I’m sorry but I don’t quiet understand the point of continuing to rehash the thread in some type of blow-by-blow way. How does it move the discussion forward or enlighten anyone about anything? How is it constructive? Dan apologized for deleting the thread and for losing him temper. He took responsibility for his actions. As BBC said, he manned up. Quite a few people have already maturely accepted his apology. Do you really want me to hold the people still gnawing on the bone accountable for *their* actions? FYI, I am not a big fan of arbitrating shares of responsibility. Without delving into the details I am certain there is enough blame to go around.

Seriously, kids.  A conversation was had.  On the internet.  Now that conversation is gone from the site.  It’s not like all of history will disappear if the text of the thing isn’t stored forever on a server somewhere. 

You went to a pub.  You had a few pints.  You had a good blowhard time with a few buddies, a few strangers.  It got a little heated, and then you went home.  Just move on.  The fact that it’s not archived for future troll mining isn’t that big of a deal.  A professional will just make up something and attribute to Dan as a false quote.

Trust me on this one, okay?

Sorry Jim, not trying to drag anything out. I just think that since I’m obviously close to the center of the whole mess, it was appropriate to respond to the re-hash thread. Also, my last post was a bit belated, but contains some info that directly goes to the title of the present thread.

I don’t think I need to say anything more, so unless something new comes up, I’ll shut up.

HCO, Transgressive Herbivore - 20 February 2012 05:18 PM

The rant about teachers is cached here in 6972.

The bar for ranting must’ve been lowered dramatically in the past couple of days, because that’s a poor rant by Internet standards, much less BTF standards.

Jim Furtado - 20 February 2012 06:32 PM

I’m sorry but I don’t quiet understand the point of continuing to rehash the thread in some type of blow-by-blow way. How does it move the discussion forward or enlighten anyone about anything? How is it constructive? Dan apologized for deleting the thread and for losing him temper. He took responsibility for his actions. As BBC said, he manned up. Quite a few people have already maturely accepted his apology. Do you really want me to hold the people still gnawing on the bone accountable for *their* actions? FYI, I am not a big fan of arbitrating shares of responsibility. Without delving into the details I am certain there is enough blame to go around.

Sorry, Jim, but Dan did the absolute minimum. It read like pure CYA stuff and was as genuine as the pleather on my $10 sneakers. That people are interested in reviewing what happened after hours of their work and thought was deleted shouldn’t surprise you in the least. Further, it’s disingenuous to claim there’s blame to be shared. I took my share of punches on the thread and Dan’s is the only behavior I object to. Reading through this thread I don’t see anyone taking anyone other than Dan to task; not even veer bender, whose post allegedly triggered the thread deletion.

As for my part in the thread, Dan’s was dishonest then, and continued to be so in this thread, where he wrote:

Dan Szymborski - 19 February 2012 08:10 PM

And tshipman, thanks for tallying the times I was a dick.  We can’t all be blessed like you, that can just look at their post count.  And let’s not forget that you’re more obsessed with Ray DiPerna than John Hinckley Jr. was with Jodie Foster.  And you’re actually a more civil person than somethingother or veer bender!

This is downright sad.

The first time Dan appeared in the thread that I was aware of, it was to personally attack me.

I had been talking to a couple of libertarians about the selfishness of their position, and its internal hypocrisy. Dan was not mentioned at all, discussed AT ALL, either directly or by implication, and simply bounced into the thread as though I had personally attacked him and went on the warpath, attacking me personally. Unfortunately, that wasn’t unusual for him. For all his griping about other posters supposed dreadful behavior, Dan is the baby who smacks people and runs away, then whines if anyone takes him to task for it. He’s the infant who grabs his toys and runs home sobbing just because he’s losing.

And, he’s going to do it again the next time it suits him. As for you, Jim, accusing people of “gnawing on the bone” is small, and seems unlike you. As for the veiled threat of ‘holding people accountable for their actions’, what on earth does that mean?

Common sense suggests you let people air their grievances without clapping your hands after 130 posts and saying ‘that’s enough you spoiled brats. Time for bed!’

Something Other - 20 February 2012 08:13 PM

Common sense suggests you let people air their grievances…

Let me know when it’s time for the feats of strength.

spycake - 20 February 2012 06:17 PM

I crawled Google Cache for each page of the original thread, and got most of it in this ZIP archive:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/wrdyej

Missing a few bits here and there, particularly at the end.

Spycake, this seems interesting, but all I end up with is an .exe file for something, which spooks me to open.  Am I missing something?

