I didn't do it, but it was done because it was an off-topic post from a player's perspective about how "the games are still good", but was posted in the Breakroom thread, which is for employee chatter. Granted, you are also an employee, so there are some nuances to it, but it was not exactly a breakroom type post IMO.

If you'd like, I can undelete it and move it to the LC thread.

Thanks for the quick response. LC will work if it's not too much trouble. It was supposed to be more of an observation of how the lack of knowledge/experience in both the Dealer and the short stack can create a story line created by the attempted (and essentially successful) angle of the BB ... but I did add the personal gain nuggets in there as well. GL

PS .. Just gotta know the rules or I will never get to 10K posts so I can semi-retire ..

You can always retire early =P

Hello,

Recently there has been a great deal of bashing the clientele of MGM Springfield. The commentary is often outright classist, and often borders on racist. Innuendo is often used to describe the clientele as dangerous and many thinly veiled racist references to it being an inner city casino.

When I made a post saying people should give it a shot and talk to the people in the cardroom to see they are just like poker players anywhere else, I was first ridiculed as a social justice warrior (how is that a pejorative???) then straight up called a "libtard" (classy).

My comment was deleted, along with the two replies.

I'd like to know how 2+2 justifies deleting posts that question peoples judgements that are pretty clearly rooted in prejudice. I double checked the CCP posting guidelines and I do not see what guideline I violated. Not long after my post, a more seasoned poster made a very similar post and that post still stands. I'm glad for that, at least.

Thank you.

Sorry for the long post here, but Im doing my best to lay my entire case on the table here upfront. I had no intention of going CSI on the MGMNH thread, but i felt obligated to now that apparently I am facing a tempban. This is the post in question which has led to me posting here.

before this post by him, I mentioned that the mods ought to do something about Rapini, as you can see, he has gone with the "the best defense is a good offense" to all of a sudden decide that it is in fact I who should be banned. This is the type of behavior I would expect of him, considering that I consider him the most absolutely underhanded and aggressive person to post on the forums (i try to keep my personal attacks to a minimum, but there is no real way to discuss the specific issue with a poster without describing his character.). I have posted on the forums in threads which he moderates for literally years. I have never been tempbanned by him, and yet all of a sudden he thinks a ban is warranted in response to me suggesting that the mods ought to do something about him.

He even goes so far as to stack the cards against me by putting "or mine" in parenthesis, as if his own behavior is an afterthought of this discussion.

The fact is, he doesnt think i should be banned for "misinforming the community", he thinks I should be banned because I dared question his authority. I see no reason for why I should be put on trial for the mere act of mentioning the moderator's misconduct.

His basic MO is that he condescendingly shuts down any idea or suggestion or criticism in a poker thread. He has more recently taken it upon himself to (as best I can tell) follow me around to other threads in the forums and post after my posts making thinly veiled personal attacks against me.

Here is an example post:

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...l#post53724457

After this specific post, back in April I reached out to him, and asked him to just not respond to me. I recognize that it is within his right to respond to me, but, I was trying to handle this situation like an adult, to avoid a completely unnecessary blow up.

specifically I said:

and he responded with

I then just asked again

he then responded

After this, I recognized I was talking to an unreasonable person, and I put an end to it. I left him alone for months since then, and have posted in these forums in general less often because he has single handedly turned me off to the whole forum. (it has actually sort of affected my posting in LLSNL more, because my irritation with him caused me to boil over and act foolishly towards someone in those forums, and I didnt want to take my frustration out on someone who didnt deserve it again. Also because I find the MGMNH thread to be a more overall useful thread to me, which means it was where I would check when using 2+2 in a more "bare bones" style.)

Most recently I said in the MGM thread

to which he responded

As usual, Rapini tries to undermine my post, telling me the specific hoops im required to jump thru in order to post my statement of fact onto the forums.

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...3/index49.html

You can see the majority of the posters took my side, Trob888, Loonybird, zippythepinhead, and dcmidnight all specifically stated they agreed with my complaint. This is important because it shows the type of poster that Rapini is. Someone who tries to delegitimize nearly 100% of complaints, no matter how universally agreed upon they are in the community.

I just ignored his typical taunting behavior, as I have done for the months since when I tried to get him to act like an adult. I mean, what else am I to do? I like to post on the forums, and he is a moderator with infinite time on his hands, I figured the moment he hears resistance from me again, he comes for blood, and we fight in his home turf with his friends backing him up.

Just 5 days ago, Rapini goes at it again, not with me this time, trying to delegitize jacmrose's suggestion of a 2/3 stakes (seriously, its these minor of suggestions that puts him off the rails in this thread. One time when people were concerned about impending parking fees, he actually said that it might be a good thing if they implemented parking fees because it would keep the nits away!)

