Random Thoughts 24

Yeah, good call. Except you didn't mention the other 15 times he did it during his time here... and his other rule breaks. Unfortunately, he didn't learn to stop calling things "gay" after we stressed to him he won't be warned again. Numerous times.

 

I was gonna say, why the fuck are you on this early?

 

Well they do look a lot like little yellow dicks on their heads. Just sayin.

 

I hate to even bring this up again, but I have to say my piece and defend my fellow staff members.

We allow for a lot of freedom in what our members can say and the words they can use. We allow every single curse word in the book and discussions on things that would be rated R if they were in a movie. There are a small number of words - I can probably count them on one hand - we ask our members not to use in a derogatory fashion because they can be offensive. There are so many synonyms for dumb or stupid, why choose gay or retarded? Just say stupid, dumb, or one of the other many words that isn't offensive when used like that.

As far as Hawk goes, he had 2 warnings on record (as in, we gave him an official warning on his account so we can track it) in addition to the 2 infractions he had before yesterday. There are probably many more off the record warnings where we told him in a post or via PM to stop using that word. We kept giving him multiple second chances - more than any other member gets, because we felt that he was a dedicated member of the site and hoped that he would stop using those words. The last time he used gay, about 2 months ago, I sent him a PM clearly outlining what he did wrong, why we kept overlooking it, and I told him that it should've been his third and final infraction resulting in a ban, but we were giving him a second chance, again, because of his dedication to this site. I also told him that the next time he breaks that rule, he will be banned, no ifs, ands or buts because we were getting sick of it and we can't put him above the rules because he was such a dedicated poster, or else none of you would follow the rules. Normally, when we send a PM like that to a member, they'll reply with an acknowledgment that they'll stop it, and apologize, or whatever. Hawk didn't even do that. So I don't know if he didn't understand it (and why he didn't PM me back with questions if he didn't), or didn't care, or what. But I know he read it, so he knew that he was on thin ice.

Like I said, normally I wouldn't throw fuel on the fire like this, but I have to defend ourselves from people who do not know the whole story trying to make us look like the bad guys in this. It's unfortunate that it happened, but at some point, we have to draw the line and say enough is enough.