Harold_V said:
What's amusing is your short sighted approach to tax evasion.
Blah blah long anecdotal diatribe snipped so as not to re-dull the senses. Now I am being accused of tax evasion. On what, dear old Harold, do you base this accusation? In fact, I find no similarities between your friend, Bird, and my situation. Perhaps you have some insight into my own life (which I have not really discussed in any particular detail here) that I simply do not. It might be that you have super-humanly empathic powers that can traverse both time and space and ultimately know a person's story as if it were your own, so who am I to second guess you? Why, in fact, you may well be Almighty.
I've mentioned to you that there will be no further discussion of tax evasion on this forum. I damned well mean it.
Fine. Suits me just
fine. I'm not sure how there could be
further discussion of such topic when there never was any to begin with. I'm really here to discuss gold refining anyway.
The next time you open your mouth in that regard, consider yourself no longer a welcome member here.
Excuse me? By whom? You? You and whom? Do you speak for all the members of the GRF? Do you speak for all the moderators? Do you speak for Noxx? Are you going to ban me simply because I point out the hypocrisy of your constant interference in my conversations, then get uppity when you single me out over a
non-existent conversation?
Can you not see that anything you say that draws attention to the forum can result in the entire forum being scrutinized by those in power?
And the rampant copyright abuse that I pointed out that clearly and regularly occurs on the forum is
not going to attract "those in power"? Please! That poses much more of a threat than my (non-existent) "discussion of tax evasion". And, anyway, nobody is going to bother themselves with our little forum in the corner of the web over here over simple sharing of links, so please don't use specious reasons to gag my random and inconsequential tirades about the corrupt tax system in this country.
Harold, I like and respect you, even though you're a curmudgeonly *******, but this bullying has got to stop. Because that's all this is about: you are pushing your weight around just to prove you're the alpha dog. If you reasonably objected to my comment to the kid then you should have just quietly deleted it and noted to me in private mail what you did and why (as you have in the past). You know I've always been reasonable about it and respected your authority, even when you quietly deleted comments that I didn't make a fuss over (remember the one about Arizona? I WAS BEING WRY).
I used to be a top dog on a forum in one of my other hobbies, by way of being the equivalent of the Harold of that hobby. I had authority by way of being one of the most prolific collectors and investigators of the subject matter of that hobby. So I had clout and I expressed it. But my Alpha desire came from my young, unkempt cockiness. I was a topic nazi on the mailing list. If anyone strayed, I slapped their wrist! If they objected, I KICKED THEIR ***. I took no damn prisoners and I was not to be told how a mailing list about Said Hobby was going to be allowed to stray into off topic material. If you wanted to jibber jabber then go to any one of the multitudinous places on the internet where you can jaw away about anything to your heart's content but NOT HERE. Pretty soon the entire discussion turned to discussing the controversy, then discussing the discussion, then chaos, and finally a blow-up, to be followed by an uneasy truce. And guess what? My insistence for the sake of insisting
lost me friends. Over time I mellowed. The controversy repeatedly erupted, same issue, same arguments, same suggested solutions, every time. I just began to ignore it. Eventually, due to other obligations, I left the mailing list. And you know? That list goes on today, for better or worse, same controversy occasionally erupting, but everyone gets on and the hobby is better for it. My lack of Alpha presence notwithstanding.
Why the long story? Two good points to make from it: One, the GRF will do just fine without you, Harold. You can let go. I'm not suggestion
you leave, I'm just asking you to chill. You're too old and retired to get worked up over such nonsense! A slight bump here and there is fine; a good nudge for the stubborn and a sound drubbing for the repeat and overt offenders is acceptable but please, enough of the acid. Neutralize it. And Two, the GRF is not a mailing list. The latter is different in that you by default receive every message posted to the list, and so if a bunch of off-topic blather enters into the datastream then you have to wade through the chaff to get to the seed. The GRF is entirely different. It's a web forum. Most of the content is selected by the individual reader, base by base, topic by topic, thread by thread, comment by comment. If they don't like the crosstalk and noise? No problem, just skip that nonsense. No one is going to suffer from the occasional topic drift and folks, for the most part, have been respectful of others here and have kept their chatty banter to the proper forums. THERE IS NO PROBLEM.
Harold, I don't presume to say you are dispensable here, as obviously you are an important and
highly respected contributor. However, I do not appreciate and I reject your presumption that everyone on this forum would find
my contributions to be unwelcome if
you said so. I try to contribute as much as I take from this forum and I can dare say I've put as much time into creating content to return to the forum in good faith for as much as I've consumed in the hours that I've sat and read everyone else's contribution.
I AM NOT A DEADBEAT.
Yes, I'll admit I have rather "unorthodox" views about our world, our society, the reality thereof and the obligations and expectations of one unto that society, but I am not "short sighted", "stupid" nor "a moron". I have very reasoned and well thought-out arguments that are as much a part of my daily discourse as yours is when you wax about something off-hand in a thread, and no one objects to it. Because they shouldn't: it's just banter. You object to my asides because they may be easily "gray", certainly (to your eyes) on the "extreme", but I never do or say anything "actionable" because I am not "inciting"; I am merely discussing a conclusion arrived at logically by a set of values that supercedes meek obedience to corrupt authority (or rather
any authority that is not derived from one's own values, or
consent to a collective set of values).
I would have preferred to have sent this privately and mulled over it but then I reckoned that since you publicly flailed me then I should rightly have the option to publicly rebuke you, and so here it is. I don't care to continue this already ridiculous discussion and I hope there is no need to do so (at least publicly) after this but I also hope that my silly and inconsequential comments will not be taken as anything but the noise in between the signal. If I'm out of line then I'll be the first to admit it, but I don't think that's the case here. I think this is an over-reaction, and I've seen it before. I've seen you jump down the throats of other people who have irked you in some otherwise simple manner. I've seen you obliterate threads that got even remotely "hot" and then just told everyone to shut up or you'd start buttin' heads! It's excessive, Harold. You don't need to be such a damn pitbull!
You may be my senior in terms of years and my better in terms of skills with regards to this subject but I am your EQUAL when it comes to respect, and I will not be treated with anything less than what I have given to you.
For what it's worth, I would really like to remain as a valued member, but if what I've said makes me an "unwelcome" member then so be it. I'll find my fortune on my own.
