I don't think it's fair to fault him with all the garbage new accounts in the GAF thread. Like what ? Lurkers see etiolate posts (but not those of every one else ?) and somehow that is a mating call ? It honestly feels like scapegoating in its most biblical sense, as if no other regular users (especially in the GAF thread) -myself included- did partake in sometimes reactionary, snarky, contrarian, provocative, smug and biased discourse which may align with the usual bulletpoints of some of the current unsavory corners of the Web. Railling against safespaces, Social Studies Warrior, passing summary judgement on one's intentions, always taking for granted the worst possible motivations in any GAF drama up to speculating on pedophilia if not a pedophilia ring (OK that one took a eerie turn a few months ago)... A complete list would be too long to make.
It is all a big joke of course, but we do know that those can start to get a life of their own after a point and it is not just a week old either (though the thread has reached a new level of insanity due to ongoing events). People mistake us for VOAT or whatever other hellhole because there is some overlap between our GAF thread and what they do (at least the part about picking, choosing and laughing at links from GAF or whatever). It is unreasonable to expect outsiders to read the rest or understand at a glance the arcane, convoluted & insular culture of the place that informs the jokes and whatnot. For better of for worse, the GAF thread is the forefront of TheBore. And I'm skeptical as to the containment theory, it certainly seems that last week it sucked in much more people than anything.
As an aside, the GAF thread seems increasingly like an outdated relic in the shifting Internet culture and I suspect the prejudice and incomprehension of casual passers-by will only get worse. This sort of message boards fuckery is probably getting as obsolete as message boards themselves. Maybe because the language is too edgy and maybe because drama has scaled up to become worldwide with real-life consequences thanks to Twitter, 4ch, Anonymous or any other site you care to name.
Moving on to the person of etiolate himself : I don't care for his political insight and have long decided to pass most of his posts on the matter. I also can only rally to most of Human Snorenado comments about him, nonetheless I do find him witty at times and I do think that for all his flaws (and god knows he has many) he is also a real person with opinions on big or small things I wouldn't have expected given his overall slant. Likewise with the fact -he will probably try to contest for our hilarity- that he is obviously capable of shame though it has yet to lead to some more humility. I also believe it is necessary to have some diversity of opinions, apart from the truly heinous ones, even if it means settling with etiolate as the token one for crazy right wing stuff. All the more since I find him mostly harmless.
All that being said, I am not familiar with the longer history here, despite having lurked on and off before joining and I guess some of the opinions are informed by that.
Lastly, with regards to this community, I think permanent bans should be used as parsimoniously as possible and be reserved as a last resort and/or to punish grievous offences only.
For all those reasons I say :
- Keep etiolate.
- Retire the GAF thread, at least temporarily, or let's try to consider some tone policing to avoid some of the usual excesses.
Poll
