A serious question, for those of you who don't have me on ignore:

What constitutes a troll?

Also, I want to go on record as saying that with as many problems as I've had with the administrative staff here on Pinside, I've never been treated as poorly here as I have at..... other pinball forums. Even my INDISC diary got nothing but love over here, whereas I posted a link to it somewhere else and I got nothing but guff.

So while I might go overboard sometimes, I appreciate the fact that Pinside treats me with a bit of respect. Thanks yawl.

I just get tired of the same person flaunting their ability to get away with breaking Pinside rules, but whatever. I also get tired of being moderated, so I'm dropping it.

I feel that the mods don't do anything about rule breakers until they get tired of reading the reports; if that's the case, I'm sure I'm being reported waaaaaaaay more than they are, so it's a losing battle.

Interesting company!

I've already been purged from one pinball forum, I'd hate to make it two.

This thread is turning into a PBC lemon party.

Then you just get people going F this F that F them F it.

Here's my opinion:

Everybody here loves pinball. Everyone here likes to express their opinions on pinball. Sometimes certain people express their opinions a little too much. I don't know where that line is. You might be surprised to read this coming from me, but I really am not interested in testing where that line is. I feel that if you post something that I don't like, or that I don't agree with, I should be able to express myself accordingly. And vice versa! I would much rather have a discussion with you about why I think you're wrong (or, again, vice versa) rather than you report and / or ignore me.

So that's why I think Crazy Levi is being incredibly, sociopathically disingenuous in this thread, this thread about people being cool with one another. I've got my own personal reasons as to why I don't like the guy, but I also have reasons that are perfectly framed within his silly argument about ignoring people and being stalked as well as within the supposed Pinside "rules" framework.

As to the former: like I said, I'd rather argue with a person about something than have that person put me on ignore because they can't win the argument. A little behind the scenes action for you: CL PM'd me once about something stupid, and when I responded, I got the "this user is blocking you!" notice. What kind of F'ing BS is that?

As to the latter: coming into a thread with the title "Who likes [fill in the whatever here]" and interrupting the supposed 'lovefest' with why [that whatever] sucks is the epitome of "not being nice". It's incredibly... poopy is what it is. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one that feels this way around here. Maybe I'm the only one that's stupid enough not to have them on my ignore list.

But I hate ignoring people! I think that's such a weak way out. What to do, what to do.

I hope that this whole Pinside "purge" is fair, and a level playing field for everyone posting here. I get the feeling that it isn't going to be, though. The shit-stirrer with pinball trophies is always going to be >>> the passionate dude with a shitty Gottlieb in his collection.

If this isn't the thread to communicate why you think this purge might not be the greatest and / or fairest idea, please point me in its' direction.

Care to discuss what you mean by this, or are you going to do the exact same things I mentioned in my post?

This is exactly what I was afraid of: people who know the dude and need to be like "oh but he's so wonderful IRL, you must be a troll to disagree with him!"

I outlined two completely valid reasons as to why he is being dangerously disingenuous for the good of Pinside in this thread, and I get "bubububu don't start your personal vendettas in here!". My discussion = your personal vendetta. Unless you're just shucking and jiving for upvotes, and honestly, like 90% of yawl are doing that.

I kinda wish I never shared that Gorf video with you, chadderack

Well, you're doing an awful lot of downvoting on my particular visage, my man.

This thread is all about the individual, though, is it not? People are going to get the boot, all in light of the Kaneda situation. And here I was, thinking that particular issue was solved with the whole "verified Pinside member" thing. So that's why I'm calling to light Mr. Levi's particular brand of trolling, in this thread and this thread only. If the moderators think his whole "I'm a little stinker" act is okay, then they need to adjust the rules so that ALL of us can be little shitbirds if we wanna be, rather than him get exceptional treatment.

Hey congrats on all those upvotes SHOOTTHEPYRAMID !

I guess I'm not wanted here.

I'm a lightning rod for people to get upvotes over. Congrats SHOOTTHEPYRAMID , you won the popularity contest.

Talk ish about how you would really love to like the ol' firebrand but you just can't_? Guaranteed upvotes. Congrats on pushing the envelope, @shootthepyramid. I hope to one day say hi to you at a tournament / Expo.

Really? I just got lectured about what a sh!tty poster I am. I guess I'm not passionate enough pinball as all of you are.

What am I talking about? I'm talking about the gangbang of upvotes everyone else gets when they talk sh!t about me. Even Crazy Levi, who I'm not allowed to say anything bad about lest I get downvoted and / or banned, gets in on the action.

This place is a popularity contest.

I'm tired of pinball. Just fighting games from now on.

Oh for

I don't know what you mean.

IMG_0322 (resized).JPG

lol Stella Artois.

And my nephew constantly getting mad at these pinball machines! Hahaha

Subtle.

Is there a set date for this purge? I want to make sure I have all my stuff before I get the ol' heave ho.

Don't kid yourself, pezpunk - this happens all the time. Heck, you can look through this thread for several instances of it.

