like your humor. What do you do?
What did I do? I went away for a while. I stopped performing, not because of anything any of you said or did to me, but because a certain couple of moderators here at JUB decided that my humor would offend a few newbies and frighten them away. This has been an ongoing battle for some time now, and I finally reached my breaking point and said "enough is enough." I have been actively participating here on JUB for a long time, going back to LMAO days. The only time I have ever received a complaint from anyone about my humor was from a couple of moderators. Isn't that strange? Of the thousands of people who read my posts, and the hundreds of active participants on JUB, the only time I've ever been made to feel unwelcome is by certain moderators. The last time I pointed this out, one of the moderators barked back something to the effect that the other participants would not have the courage to contact me privately. Oh, really? People aren't afraid to publicly respond to my posts -- why then should they be afraid to contact me privately? (They aren't!)
Now, I don't want this to come off sounding like a moderator-bashing fest. This is not the point of my tirade. I believe in making amends where amends are due. The dictionary definition of amends making is "setting the record straight." I want to make absolutely clear that I have the utmost respect for most of the mods here -- some I consider friends. There are, however, a couple -- one in particular who shall not be named -- who, in the words of the Klingon in the tribble episode of Star Trek described Captain Kirk similarly as "a swaggering, overbearing, tin-plated dictator with delusions of godhood." I have received private correspondence from this individual that is, at the very least insulting, and in some cases downright inappropriate. I have been accused of making inappropriate, satirical posts which, by their accounts, will offend or frighten off the newbies.
To this I reply:
(1) If satire is forbidden on JUB, why is there a "Satire" icon? Why hasn't it been removed?
(2) When I satire another thread, if the thread being satirized has been started by someone who is not a regular participant on JUB, I have been known to send them a private message and thank them for being a good sport. I have never received a negative response, and have made some good friends this way.
(3) When satire threads that are started by me are relegated to the Fun & Games graveyard, while other similar threads are allowed to thrive on Hot Topics with no censorship, this smacks of favoritism and is very wrong.
(4) When certain JUB moderators allow assinine, inane threads on JUB's Hot Topics forum to flourish with topics like "how to seduce my straight friend" and "I hate old men" or "fat people should die", while humorous topics with the express intent of cheering up the board's participants are censored, moved, or deleted, then there is something wrong with the moderation system.
I have never -- repeat, never -- posted anything on this board with express intent to maliciously harm. I love to tell jokes and to make people laugh. The number of messages I've received privately from people who miss me has warmed my heart. Your laughter makes me thrive.
I will be back. Yes I will. I just needed to air out some dirty laundry first in hopes that someone or ones will sit up and take notice of an insidious agenda pervading the JUB moderatorship and hopefully take corrective measures to ensure that others are not driven away from here for fear of inappropriate and unnecessary criticism. I am an out gay man. I wasn't always. I once belonged to a homophobic ultraconservative religion. When they found out I was gay, they threw me out. It hurt terribly, but I survived. I'll be God damned if I'm going to be thrown off this message board because of fundamentalism of another sort.
I'll see you all in time. I still need to cool off a bit. My love to you.
JIM
What did I do? I went away for a while. I stopped performing, not because of anything any of you said or did to me, but because a certain couple of moderators here at JUB decided that my humor would offend a few newbies and frighten them away. This has been an ongoing battle for some time now, and I finally reached my breaking point and said "enough is enough." I have been actively participating here on JUB for a long time, going back to LMAO days. The only time I have ever received a complaint from anyone about my humor was from a couple of moderators. Isn't that strange? Of the thousands of people who read my posts, and the hundreds of active participants on JUB, the only time I've ever been made to feel unwelcome is by certain moderators. The last time I pointed this out, one of the moderators barked back something to the effect that the other participants would not have the courage to contact me privately. Oh, really? People aren't afraid to publicly respond to my posts -- why then should they be afraid to contact me privately? (They aren't!)
Now, I don't want this to come off sounding like a moderator-bashing fest. This is not the point of my tirade. I believe in making amends where amends are due. The dictionary definition of amends making is "setting the record straight." I want to make absolutely clear that I have the utmost respect for most of the mods here -- some I consider friends. There are, however, a couple -- one in particular who shall not be named -- who, in the words of the Klingon in the tribble episode of Star Trek described Captain Kirk similarly as "a swaggering, overbearing, tin-plated dictator with delusions of godhood." I have received private correspondence from this individual that is, at the very least insulting, and in some cases downright inappropriate. I have been accused of making inappropriate, satirical posts which, by their accounts, will offend or frighten off the newbies.
To this I reply:
(1) If satire is forbidden on JUB, why is there a "Satire" icon? Why hasn't it been removed?
(2) When I satire another thread, if the thread being satirized has been started by someone who is not a regular participant on JUB, I have been known to send them a private message and thank them for being a good sport. I have never received a negative response, and have made some good friends this way.
(3) When satire threads that are started by me are relegated to the Fun & Games graveyard, while other similar threads are allowed to thrive on Hot Topics with no censorship, this smacks of favoritism and is very wrong.
(4) When certain JUB moderators allow assinine, inane threads on JUB's Hot Topics forum to flourish with topics like "how to seduce my straight friend" and "I hate old men" or "fat people should die", while humorous topics with the express intent of cheering up the board's participants are censored, moved, or deleted, then there is something wrong with the moderation system.
I have never -- repeat, never -- posted anything on this board with express intent to maliciously harm. I love to tell jokes and to make people laugh. The number of messages I've received privately from people who miss me has warmed my heart. Your laughter makes me thrive.
I will be back. Yes I will. I just needed to air out some dirty laundry first in hopes that someone or ones will sit up and take notice of an insidious agenda pervading the JUB moderatorship and hopefully take corrective measures to ensure that others are not driven away from here for fear of inappropriate and unnecessary criticism. I am an out gay man. I wasn't always. I once belonged to a homophobic ultraconservative religion. When they found out I was gay, they threw me out. It hurt terribly, but I survived. I'll be God damned if I'm going to be thrown off this message board because of fundamentalism of another sort.
I'll see you all in time. I still need to cool off a bit. My love to you.
JIM
or 
or any other holiday I don't have a smilie for, have a safe and happy time.