It ends with jacmrose saying:

I admittedly +1'd this post (although I also said that I agreed with Rapini's general point, even if the tone was certainly poor), and a secondary poster gives jacmrose a

As far as other posters who Rapini is known to harass, Havax was his old whipping boy before me. He basically went in on him page 1 of the MGMNH thread with a sarcastic post about Havax's complaints, then page 2 just put "no" in bold after all of Havox's ideas (except one), then page 3 accused him of being a nit for another one of his complaints. (link below to page 3, im sure you can click thru to page 2 and 1)

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...43/index3.html

It is worth noting here that my issues with rapinis behavior ive posted here are coming from about 4-6 total pages of almost entirely one thread. I am not a moderator, and I am spending about an hour of my personal time to make my complaint here as clear as I possibly can, but I can only put but so much time towards providing evidence, as I have not been left with the task of moderating the forums. If you were to turn to a random page of MGMNH, theres a decent chance of finding at least one post by Rapini where he is trying to discredit someone, or is acting condescending towards someone.

Now to the confrontation for today. There is a major smoke problem in the forums, something that nearly every single regular at the casino has complained about. People have said that it physically keeps them from being capable of playing, they are still being bothered by the smoke hours afterwards. This goes on for pages and pages and pages, and here is even Rapini admitting that even he believes the wide range of people saying that the problem is extreme:

I mention that a problem this severe likely ought to be reported to the appropriate authorities as follows:

Smoke inhalation is something I take very seriously. I am not joking around and trying to incite fear for fun. My brother in law was on the DC metro train that I mentioned. he was 2 seats away from the woman who died. Further, in March of this year while I was out of town, my house burned to the ground, nearly everything I owned was burned up, and both of my cats got stuck inside the burning house, one of them died from smoke inhalation, and the other nearly did as well. The little bit of things I own from my past life still smell like smoke to this day. (i can provide evidence of all of this if Rapini is so low as to think I am lying about any of this) Do you really think I am talking about the smoke problem because Im trying to get a rise out of people or misinform the community? (before Rapini posts, it would be well within Rapini's usual conduct to come in and claim some absurd secondary thing that was in fact what he was talking about for his "misinforming the community" comment, since he tends to leave everything he says vague enough to allow for him to change his content down the road as needed. However I see no other thing he could reasonably be talking about for my supposed "misinformation")

This is a legitimate concern for the MGMNH community, and yet Rapini has gone so far to (as best I can tell) argue that I deserve "at least" a temporary ban for "misinforming the community". This is incredibly insulting, and fits entirely in line with his MO of discrediting anyone who has a complaint or suggestion of any kind in the thread.

So we go on to this post:

which Rapini posts and says

so, again, here he is making another thinly veiled personal attack on me, as is his MO. It irritated me enough to ask the mods to do something, which of course caused him to try to start a war.

His post (the one right at the top that I started with) has him just outright calling me an *******, and its posted in the thread right this very moment, and further told me that I cannot post itt until a ruling is made, thus already tempbanning me from the thread effective immediately.

The fact is that just like before, this beef goes one way. He hates me for some reason, and I just dont want him to troll me anymore. I dont see a need for either of us to be banned, as I have no issue going about my business and Rapini going about his. I dont care if he keeps moderating, if he gets banned or doesnt, id just like him to lay off me. That was my initial plea, and its my plea now. I dont think I ask for much, and I think its particularly relevant that I didnt do anything to him.

I try to be respectful in these forums, even if sometimes I fail to do so. I honestly cant believe that this has somehow been reverse suplexed into a trial about my conduct. Its an embarrassment for the moderation of these forums that Rapini would even try to respond to a complaint about his conduct in this way, and speaks volumes about his character.

This whole thing stresses me out and irritates me, and I honestly regret not letting Rapini run roughshod over me and everyone else he takes a disliking to for the rest of eternity like I have let happen over the course of the past year, becuase it isnt worth the stress. I will be playing poker this weekend and would honestly rather not be posting back and forth here and possibly get tilted, so I will likely check again Sunday night if you need more information.

I haven't gotten involved in this kind of thing for years, as I just mostly gave up worrying about it and trying to make things better, plus I guess we just haven't frequented the same subforums as often, but I really don't get how Rapini has been kept on as a moderator. His behavior on the forums was really atrocious years ago, and apparently it still is. I know nothing about Tomark or even which thread he is posting about, but everything he just posted reminds me of things that Rapini was doing years ago. Nothing is even surprising.

I get that being a mod is an unpaid volunteer position, and mods are needed for the forums to work well. And maybe somehow the other mods don't understand why Rapini rubs so many people the wrong way. But still, if he alienates so many members of the forum, is there any reason he needs to be kept on, even if it really were no fault of his own? It's not like "firing" him would make his children go hungry or something. And the forums in general have been losing members and seem to be dying overall in the last few years. There shouldn't be as many mods needed, and the ones who are kept on shouldn't be the ones who elicit so many complaints.

I don't post much in the MGMNH thread, but I do follow it. I agree that just about every time Rapini posts he comes off as an unhelpful, condescending *******. He should not be a mod.