BTW, I agree with Sam for the most part.  I only want the thread for selfish archival reasons.

Lassus, the site has a lot of shady stuff but the link you want to click is “Click here to start download from sendspace”.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Griffin (Vlad) - 20 February 2012 08:43 PM

Something Other - 20 February 2012 08:13 PM

Common sense suggests you let people air their grievances…

Let me know when it’s time for the feats of strength.

Somebody string Dan up at the top of the Festivus pole and let’s be done with this bit of skullduggery.

Dan Szymborski - 20 February 2012 01:57 PM

Justin T contains indigenous nudity - 20 February 2012 01:42 PM

Jim Furtado - 20 February 2012 01:40 PM

And again, some of the most popular content on the site have *no* discussion.

Can you send GGC an email saying this?

I’ve been telling him this for years but I don’t think he believes me.  Comment counts and responses correlate very poorly with readership count and interest and that’s not just here.

What really stinks is that he tends to get discouraged by the lack of arguments over his work.

Nah, what was really discouraging was applying for Notgraphs and not hearing back.  I wouldn’t expect BPro to come calling,  Larry Granillo fills my niche, and Grantland isn’t looking for new writers.  But I figure my stuff would be perfect for Carson Cistulli and company.  At least tell me “Thanks, but no thanks.”  Also, Designated Sitter didn’t seem to get too many visitors. 

Anyways, time has become tighter for me over the past couple of years.  When I have been writing lately, I’ve been working on a war memoir.

Dan Szymborski - 20 February 2012 01:57 PM

Justin T contains indigenous nudity - 20 February 2012 01:42 PM

Jim Furtado - 20 February 2012 01:40 PM

And again, some of the most popular content on the site have *no* discussion.

Can you send GGC an email saying this?

I’ve been telling him this for years but I don’t think he believes me.  Comment counts and responses correlate very poorly with readership count and interest and that’s not just here.

What really stinks is that he tends to get discouraged by the lack of arguments over his work.

PS - I’d be curious to see which of my pieces garnered the most hits.

GGC, I don’t have the old data. During the CMS update I had to purge that field. In the redesign, though, I will be using the info to generate some alterative Hot Topics.

6972? When did you get the time machine? I can barely see ahead 10 minutes from now and HCO is already looking ahead to the year 6972.

@veer, no problem.

@something other, really? I have known Dan for 15 years. I also directly discussed this matter with him. When he apologized, he meant it. For you to dismiss it out of hand says something about you.

I don’t get involved in the middle of quarrels on the site. I neither have the time or inclination to play peacemaker or counselor. Instead I simply expect people to act like adults on this site. I don’t have any long, intricate explanation of what that means. When conflicts on this site take place, 99.9% of the people on this site only need to be reminded of that simple policy and the issues get resolved. The other 0.1% often require more attention on my part. It’s usually not the kind of attention either they or I like, but eventually things resolve themselves to my satisfaction. 

Please accept Dan’s apology at face value, take responsibility for your own culpability, and move on.

I was kidding, Jim.  But a most clicked field would be cool.

Jim Furtado - 20 February 2012 01:54 PM

With the site and CMS changes it really doesn’t matter whether the Lounge is in the Forum or within the main part of the site. I can now more easily hide content from Google and non-members than I could before. With the better server setup and advances in caching that I am integrating into the new site design, it really doesn’t matter to me where/how the Lounge is set up. As a matter of fact, I probably could better blend the Lounge and the rest of the site if it was moved back within the main CMS.

If someone wants to make this a Feature Request/discussion, I invite you to create a thread about it in the appropriate forum. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter to me. If people want it to change, however, they need to tell me fairly soon.

- if it is possible to move the lounge out of the forums, PLEASE PLEASE do it. it is incredibly hard for some of us - especially with reading problems - to follow the lounge in the forum format

Designated Sitter (GGC) - 20 February 2012 09:49 PM

Dan Szymborski - 20 February 2012 01:57 PM

Justin T contains indigenous nudity - 20 February 2012 01:42 PM

Jim Furtado - 20 February 2012 01:40 PM

And again, some of the most popular content on the site have *no* discussion.

Can you send GGC an email saying this?

I’ve been telling him this for years but I don’t think he believes me.  Comment counts and responses correlate very poorly with readership count and interest and that’s not just here.

What really stinks is that he tends to get discouraged by the lack of arguments over his work.

PS - I’d be curious to see which of my pieces garnered the most hits.

PPS - I’m sure I’m not the only frustrated blogger out there.  There’s probably a regiment of us out there; commanded by Graham Womack.