I must be trolling, then.

Let me just quickly state my opinion as concisely as I can:

I believe in equal justice for all. I also believe the silly list of rules here should be replaced with a single one that reads, "Do not be a douchebag. Douchebaggery will not be tolerated and will be met with force." At this point, I believe this rule can fairly be enforced because "trolls" can be adjudicated douchebags and dealt with however is appropriate. The only problem is that I wouldn't trust anyone other than myself to enforce this rule.

I sometimes have this problem taking things seriously, but I can assure you all that I am a most rational individual. If that makes you feel any better.

One problem is not quoting who you are responding to, and since there's no "In reply to" option button, it has led to, and probably will lead to future misunderstanding and confusion.

True. And accepting it is the first step toward recovery. :-)

Now I haven't called Samson or anyone here a nazi in almost two years. I should get gold stars or something.

Personally I think that all this public bashing of Samson, or any member of these forums actually, is the grossest display of juvenile grudge holding. If you have a problem with Samson personally, fine, that's your prerogative. Don't make EVERYBODY look at it on a constant basis. You've made your opinion of him clear and it still amounts to nothing since your words aren't getting him removed from the forums or anything. You're only making yourself look like a child when you publicly cry about how bad of a person he is. We've all done things that other people didn't like, but we're not all bombarded on public forums for it. Start crying again when he actually does something worth crying about. Till then, if you don't have anything to add to this conversation other than crying then keep quiet and let the rest of us adults get something done.

Please note that this isn't directed at any ONE person, but at all of the people who have made a public point of disrespecting Samson. He may not be your favorite person, but he still deserves respect as an admin of this site and as a fellow code junkie.

*wanders off muttering about the insanity of letting babies on forums*

Alright. Tell you what, Samson. I'll give you another chance, bury the hatchet and all that, if you can at least stop using your damn signature as a public service announcement for your vendetta against Locke. I don't actually care about what your beef is with Locke, but if you can at least show some meager amount of modern decency and stop having that inane bullshit attached to every single post you make here then maybe there's still hope for you yet. It really ought to go without saying that it is in incredibly poor taste for an administrator to be setting that kind of example here, if not also wholly hypocritical to be demanding a higher class of conduct out of other posters at the same time.


Respect for someone in a position of authority is something that they must earn, not something that is given automatically. If the person does not present themselves as a reasonable leader who can handle their authority properly without abusing it or oppressing the people they have power over, then that person does not by any means deserve said respect and they very much should be criticized for their actions.

Wrong! A person in authority is a person who needs to be showed respect regardless of what your personal feelings are. A person who is in authority SHOULD provide a shining example for the lesser folks, but whether they do or not, you are not to disrespect that position of power. The same situation as with police. You might not like police, but you are expected to show their job respect. Even if the cop is an asshole and is really only messing with you cause he/she is bored. You show respect to the badge or the badge will disrespect you, and it's not fun to be disrespected by the badge. If you disagree with the actions of a cop, take it up with his boss. Making a public show of it only makes you look like an ignorant prick (points at the recent activities of Obama's friend who claimed "racial profiling").

I don't feel like adding more to this post, though there are a LOT of things I could say. I'll just leave it at this: Respect the job if not the person doing it. Any problems you have with the person doing the job should be taken to his/her superiors, not to the public.

It wasn't a vendetta against Locke. But in the interests of removing that red herring from the argument, sig changed.

[Edit to delete what I said cause it could be considered trollish.]

… back in Igabod's day, when men were men and sheep were nervous…

Listen, I don't think anyone's being childish. If people have had serious issues, don't feel they are being listened to, not being told the full beef and being ignored on PM's then what other recourse do they have for venting their frustration? TMC? I'd rather think I could get this community behind me first and deal with it that way tbh.

Now I'm not talking about any specific incidences here, before you start. I'm just saying that if "one of us" has a serious problem with "one of them" we have no recourse for bringing this up with any one other than "them". If "they" decide the issue is not a problem by closing their ranks, the issue will still exist and next time something happens it will rear its ugly head.

That's what happens when you don't deal with a situation (I should know, I am partly lecturing my self in this, and not just about mudbytes). It rots, festers, roots its self deeply into the community and begins to stink. Nipping the behaviour that led up to the stinkyness is not the answer, dealing with the ensuing badness is far better. And that can be done with apologies, shaking hands, backing each other the next time something happens, fostering good relations, providing guidance instead of ill-temper etc etc etc etc. You cannot prevent people feeling things, and you never know exactly how people will take your comments ESP. when they are textual.

Anyhew. I just wanted to point that out. Rant off.

In my opinion there's nothing wrong with a little honest descent. I think someone can disagree with a policy without having some type of personal axe to grind. I agree with Samson on a great many things and have nothing personal against him. Also, I don't think anyone else should be arrested by the fear of some type of appearance of biased opinion based on previous disputes. There are legitimate grievances to be aired here.



And I think that's the first requirement to respect the members of this community who do feel this way. It's pretty much a deal-breaker otherwise.

Thats very civil of you Samson. Nice move. I notice its a sideways swipe at Locke now though, quite clever…



.. I think this post fits nicely with your .sig now, don't you?


It was the first of your posts I had read post change, and found it a little ironic :devil:

[edit] crat tells me it used to be your sig a while back.. :D

… and to qualify the scope of the irony, I realised what you had done when I read the next post you made. I do really think it was a very good gesture, so kudos there.

flumpy, would you please stop chewing on that herring?


FWIW, people can swipe at Locke all they want. He deserves it. As long as all he amounted to was grandiose claims of authorship on a regular schedule, he was mostly harmless, but this time around he's promoting his rather questionable code base and mucking with licensing. He's not good for the community.

I don't see what he's doing as "chewing on that herring", he's simply expressing his pleasure with Samson's gesture to placate the masses. I too am happy to see Samson willing to make that small concession, even though I didn't care one way or the other about his sig.

*strongly agrees*

This whole post is basically made with the flawed assumption that there is an authority figure here in the first place. There isn't.

[Edit for addition]: Furthermore, even the highest authority in the land can undertake actions that require you to give up any pretense of respect. I just want to mention again that your analogy here is really bad. If you disagree, feel free to PM me about it.

Pray tell, what was the herring?

If you mean Igabod's rant then it required a response of some kind, and if it was about grinding floppy axes and whatnot then I wasn't aware it was much of a herring.

If you meant not being listened to*, then hey, if no one listens to your complaint what are you supposed to do? STFU? No way. Sorry. It may be a herring, but it's not a red one, and I'll chew it all I like, thanks.



Well in this thread, I'd say it was pretty worthless to talk about Locke at all. However, the gesture Samson made was appreciated and I guess may have removed at least some of the perceived hypocrisy in his manner, which can only be a good thing.

[edit] * feeling like you are being listened to requires some kind of response appropriate to the complaint you have - i.e. _action_ of some sort that addresses that complaint. Anything else can seem like either a dismissal or ignorance.

Stop sniping at Samson was Sandi's point, I believe.

er.. i wasn't…