Background: Banned a couple years ago for participating in the Amanda Knox OOT thread. After 6 months, had ban lifted after convincing Mat (thank you for that again, btw), yet was exiled from OOT.

This is a request to have that exile lifted. It has come to light recently that the bannings within that thread were due to relentless forum bullying of people that were on one side of the debate. A mod admitted to banning '239' because poster Henry17 and others (all people on the pro-guilt side of the discussion) asked him to. Multiple other posters were banned. All banned posters were on the pro-innocent side, as far as I know. There were a lot of them (I lost count), and I was one of them. I was told at the time of my banning that the pro-guilt posters were PM'ing the mods to have me and others banned. The mods followed the wishes of the forum bullies to have countless active posters banned. I still don't understand why the bans were necessary, or if they were, why they were so one-sided.

Given recent events, I feel it is only reasonable to admit this is what happened to me and everyone else who was banned from that thread. It has been shown that the pro-innocent side was correct. We were relentlessly trolled and bullied in that thread, and banned when we brought actual truth to the table simply because the pro-guilt side was on a campaign to get everyone who disagreed with them banned.

Here is a post in that thread summarizing how a mod banned another poster simply because Henry17 asked him to:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...ostcount=23962

I feel all active Two Plus Two forum members who were banned in that thread after being trolled and abused by the pro-guilt posters should have their bans lifted. I would also like to have my OOT exile lifted since this was ultimately a direct result of being banned after a mod was PM'd by Henry17, Poker Reference, and the other forum bullies asking him to ban long-term members of the forum.

Thank you for the consideration. 2+2 is a great forum when trolling and abusive behavior is kept in check, even if it takes awhile to recognize it.

I'm running this around in my head and I suppose I have a question. Would you be a positive for OOT or are you coming in to create havoc and make a point? (This sounds harsher than I mean to...)

Can you contain your (hopefully somewhat limited, lol) gloating to the AK thread?

(I don't really like the term "bullying", because it implies that if your side lost then you would be the bullies. There was equal intensity on both sides and I will admit that frustration did play a part in things that happened. (I believed she was guilty, but I always live perfectly well with final decisions.)

I'm always for growing OOT with smart posters who are an asset to the community.

(My only caveat is that when the AK thread was locked for a short while, the carryover into the LC was not good...)
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Just my thoughts and I have no power whatsoever.

Saw this thread title in ATF and was like who is this dude? Then I opened the thread and saw "Amanda Knox thread" and the answer is not only no but **** no, son. Sorry, broseph.

i'll allow it

More like Mr. Notokay. Smh.

What did the mod that exiled you (I guess it was Alobar) say when you PMed him?

In any event, the solution to your issue is laid out here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/55...-forum-116988/

Interchanging the word "banned" by "exiled" and being able to pm the mod directly, without Mat as the middle man, naturally

Apparently two years have passed since the exiling, maybe time to give dude a chance?

The only person Ive ever banned from that thread was 239, and there was a lot more to it than just "becuase Henry told me to" (He never did that btw), there was a mod thread on it and everything.

Im not the mod who took the action, so its not my say, but I unbanned 239 the other day so he could post in the thread now that there is new news. So if it was a mod whos not a mod anymore, I dunno the protocol, but if he want to go into the AK thread and gloat its fine with me. That whole thread is AIDS anyway

What did killa say when you PM'd him?

****ing Henry.

Halfway unexiled already.

It's possibly the worst thread in OOT history.

This. Given that gregorio told you to do this when you asked him about it over a year and a half ago, I'd hope you'd have done so by now.

the "takes internet too seriously" trait is strong in this one

No gloating. Currently no desire to even post in that thread (I'm sure that may change though). Just pointing out that a bunch... a whole bunch of people were banned in that thread simply because a relatively small group of people requested it and the mods did what these people asked. It turns out all of those people were wrong, so I think the action should be fixed. My 'exile' was a consequence of this, so I would like that fixed as well.

No plans to gloat (though I feel it would be deserved since my ban got a whole lot of gloating).

But only one side of the debate had posters systematically banned. If our side 'lost', all those posters would still be unbanned and go back to normal. It is not a two sided thing here.

Perhaps there was equal intensity, but only one side petitioned the mods to have the other side "removed". And the mods followed through with the requests.

Thanks! I've never been accused of being dumb, so there's that, lol. Well, except in that Knox thread, but you know.

It wasn't Alobar -- I only included that link because it came out within the thread that Henry17, Poker Reference, and others were indeed PM'ing the mods to have posters systematically banned. And the mods were following through without a thorough understanding of what was actually going on. They were just taking the bullies' word for it. (Side note -- this type of stuff completely ruins forums. I really don't think mods should be banning posters just because someone else asked to. In fact, if anything, the posters who go around asking for bans on people they don't like or are arguing with should probably get reprimanded.)

It was Dids that originally did the banning and exiling, but he is no longer a mod.

Yeah -- just to point out again it wasn't Alobar.

I do think all of those bannings from before when Dids went on a banning rampage should be undone. He either a) was being PM'd by the pro-guilt posters and banning people because they asked him to or b) was trying to control the discussion by banning users and it turns out he was wrong.

OK. At the time though I had a very strong impression I wasn't going to get the exile lifted through killa, since he presumably rubber stamped Dids' banning spree. In fact, looking back through my limited PM history, he never responded to the messages I sent him about that thread. One tends to be skeptical that they can get something resolved when that person seems to be approving of the mod actions in question and hasn't responded to previous PM's.

Because of this I never asked him to remove the exile. But I never specifically asked about the exile, so I'll give you that.

The news that came out recently obviously changes which side of the debate was in the wrong here, which is why I bring it up in ATF. There is also the issue of the countless other posters who were banned, which is a bigger problem than 'please lift my exile'.

I also do not think, in general, that one side of the debate (no matter what it is about) should be systematically silenced. I think there is probably historical precedence for this being bad.

Just saw this post actually, and had to comment:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...ostcount=24077

It is funny and sad at the same time that people don't realize the 'knox defenders' didn't "dare mix themselves in the discussion" because they were systematically banned from the forum for expressing their opinions.

As someone with absolutely no stake whatsoever in any of this, I must say that it reflects pretty poorly on you that you keep asserting that that the people on the other side of the debate were wrong, as if that were in any way settled by the recent court decision, or that it even has any relevance at all to the issue of people's right to post.

While I might concede that the OOT thread was weighted toward a "guilter" philosophy owing to the beliefs of the regs, I'm equally sure that people believing she was guilty were treated about the same on the "Amanda is innocent!" sites.

There were strong opinions on both sides with people rarely being able to listen to the other side of the argument.

Turned out those people saying OJ was guilty were wrong too.

If there's not proof enough, then the verdict has to bee not guilty. It's better to free a guilty than sentence an innocent.

This is rich.

I've never seen such a community that prided itself on having good posters who were known mostly for making two sentence insults about how other posters are bad.

You're just mad cause they didn't like your politarding.

I'm not for a moment suggesting you will (I don't know either way). But it's never going to happen any other way. Well, at least not until killa stops modding OOT someday.

Thank you for demonstratingmy point.

That was only one sentence, tho.

You know that I have supported you and I felt bad that you left.