Images - Best of the Forums

It's just stupid -- and self-deceptive -- to deny the power of images and words. Are you never affected by photographs? By art? And a comparison of your dislike of lolcats with the very real upset that an image like this can cause is absurd.

You KNOW this image seriously upset and disturbed people when you used it before. It actually helped drive one regular poster from this forum -- someone you supposedly liked, and who certainly had liked you.

I don't get it, I really don't. This isn't "educational" or "polemical" or anything like that: no one is "learning" anything from this. It's just deliberately and consciously cruel. It's like pulling the legs off insects for the sheer joy of inflicting pain, and about as mature.

Why do you do this? Why?

It's just stupid -- and self-deceptive -- to deny the power of images and words. Are you never affected by photographs? By art? And a comparison of your dislike of an image like this with the very real upset that lolcats can cause is absurd.

I don't get it, I really don't. This isn't "educational" or "polemical" or anything like that: no one is "learning" anything from this. It's just deliberately and consciously cruel. It's like pulling the legs off insects for the sheer joy of inflicting pain, and about as mature.

Why do you do this? Why?

Pep (See what I did there?)

Gosh yes. Remarkably clever.

Would it make a difference to you if I said it was a male cat?

Pep (Or maybe if I put a humorously misspelled caption on it?)

.

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I wouldn't even bother with him Scylla. In just a few days he will fade away never to be seen or heard from again as he has nothing to contribute to the blog/forums that are replacing these forums and the moderators there will have little tolerance for his drivel.

I came to this thread after whatever it was had been censored. Frankly, I would have preferred to have been given the opportunity to judge for myself. Instead, all I know right now is that there was something here that *you* didn't like. With all due respect, that's not very useful information to me. In the future, I'd appreciate it if you would refrain from censoring, or asking Lindens to censor, posts.

No, you know that it violated TOS and/or forum guidelines or else it would not have been removed.
In the future? For another 2 days?

Regardless it's a privately owned forum, and all posts are subject to censorship if they don't abide by TOS and community guidelines. I see no reason why asshats should run rampant making such posts just because the forums are in their death throes (unless you want to give Linden Lab an excuse to shut it all down even earlier).

Here you go, Esquievel: enjoy enjoy!!

http://media.weeklyshot.org/images/source/c83c7f24bc059aea30db9d80819af6d5.jpg

A warning to others whose enthusiasm for "freedom of expression" may not extend so far as to wish to probe the deeper meanings embedded in pictures of dead animals: don't click on this link.

It is, as you can see, a trenchant commentary on the Second Life, the forums, and the human condition: no doubt, without a little bit of searching, you can find a lovely picture of a vivisected dog to accompany it and provide further insights into what it is that makes us all human.

As Dagmar has pointed out, I did not remove the picture; I requested that it be removed. The decision to actually do so was not mine, nor should it have been: it was a decision made by one of the appointed resmods of this forum, and was based, presumably, on his or her judgment of the appropriateness of the image.

I might add that, had Pep merely given the link, as I have, with an appropriate warning as to the content, I would have objected to it, but not reported it.

By way of a bit of context: this picture was inserted by Pep into the Undying Thread sometime ago as his "witty" response to a series of harmless lolcats that had been posted there. It generated about 15 or so pages of complaints, was reported (and removed) then, and caused at least one regular poster there so much upset that she departed this forum permanently.

I make absolutely no apology for reporting it. That's why we have "report" buttons: to ask the resmods to judge and respond to a posting that may be in violation of forum guidelines or the ToS. I don't wield, nor do I wish to, the rights of a censor myself, but when I judge that someone has deliberately employed an offensive post or image with no other intent than to fuck other people around as much as possible, I will respond by asking those who DO have that power to judge for themselves.

You have the link: you may parse the picture to your heart's content. At least now, however, those whom Pep has deliberately set out to offend and disturb don't need to be also subjected to it. Unless, of course, they go to the Undying Thread at SCII, where Pep has also inserted it: it seems that his enthusiasm for "freedom of expression" knows no bounds.

It's easy to insert pictures in blogs.secondlife.com. Just right click and select insert images. You can put in image urls. It looks like you can upload images, but when I tried, it said I didn't have permission. If we could upload, we'd have a "library" of uploaded images to pick from, but we can't upload, apparently. You can also toggle the editor into HTML mode and paste in the needed code, which lets you use thumbnails. Images will be auto-scaled to fit into 450px wide andr 600px tall .

It's just the button that's disabled, for some reason.

So that's not so bad, considering.

https://blogs.secondlife.com/message/80869#80869

No, you *don't* know that it violated ToS and/or forum guidelines.

Pep (You only know that a wimpy resmod is easily influenced by over-sensitive whingers.)

You are so wrong.

Pep (I am there already. Well, not as Pep, but a more appropriate persona.)

/me shrugs Death is a commonplace, and this particular dead animal wasn't in very bad shape. No doubt much worse was available. Much worse is available on any given day on any country road, in fact.

I didn't see Pep's original post but I have been tempted to respond to excessive lolcattage with something similar--though I might have looked for a more cartoonish version. In any case, I don't think mordant humor is anywhere close to being beyond the pale for a group of mature and intelligent adults.

As for alleged violations of TOS and community standards: the only thing I could find that was applicable is this from the TOS, which forbids SL customers to:

"iv) take any action or upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit Content as determined by Linden Lab at its sole discretion that is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, causes tort, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;"

So yeah, all it takes to violate the rules is for one person to find something to be "objectionable" and then get one other person--whoever is manning the complaints desk at the moment--to agree with them.

This is bowdlerism, and a pretty extreme case, of course. But it also seems primarily to have been motivated by personal feelings toward the poster, since what you've said here indicates pretty clearly that you understand the rational basis for my objection. That just makes things worse.

It's hard when someone is deliberately being obnoxious, I know. Baiting people on all kinds of topics from politics to sexuality is a hallowed tradition on the internet, though. It's not one that I enjoy or practice, but it's extremely common. Anybody who has spent much time in any kind of online forum understands that the only thing that ever really works is: DON'T FEED THE TROLLS. Do that and there is no need for censoring anything or tattling to the authorities about anybody.

As for it being moot because these forums are closing: Pics may not be a possibility in the "other place" but words are, and I would prefer not to see bowdlerism practiced in any form there.

The ignore feature will make your life better.

Ah, but in common with the cat in question - as the saying has it - Scylla and many other of the complainants here suffer from the single most powerful driving animal instinct, greater than sex, hunger or anything else you could think of.

Pep (Curiosity )

PS Ignorance is the state you achieve when you ignore things.

Pep,
There has been a time I could actually smile because of your sarcastic postings. Lately though (well, lately as in the last half year) you only aim to hurt. Nothing sarcastic in it, nothing witty. In all honesty: you became the sad person most already saw you for.

Why do I post this? Maybe, just maybe, you are not too arrogant for some self reflection. Read back to your posts from a year ago, and you may see what I mean. If not, feel free to correct my spelling errors, and put some emphasis on the fact I am an ESL-er. You know I could not care less.

Marcel