Username (display name) and avatar rules and political statements

[woody]

Although I have passionate feelings about a number of political issues large and small I have come to the conclusion that a forum is far from an ideal place to express these. I engaged a couple of times in the past on these on various fora but it never ever gave me the same satisfaction (for lack of a better word) I get when I have a discussion with someone eye-to-eye, heated or not. I need actual, physical closeness to be able to have a meaningful and respectful discussion. Smileys just don't cut it. And I suspect this goes for any human being.

So lately I try to refrain from reacting to anything remotely political, be it a user name, a standpoint on (the use of) technology or outright statements. IMO this forum is meant to help us to find our way around electronics. Sometimes I need assistance, other times I am able to offer it. I try to keep it at that. Not easy though

[Sorama]

I have noticed a newbie with 3 posts which chose for his username/display-name "ElonTheFelon", with an avatar using an image of Mike Myers from a skit in SNL where he is impersonating Elon Musk, so there is no question of the intent of this new user.

Regardless of whether I agree with the above point of view or not, I believe it is completely against the interests of the vast majority of the forum members to turn it into a platform for expressing political opinions (or worse, given that Elon Musk was never convicted of any felony), either in the content of their posts or their usernames, avatars, etc.

This forum is for sharing technical electronics related information. I do not come here to share or view political and activist views of any sort, be them ones I agree with or not, and I believe almost everybody else on the forum does the same. Please correct me if I am wrong.

This is an international forum, and this world is big and full of strife and conflicts, and violently different opinions.
I know that Dave hates rules, but I believe that once we allow sliding down this slope, there will be no way back, which may very well lead to the end of this wonderful community that we all work so hard to keep.

Why didn’t you you, silently, just reported it to a moderator instead of making a topic of it?

[Nominal Animal]

I wonder what is worse.

When you ignore a thread (using the quick tools in New replies to your posts / unread posts since last visit), you no longer see it in any listings.
When you add a member to your Ignore list (Profile > Summary, Modify Profile > Buddies/Ignore list... > Edit Ignore list), you'll only hide the text of their post, but will still see the username everywhere.

Simply put, a strife/aggravation-causing username cannot be completely hidden, whereas an annoying thread can even if you replied to it yourself.

Therefore, the strife/aggravation-causing username is definitely worse, because you cannot avoid seeing it in the threads and thread lists.

that looks more like a personal problem, not a general problem.

?

No, it was a simple logical response to the question of "which is worse".  I intended the response to show the underlying reason why an occasional thread that is against the rules is allowed by Dave to remain, whereas usernames are treated more strictly and with much less tolerance.

This forum is not a democracy; it is a benevolent dictatorship where whatever Dave says, goes.  Even pointing out to the rules and saying that "but the rules say" is irrelevant, because the rules do not apply to Dave; they're just the best approximation of his intent for this forum.

Why tolerate a dictatorship?  Because it is a benevolent one.  Dave has a very long track record showing he has zero interest in exploiting anyone, and very keen interest in interacting with many people in a mutually beneficial way.  He's not perfect, but the intent is there; and without him, it is extremely unlikely this forum would exist.  By participating here, we acknowledge that in this small corner of the Intertubes, we choose to abide by Dave's rules.  If we don't like them, we can simply leave, and no hard feelings: this is not the only forum on electronics, after all.  I like this nook, because he is very logical and rational compared to the average, but still uses common sense and deals with each situation on an individual basis, instead of relying on rote reading of some rigid ideological or political rules.

Why didn’t you [benj38], silently, just report it to a moderator instead of making a topic of it?

Good question.  I often report stuff I think is spam myself.  My social skills are deficient in a funny way that makes me miss some details and see some other details others miss, so I often suspect any misunderstanding is on my end, and just ignore that stuff if I can.

Plus, not all seeming insults are insults.  Labeling someone a felon is, but for example KKK is not necessarily so, because it was a strictly US organization not well known outside.  For example, there was a supermarket chain with KKK stores here in Finland: the chain is still called the "K-group", and back then they had single-K, double-K, and triple-K markets, increasing in size and stock.  The chain was pretty horrified when they realized the double meaning, and quickly changed the naming scheme, even though it cost a lot across the entire chain.

So, no absolutely fixed rule will work that well.  The best solution is for the moderators or Dave to either change the username, lock the thread, or PM the user to inform about the issue, and see how they respond.  My own communications errors are such that I definitely hope I get that PM first, because I'm not here to tout my opinions, just to learn and help others.

[Karel]

This forum is not a democracy; it is a benevolent dictatorship where whatever Dave says, goes.  Even pointing out to the rules and saying that "but the rules say" is irrelevant, because the rules do not apply to Dave; they're just the best approximation of his intent for this forum.

Why tolerate a dictatorship?  Because it is a benevolent one.  Dave has a very long track record showing he has zero interest in exploiting anyone, and very keen interest in interacting with many people in a mutually beneficial way.  He's not perfect, but the intent is there; and without him, it is extremely unlikely this forum would exist.  By participating here, we acknowledge that in this small corner of the Intertubes, we choose to abide by Dave's rules.  If we don't like them, we can simply leave, and no hard feelings: this is not the only forum on electronics, after all.  I like this nook, because he is very logical and rational compared to the average, but still uses common sense and deals with each situation on an individual basis, instead of relying on rote reading of some rigid ideological or political rules.

This.

[benj38]

Why didn’t you you, silently, just reported it to a moderator instead of making a topic of it?

I did report it silently to the moderator, but nothing happened for a few days, and I thought there may be an omission in the rules since I found no specific mention of the avatar and username in the rules, so I opened the topic.

Perhaps I should have waited longer, it was just my experience in the past that the moderators react very fast (e.g., when blatant unashamed commercial advertising was reported). In any case, I thought a clarification of the rules regarding the avatar and username are in order if the moderators agree with my point of view that these should be kept a-political, etc.

That is all.

[Sorama]

Maybe a moderator already decided to leave it as it is…
It seems you expect them to do what you want them to do.

[MK14]

Why didn’t you you, silently, just reported it to a moderator instead of making a topic of it?

I did report it silently to the moderator, but nothing happened for a few days, and I thought there may be an omission in the rules since I found no specific mention of the avatar and username in the rules, so I opened the topic.

Perhaps I should have waited longer, it was just my experience in the past that the moderators react very fast (e.g., when blatant unashamed commercial advertising was reported). In any case, I thought a clarification of the rules regarding the avatar and username are in order if the moderators agree with my point of view that these should be kept a-political, etc.

That is all.

SPECULATION:
What I think sometimes happens, is that they PM the specific user, about the issue first.  Giving them time to respond, and perhaps explain the situation and agree on a new mutually agreeable, new user name.

But, if there was no response to the PM, after perhaps a few days, they then (might), have changed the name, anyway.  Which (at a guess), is what happened in this case, as the name seems fairly generic.