RIP ALLGATOR

[NCDomer]

I think this warrants some discussion.

To me, it's all about being intellectually honest vs. dishonest. Do you actually believe what you are saying? I'ts not about having contrasting viewpoints. For example, the political threads are full of tons of disagreement. And you often see tons of disagreement on individual recruits or player or things like that (e.g. Ebenezer Ogundeko, Bruce Heggie, Mauk vs. Kiel). And there was a guy who no longer really frequents this board named NDOM who was probably the most negative poster I've ever seen. People really had zero issues with him and he was around for years.

So what's the issue with ALLGATOR then? As I said, I defended him for a long time because I thought he just had a different opinion than everyone else.... then the Sugar Bowl happened. That's when it became painfully obvious that he just posted here to annoy people and didn't actually believe a word he typed. Maybe you think that is fun, I don't think that adds anything to the board at all. But I'm not a mod so it's not really my call on how this whole banning thing works.

There have been tons of Michigan fans, Ohio State fans, and even the occasional USC fans that lurks/posts here and don't get banned. I remember I got into an argument with one Michigan fan about Purdue's defense being better than Michigan's... did he get banned? No, because he was being intellectually honest and not just posting with the intent to annoy. And it turns out he was right and Michigan's D was way better and I told him as much after the fact. So this board certainly isn't intolerant of opposing viewpoints from fans... all that is really asked is you post with civility and don't intentionally troll for the sake of trolling. ALLGATOR did the former but failed on the latter, IMO. So I sure won't cry seeing him gone.

I don't enter the politics threads, so I wouldn't know about the disagreements there. And sure, there's some disagree about which player we should recruit, who should start, etc. Outside of Rees, I rarely thought the disagreements got heated.

Those things (what's in bold) don't bother me. I find them amusing. In a perverse way, it forces posters here to support their arguments and make better points.

The board isn't intolerant of other viewpoints, but as noted in by others in this thread, they don't get as much leeway if they sidetrack a thread, especially if they're trolling. Plenty of threads get sidetracked with memes, which in many ways amount to positive feeling trolling.

Not a big deal either way if the board doesn't allow it. I just wanted to in a way vote for keeping some trolls around because I find the dynamic they provide amusing.

 

[NCDomer]

As I mentioned above, I didn't even intend to ban him. His post about Anzalone's recruitment being "epic" was calculated to provoke, though, and I didn't want to see him derail yet another recruit's thread with such subtle trolling. So he got a 1-point infraction. Unfortunately for him, he had already accumulated a 2-point infraction for some very aggressive trolling in Michael Deeb's thread, so he got auto-banned. What's petty about that?



You're in a small minority, then. We try hard to keep each thread more or less on topic, so our posters don't have to crawl through multiple threads and forums to find relevant news. Too frequently ALLGATOR's posts changed the subject of discussion in a recruit's thread toward himself, which then required clean-up by the moderators. That kind of behavior adds nothing substantive to the discussion and diverts moderating resources that are better used elsewhere.



See Lax's post above. We welcome opposing viewpoints as long as they're substantive and respectfully presented. Such posters definitely add to the quality of discourse around here. And ALLGATOR did provide some substance, which is a big reason why his trolling was tolerated for so long. But it caught up with him eventually.



Nobody called him the biggest troll on the interwebz; but his subtlety and longevity here arguably make him the most successful troll in IE's history.



I didn't create this thread to beat my chest about having banned GATOR (as I mentioned, that wasn't even my intention when I infracted him). People noticed he was banned in Alexander's recruiting profile, and naturally started discussing it. Some posters felt he was a positive addition to the board, so I moved that discussion here (out of Alexander's thread) to explain what happened in the interest of moderating transparently.

I've posted on other boards where that's not a big deal. IE keeps things far more in check. Not a big deal. I realize I'm in minority on enjoying some occasional trolling. IE doesn't like. That's fine. I'll still enjoy coming here for Irish updates.

 

[palinurus]

I think we may need to distinguish between the mods and the members. I think the mods are generally pretty tolerant, though once in a blue moon I get sense a mod might be a little sensitive and overofficious. But in my experience that's very rare.

I do think (and this was part of NCDomer's point, I thought) that members sometimes run a guy off pretty quickly. It's hard to tell who gets run off and who lurks, but I know I got negative repped one time, and only once here, after I questioned Kelly's testiness at a press conference. Well, I am not a troll; I put my bona fides as an Irish fan up against anyone's. But that doesn't mean I have to like everything that happens. I know this was just once, but to me it illustrated that some guys are a bit too intolerant for my taste, and do make fellow Irish fans feel like outsiders; it's an occasional cliquishness that I think the mods try to correct, because it really has no place here, imo.

To me, you guys are ND fans, and that masks over disagreements -- political and sports and personal -- because it's important to me. I don't care if we disagree about politics or sports, and your opinions may vary from mine, but I see no enemies among fellow Irish fans. But not everyone sees it that way.

 

[ARALOU]

My experience here has been mostly positive. I have rubbed a few wrong I suppose but the exchanges were far from heated. Disagreement is expected. Heck I have one fellow Irish fan friend that insists that Kiel should start over Golson. Which I prefer Golson.


Anyway, I didn't have any problem with Allgator. I could tell that he might be borderline but I have seen much worse in here. Plus I am not sure what he meant by "epic" regarding Anzalone's recruitment.

 

[ulukinatme]

I just don't understand why fans of other teams hang out here? There are a glut of Florida boards. I don't go trolling around USC or Tennessee's boards because I just don't care what their fans are talking about. I don't understand trolling at all.

It can be a little boring when you have nothing but fans of the same team. It leads to the same kinds of discussions sometimes. You'll always have some differing opinions, but I find that message boards that allow some tolerant and respectful fans from other teams can lead to more interesting conversations. Most Oklahoma fans that came here are a good example. Trojanprincess was cool, although I haven't seen her around much lately.

Personally I've hung around Buckeyeplanet since the '05 season when some of their posters invited a bunch of Irish fans over from a now defunct Irish fan board. I've been over there off and on ever since. It's had it's low moments, and theres plenty of Buckeye fans that would **** on a Michigan fan on fire to put him out before an Irish fan, but it's got it's positives too. 8 years is a decent track record for not being banned as an Irish fan I visit ShaggyBevo too, although thats mostly for their humor.