Political avatars

Ignorance can be intentional Mav, and I think it was in this case, so I never said it was a cop out. From what I can tell, we all agreed the macroboy sitch would stay dormant until it became an issue. If somebody disagreed then they never voiced that opinion. Now that it became an issue, we're saying someone's a victim. I'm having difficulty understanding that.

I don't necessarily disagree that's it's ridiculous and stupid, but it seems like we handle situations in this way all the time. Disregard the context for a moment. People get away with stuff all the time around here and, in some cases, for an extended period of time. Usually, a very specific situation becomes the catalyst for change. If that makes Dewiz a victim, then there are plenty of victims around here that deserve our sympathy for other things that have been the reason for change.

Ultimately, it seems like we all agree that this is the best course of action. If we have to agree to disagree on what makes someone a victim, so be it. I do think Dewiz got unfairly targeted, but I don't think that makes our decision wrong. I'll leave it at that.

 
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This comment pretty much sums up the absurdity that all this has become.

If this is how far you have to go to justify your hatred from Trump then I don't know where to go from here.

Moiraine said:
Hillary isn't blatantly racist or sexist.
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Edit - this is my fault.  I was reading to fast.  I retract it.

 
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Hey everyone. In the Woodshed, members are now openly discussing @Dewiz's attempts to subvert the policy on political messaging on the board. After reading the comment from @RedDenver, I wrote the following response (see below). However, I am refraining from posting it to discuss with all of you whether it is worth kicking this hornets' nest. That fact is his efforts have not only been noticed by us but apparently by many others on the board. It is this public and blatant violation of board policy and rules that may require action. Anyway, I am leaving my thoughts down below and will not post it in the public forum until we as a mod team are given the opportunity to discuss.

RedDenver said:
Look at the pattern of behavior. Dewiz has been skirting the rules trying to get a reaction. Some of his status updates recently:

"And the winning continues...what a day!!!"

"Boy Disney sure held their ground lol. $$$ over morals y’all"

"Got $3,200 more in my taxes compared to last year. This is one happy camper"

That didn't work so he changed the profile pic and got a reaction.

And just to drive the point home, look what he changed the avatar to: just the number 45 on a jersey. And he claims it's because Joel Mackovicka is his favorite player - even though he cropped the image to just the number. Not a great play by JM. Not a picture of JM. Doesn't even include JM's head in the avatar.
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All of these efforts by @Dewiz have not gone unnoticed by the mod team. We have tried to give him the benefit of the doubt in each example, though his intentions to subvert our policy on PR content on the board seems apparent. I, for one, am glad this is now getting discussed openly which gives us the forum to address it. In each case, Dewiz uses messaging to spread his political views with enough plausible deniability to make it difficult to act on, and when you ask him directly, imo, he lies about his true intentions of his message. Still, I am not willing to take action on any one of these cases as it could be a misinterpretation on my part.

Personally, I find it cowardly to act is a such way. Have conviction in your beliefs. Join a debate if you would like to express your point-of-view. Otherwise, leave it alone. 

 
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@Thanks_Tom RR, I appreciate all your efforts and insight on this, especially in the Shed. Handling it very well IMO.

I think it's probably important to set a bit of a foundation here for a moment. @Dewiz and @Landlord were two of the biggest reasons, if not the biggest reasons, we took a hardline approach to politics in areas of the board outside of P&R. They weren't the first to go too far in the status updates, but it was their spat that ultimately caused us to finally draw a real line in the sand just before the 2017 season, IIRC.

Since that situation two years ago, @Dewiz has made multiple attempts to subvert the policy. @RedDenver is mentioning a couple of them and there are others I can remember. He keeps the posts just vague enough to maintain deniability, but it's often clear what he's trying to accomplish. Referencing his most recent Trump avatar - that was put up just a short time after the Mueller report was released, a report that so far seems to favor Trump and is being talked about in conservative circles as proof of a witch hunt against Trump. Is his avatar a coincidence? Highly unlikely. I believe he did it for the primary intention of trying to irritate other board members. Is it fair that he got singled out? No. But, he chose for the longest time not play an active role in P&R, opting for things like this instead, which does make it a cheeky tactic.

Fast forward to now, post-mandate. He first refused to remove the avatar himself. Fine, I did it for him. This "Joel Makovicka" number, to me, is another example of his disregard for the rules others are having to play by now. It's enough for him to maintain a facade of deniability, but is it a coincidence? Highly unlikely.

I don't think rational conversation with Dewiz about this stuff is possible now. It hasn't been ever since he got into the spat with Landlord - since that time, he believes we're biased against him and his political opinions, so I don't think he will listen to any of us. But, I don't think we can publicly acknowledge we know or suspect what he's doing and then let it continue.

 
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Enhance said:
I don't think rational conversation with Dewiz about this stuff is possible now. It hasn't been ever since he got into the spat with Landlord - since that time, he believes we're biased against him and his political opinions, so I don't think he will listen to any of us. But, I don't think we can publicly acknowledge we know or suspect what he's doing and then let it continue.
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I agree with all of your points. It is this final one that made me pause from publically acknowledging his actions. I feel we are left with two scenarios: 1) not publically acknowledging his actions until something more overt occurs or 2) taking time now to acknowledge them publically and pm Dewiz with an ultimatum of stopping such behavior or being permabanned.

 
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I think this goes one of two ways. Bone-idleness on our behalf will be met by continued, subtle subversiveness from Dewiz. Other members will believe he's trolling us, getting away with it and breaking a board guideline, which is what many of them think he's doing right now anyways.

But, if we hold true to our stated goal which is to keep P&R in P&R, then we will have to intervene with Dewiz directly. If we message him, I believe he will react negatively and refuse to be amicable, ultimately forcing us to ban him. He will say we are out to get him and claim that the '45' avatar is about Joel and '45' being his favorite number (which is what he's claiming in the Woodshed). At the very least, it shows a tone deafness to the situation.

If we agree that this '45' avatar is an attempt at subversiveness (I personally do), I would prefer we try to reason with him and I feel we are obligated to, but it will likely end poorly.

 
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Enhance said:
I think this goes one of two ways. Bone-idleness on our behalf will be met by continued, subtle subversiveness from Dewiz. Other members will believe he's trolling us, getting away with it and breaking a board guideline, which is what many of them think he's doing right now anyways.

But, if we hold true to our stated goal which is to keep P&R in P&R, then we will have to intervene with Dewiz directly. If we message him, I believe he will react negatively and refuse to be amicable, ultimately forcing us to ban him. He will say we are out to get him and claim that the '45' avatar is about Joel and '45' being his favorite number (which is what he's claiming in the Woodshed).

If we agree that this '45' avatar is an attempt at subversiveness (I personally do), I would prefer we try to reason with him and I feel we are obligated to, but it will likely end poorly.
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My vote is to address this behavior and let the dominos fall as they will.

 
FWIW Dewiz changed his profile photo to a full upper body photo of Joel, which is interesting since he adamantly defended that there was nothing wrong with it in the first place. I don't know if that changes much, because I think his intent is still there, but still wanted to notate it for discussion.

As for @45timesbetterthanemptysuit, IMO, if we tell people 'no political user names,' we'll have to enforce it fully even if said member only participates in certain portions of the board. It'll probably keep things cleaner, avoid ambiguity and criticisms of inconsistency.

 
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