The Treatment Room.

[crow]

It has been suggested that there are some members who might be labouring under the unbearable stresses of what passes for modern society, and might actually be so dependent upon this very forum, that banning them for their occasional lunatic outbursts might put them at risk of suicide. Or worse!

This bemused me, at first, because when somebody is so observably useless, popular opinion hereabouts would hold that euthanasia would be the best route to take.

Ignoring that philosophical discrepancy, for now, I decided it would be a worthy addition to the forum to have a place where the temporarily unbalanced could have a really, really good rant.
Ranting can be good, apparently, in some therapeutic way, and so here it is:

Please refrain from defacing the rest of the site, because if you do, there will be no coming back.
But feel free to curse, defame, sling the shit, and otherwise make a real nuisance of yourself, if you feel the need.
Just remember, that if you must do this, do it here.

This facility is brought to you, courtesy of Villain Of The Week: Umbrage.
Sadly no longer with us.

[fallot]

So which one of the innumerable forums that have chucked you out for being a loon did you steal this stupid fucking idea from? Also Umbrage has better taste in music than you and makes more interesting posts, how about you take a long break instead? Don't you have some nature to appreciate or something? You don't even like metal!

If there was some dignity to your mien perhaps you wouldn't smarmily degrade a reasonable poster, but there isn't, and there's none in me either, so its open house: Lets see, you wasted your whole fucking life chasing some kind of dragon. On the way you paid fat ugly women for the pleasure of being dominated, or perhaps just talking to them. Near the end of your life you realized you were an idiot and had some epiphany. All the while your genes cried out at their certain demise. Unfortunately, this experience seems to have unhinged you in a subtle way, where you pretend to be a crazy normal person, but are actually a crazy novelty seeking retiree (or a liar, or both).

I'm cured! Thank you Dr. Crow!

[crow]

Thank you. Now you are cured, you can disappear permanently.
Next?

[crow]

Maybe I should have mentioned that there are these things called 'consequences' which follow each and every action a human - and anything else - makes. Do reasonable stuff and you can expect reasonable consequences, although, with people, this is not always true.
Thus, a post like the one above, is likely to have proportionate consequences.
One of which is:
Although The Treatment Room started out as a harmless idea, it has turned out to be a 'honey-pot' for undesirables.
This is good. Evolution in action.
Soon, enough carcasses will have been picked clean, that the silent ones may venture back out into the open, and have their say, without the uber-bullies ruining everything they see.

[Madhu]

I think it's kind of a bad idea. Better to just ban people if they're really causing trouble. Remember - people who check out the new site are likely to check out the forum. If they show up here and pick up on all the bitterness, interpersonal intrigue, name calling and passive aggression, any enthusiasm the front page inspired in them is likely to be soured.

The forum should probably be treated like an extension of the main blog. Bullshit should really be resolved 'behind the scenes', not in some kind of daycare 'time out' thread.

[crow]

You are right. It is a bad idea. But when all the good ones fail, you sometimes need to start considering the bad ones. Adaptation, and all that.
Duly noted and under consideration.

[crow]

Considered.

The thread is now un-sticky, and will sink into oblivion, as long as nobody feels the need for treatment.
Yet it remains - for now - as a possibly useful tool for the maintenance of some semblance of order.
Quietly banning problem users is what other forums do. Not this one.
Metalheads are valuable, here, for some reason.
They get to decide their own behaviour, and this is tolerated, right up to the point of thermonuclear detonation.
Such events are visible to all, for what they are, and leave no doubt as to why bans must be enforced.
Thus the errant metalhead gets to see the behaviour and the consequence.
An important step to becoming uber.

Savvy characters will figure out how to circumvent the ban, anyway, and this is quietly encouraged, because the ban is not personal. It is death to the avatar, not the human behind the avatar. The human may adapt, while the avatar often can not.

EOL.

[Humanicide]

Might as well start calling this place a clothesline if we're gonna be doing all of this laundry in public.

Admins shouldn't get too personal when banning someone. Also shouldn't even announce it. The point here is that we're all just usernames. Too much of this drama cuts into what made this board cool.

[crow]

What didn't you understand about the previous comment?
It is not personal. The avatar dies. Not the human.
The forum has been taken over by idiot bully-boy trolls who deny newcomers a voice.
The avatar is like an out of control ego: any power it has is in its name, alone.
This situation is going to stop, forthwith.

Observe the reality, illustrated by the facts:
I am a gunslinger. I started out with compassion, but this has been abandoned in favour of hair-trigger justice.
Be a target: get shot. Present no target: live on in glory.

How anybody thinks it should be counts for nothing.
It is how it is. The only important thing is survival; just like in the real world.

Gunslingers are hired to do a job. They do the job and move on.
All this seems pretty clear to me, and I hope it does to everyone else.
The site is not the eight habitual posters, and it does not need them.
They can rearrange their stance towards it, or they can all disappear.

Talk and relax are the rules in The Chasm.
Do, or die.

[Humanicide]

If that's what it takes for you, so be it.

Consider me relaxed. I'll keep my opinions to myself on this one.

[crow]

If that's what it takes for you, so be it.

Consider me relaxed. I'll keep my opinions to myself on this one.

Yes. I knew I could count on you. Thank you.

[Phoenix]

Crow, most of my rants would be directed at you, so I think it's really quite charitable of you to set this thread up. Unfortunately I'm feeling so out of sorts today that I don't even think I'm up to ranting.

[crow]

Hope you feel better soon. I can't wait to hear what you have to say. Within reason!
I myself am laid low by tree-pollen allergies. Gotta lotta trees here.

[yanluowang]

Hope you feel better soon. I can't wait to hear what you have to say. Within reason!
I myself am laid low by tree-pollen allergies. Gotta lotta trees here.

Where are you living now, crow? Could you please tell us a little bit about your life? How did you get rid of the modern life ?

[crow]

That's not a very convincing rant. Maybe you are in the wrong place.
But I will take it at face value. and say this:
I am living on an island, in a forest, and trying to survive the worst allergy attacks of my life.
It's raining a lot and the trees are huge. There are deer, raccoons, squirrels, millions of birds, frogs, voles and mice. And at least one cougar, and the odd trace of a passing bear.
I wasted too many years trying to be like other people, until I finally realized that no matter how hard I tried, it was never going to happen.
I didn't so much lose the modern life as modern life wouldn't let me in. So I walked - and sometimes sailed - away from it.
When the sun comes out, I am in paradise. When it doesn't come out, I am almost in paradise.
I have the world's best wife, a huge Maine Coon cat that wandered in from the forest, two other cats and a disabled rabbit. The crow that taught me all I know is now off somewhere, living a crow life, and there is an ancient shaman  that sometimes materializes in the woods.
It's not the wilderness that I prefer, but it's a fair compromise.
And now I need a cup of coffee...