Oh wonderful.

So, I shared a picture of me having fun in an arcade, because this is a pinball forum and pinball machines tend to be found in arcades. I figured it would make sense to show that hey, I actually am here to have fun, not just stir shit up, in light of being called out as a "bad Pinsider" by @shootthepyramid, as well as your subtle "but I'm being stalked!" digs. Me giving the finger was supposed to be in jest. You saw it as "flipping off the forum". So did the moderators. And again, I'm woefully misunderstood.

Now here you are, playing Pinside's white knight. It's all so phony and fake and disingenuous, but it's what people seem to like around these parts. The more I play pinball, the less I understand the people who play it.

Oh and I asked Chris if he's still willing to have us both on his podcast together. See if we can hash things out vocally, instead of you playing and winning the Pinside Popularity Contest. I hope you're up for it, buddy!

Well, you're obviously not interested in having a conversation with me, so do what you must. But before you do, could you please quit whining about how I'm stalking you with downvotes? It's really childish, even more childish than me using my five daily allotted downvotes on you.

I didn't see this in your original edit.

Anyways. That's some incredible cognitive dissonance on display. You're not here to fight with people? I almost got hit by ethnic lightning reading your post.

Hi Levi. I know who you are. I haven't played any pinball today. I haven't gotten out of bed yet actually. You see, I was drinking last night...

That might be our only outlet after this purge!

I'm unemployed since my gig taking care of my in-laws ended when they did, so I can drink and post recklessly on Pinside whenever I feel like it.

Thinking about driving up to Los Angeles to visit an arcade that has Aerosmith. Gotta keep a low profile up there because, surprise surprise, I pissed some popular people off.

What about you, Levi? I think you should show up at Chris's place, unannounced, with a bottle of Moët, demanding to play Magic Girl.

That's incredible! I hope the repair goes smoothly! While we're on the subject, what Pinball game needs the most repair? I see the trunk in TOM not working a LOT, but I've also seen the JJP games go down quite a bit.

Well, bring Cisco then.

I don't know New York at all, but my friends there always say shit like "ew, I can't go to Sunshine Laundromat, it's in Brooklyn", which I find hilarious. Borough specific hatred seems ludicrous to me.

Oh boy! Rarehero sighting confirmed?

I'm sorry sir. I'm trying to be a "good" Pinsider.

I dunno if you're joking or not, but man, this is a sticky situation. I give Levi a hard time, I get downvoted & moderated. I have a nice conversation with him, and that seems to bother people. Sheesh. Can't win.

Levi, since we're having this lovely chat: why did you feel the need to go in that Gottlieb thread and say how terrible Gottliebs are? I know you love to express your opinion, but, to me, it was uncalled for. Not trying to start an arguement, just trying to figure out how you think.

I honestly was just trying to have a conversation with the guy, I wasn't trying to stir anything up. I see you got an upvote from Pezpunk, that's good.

Well Mr68, this might just be the hangover talking, but I feel like my time as a poster on Pinside is coming to an end. Having to walk on eggshells with my every post is no fun whatsoever, and what's the point of posting if it's not fun? Between that and the passive-aggressive groupthink, it's becoming waaaay no fun.

Respectfully, sir: Levi started a conversation with me. No one felt the need to quote The Pinside Community Guidelines then. I bring up the wrong thing, even though I wasn't trying to start anything, I felt it was part of the convo - and now I'm getting a lecture about derailing a thread?

It's all a bit heavy handed in my opinion. This is why I'm finding Pinside to be no fun.

Again, where was all this vitriol when Levi initiated the conversation? There wasn't a single peep from anyone. But now the time has come for a bunch of backseat moderators to take me to task? That's ridiculous and it shows the double standard around here.

Well, to me, being told by a stranger that I'm "not cluing in" is a pretty dick-ish maneuver. That ol' double standard again.

Maybe I'm a clueless idiot - "maybe"? - but I don't see it that way at all.

Here's how I see it:

- CL imitates a conversation that had nothing to do with this thread.
- I went along with it.
- Levi and I have a nice back and forth.
- I say the wrong thing.
- The conversation is now considered derailing or unwelcome

If we're being fair, the minute Levi said "hey pal, let's chat", you should have said "actually Levi, why don't you take it to PM". But you didn't. That's a crystal clear double standard. But, it's not in line with the groupthink and that's why I feel like

Did you know that scene originally ended with him having a heart attack, but the director felt that having dudes head explode was actually LESS intense?

To add insult to injury, I took that pic right after my nephew had beaten me over a dozen times on Virtua Fighter 5. And a group of kids laughed at me for being so bad.

Oh, I thought the "get a room" was funny, but after everything said in this thread, I'm wondering if you and I both misread it.

Iceman, how many posts do you average a day on Pinside? Roughly a million, I'd guess. Come on man.

And why bring "panties" into it?

Why? There aren't any rules being broken in here. Also, there are quite a few volunteer moderators in this thread keeping things under control.

Iceman, it's not that I don't have thick skin. I'm ginger, so you know I've dealt with plenty of name calling throughout life. I don't care about that.

What I do care about is rules being enforced selectively. What I do care about is being singled out. What I do care about is being misunderstood.

And also, thick skin or not, being at the bottom of dogpiles kinda sucks. I'm glad you think I'm a good guy or whatever, but what are you adding to this conversation by joining in?

A dozen times

The thread was called "who here likes Gottlieb / Premier" and while I can't expect people to show a little restraint around here, a perfectly good thread got mercilessly derailed by Levi & a few of his cohorts. Now, I'm trying to be nice and I don't want to shit on the olive branch Levi extended to me, but I have to say this: there wasn't a single peep from all the pinsiders lecturing me in this thread. That's pretty ridiculous in my opinion.

Also, G & Ps are awesome.

You absolutely can! That wasn't what was happening. More along the lines of "G&Ps suck and you're an idiot for liking them". So, is it kindergarten?

Well we just made another post about it, so...

Showbiz was so much better than Chuck E Cheese!

This whole thing makes me nervous. Not so much because I'm now deemed a "bad pinsider" (although sure, that gives me a bit of pause), but it's clear that the amount of moderator feedback and / or reports they get on a member is what's going to make the difference whether you're in or auf'd as Ms. Klum would say.

Plus, the whole thing with people gleefully saying "get on with the purge!" is just kinda like.... what's the point? I guess you're not going to use that ignore function after all?

I dunno. It's sad, to me. I don't think it's going to make Pinside any better in the long run. Heck, I don't even know what's so bad about this place that moderators have to threaten their userbase every couple of months.

I know every post I make is cause for concern, but please, hear me out: what you just said is of no help to a "bad pinsider" such as myself. What would be helpful is if you had listed the things that are bothering you about peoples posts - what posts do you consider "noise"? - as well as listing the sources of such noise.

Thanks for your post.

Hmmm.

Hmmmmm x2.

Eh

It actually really, really does though.

But what's healthy to one person is cancerous to another!

Anyways, who cares. Either the so-called purge will happen, and we'll all either be vainglorious or martyrs, or nothing will happen, Pinside will keep keeping on, and so forth. To keep speculating on it seems a little too gossip-y and concerned with status for my liking.

Well once all of us troublemakers have gotten the boot, they'll turn on each other. That should be fun to watch!

You should have brought up oysters.

Keep in mind, the handful of us troublemakers are probably filling their inboxes with variations on an "are you serious?!?" theme. So our feedback threads might go unanswered for a bit.

It's just hard for me to believe that adults would rather use the report button rather than the ignore button.

Actually, it's not that hard to believe.

That is exactly what is happening.

It boggles my tiny lizard brain. Time and time again I read something from someone on Pinside that just blatantly violates the conduct guidelines and there is never any red text at the bottom of the post. I don't know what the point of selective moderation is. Is it because the moderators feel like certain members add so much to the community that they can let them slide? Is it because they donated to Pinside (probably not, I think Kaneda paid like a cool million to get back in)? Is it because they have a certain je ne sais quoi that others lack? Is it because they like oysters? Cigars? Monster Trucks?

All I know is, this is a message board. i don't understand why certain people are so gleeful to see less people conversing. I wonder if the people that are so happy for the purge are the ones doing the lions' share of reporting.

dzoomer you can't just ignore someone you don't like? It has to be a whole thing where mods get involved and linking to Slate articles?

Again I don't understand why so many people want to stifle conversation on a message board.

I don't report very often for two reasons: one, I'm not a moderator, and I think it is VERY fair to expect moderators moderating every post. That's their job.

Two, I've tried reporting things that are blatant violations of the rules, and they go nowhere. It shows how meaningless the whole reporting thing is for certain people.

This whole purge thing is pathetic.

Your buddy has a problem with me too for whatever reason. Mission Control is the latest spot in Santa Ana with pins and brews. First round is on me.

O-din does that, but he's far from the only one. And if O-din does something like that and it bothers you, wouldn't putting him on ignore solve the problem for you?

(And yes, solve the problem FOR YOU. it doesn't matter if so-and-so doesn't feel like that's enough; so-and-so can ignore them too)

I'm going to respectfully disagree with you there. Being a moderator on Pinside is a volunteer effort. It's not a prerequisite for posting on Pinside. If it's too much work for them, perhaps Pinside needs new moderators.

(Wouldn't that be an interesting experiment? Instead of the Pinside insistence that it's a few rotten apples spoiling the bunch, what if a whole new moderation staff was put into effect? See what kind of change that makes?)

They provide the "Report" button for a reason, which is to quickly bring to their attention posts that they might not otherwise see for hours, if at all.
If they're routinely ignoring your Reports I'd start a mod feedback thread, as that seems like a separate issue.

But I come here to talk about pinball, not to make sure the moderators are doing their jobs.