Echoing the above. This comment may not come off very useful if I don't "go and provide proof", but I recall many times a point is brought up for discussion and he just quickly sends a 1-liner contrary to the opinion and stated as a matter of fact, effectively trying to end any constructive discussion on the topic.

Often when topics are debated he will also just move the thread (which, to his point, the length of some debates do sometimes derail the main thread), but again it often feels arbitrary just because he's tired of the discussion and wants to end it without just deleting everything (which is obviously a bad look). However, moving the thread does effectively end interesting discussions as most posters don't bother to navigate to the new post.

There have also been comments on his behavior in general that often get deleted right away- I don't recall if it was on this account or an older one where I specifically said something along the lines of "I know you will likely delete this but please hear me out or at least consider this when you do" and of course the comment was deleted.

Yes as poker players we love to be self-righteous but sometimes his comments and attitude are just too much.

Also wanted to add- it often feels like you have to carefully craft a question or discussion topic in order to not be shot down right away. This and the fact that many posts are picked apart for the most minuscule details over how someone worded something in order to build arguments on the discussion threads really leads me (and I'm sure others) to avoid posting unless it's something important or has been very carefully worded. I'm willing to bet my previous post may be picked apart and cited for specific examples etc but I just don't have the time to burden myself with that, so I guess take this all for what it's worth.

I am tired of posting in the MGM National Harbor thread because I'm sick of Rapini always running people down, insulting them with his clever one liners, generally treating people like they are idiots - and then deleting all the posts. He posts negative, insulting crap just long enough that he gets it out of his system and we all see it - then hides everything that was posted.

Which is clearly acceptable mod behavior on 2+2.

In my report of his posts I acknowledged that being a mod is a tough job, I get it. I'm a mod on a forum with over 260,000 registered users and we have about 8 mods. I. Get. It. But as mods we are also told by the site owners to "take the high road". And we sure as hell dont stoop so low as to insult and demean the other site members in threads like he always does - just because he doesnt like someones opinion.

But Rapini has always done and continues to do this, honestly, because there are no consequences. 2+2 doesnt care if their mods run over thread members like this and the only reason I say that is because it KEEPS HAPPENING.

I've gone through a few cycles like this of being so frustrated that I just stop posting for a while. I have a particular background in the one issue that the MGMNH room has and I think I've been providing good information. But Rapini's insults are too much for me.

I'm a lurker in MGMNH. +1 in support of Tomark.

It's literally insane Rapini is still allowed to be a moderator. EVERYONE I've ever talked to about him loathes him. He's a giant net negative and on a serious power trip. He will manipulate any possible situation against you in an unfair light for seemingly no purpose other than some twisted sense of self-satisfaction. He's a troll plain and simple and 2+2 allows him to continue to abuse his power.

One example I can recall is I posted a real story of something a dealer did in hopes of having a situation cleared up to solve a problem in the room. There is no motivation I'd ever have in just making up this story (quick cliffs: dealer refused to announce open seat at 5/T because they said they had been told they aren't allowed to shout across the room anymore and could get in trouble if they did). Rapini quoted my story and asked the Johnny (poker room manager) if this was indeed the policy. Johnny says no it wasn't. I then get a PM from Rapini saying I am making up fake news and if I post again in the MGM thread I would be banned. Completely ignoring the possibility that my story was true and this particular dealer had just been misinformed.

Hey, im back from my poker trip. I appreciate everyones support. I havent heard anything from the mods here or in PMs, so I suppose im still banned from/currently instructed not to post in MGM NH thread.

That is almost certainly my fault; I am unable to access my PMs on my phone and I won't be able to be on a computer until tomorrow. You can post in there again for the time being unless you hear otherwise from dinesh or Lattimer.

Rapini, yes you do have PMs on this topic when you can get to them.

Tomark, you are free to post in that thread as you wish.

Hello, I understand other matters have arisen of greater interest but was wondering about the status of my inquiry.

Thank you,

Hi Scientist, Lattimer should be responding to you here. If he can't make time in the next few days, I will do so.

I just went into that thread and deleted 30+ posts from the past 10 days. Racism etc is not allowed per 2+2 T&C, which applies to all forums, so there's no need to have it explicitly listed in the CCP rules. Sorry for not addressing things much sooner, I haven't had my mod hat on over the past week or so.

Regarding the CCP guidelines, I did not make a racist post. That's why I was wondering why it was deleted. I'm fine with it, other people have made my point about engaging with new people outside of their comfort zone. I don't want my post back or even an explanation about it being deleted at this point. Being a moderator can be a lot of work for little reward so I'm not about to harp on anyone for doing what they think is best. Thanks for moderating.

I ran across this post in my feed recently, and thought it was an interesting reflection of our community rules here: https://blog.codinghorror.com/what-i...onize-empathy/

At the end it links to this page, which is also more of the same: https://blog.discourse.org/2013/03/the- universal-rules-of-civilized-discourse/ (combine the two parts to make this link work, it's apparently getting killed by one of our anti-spam measures)

Maybe it will resonate with folks in our community. If it sparks any suggestions or dialog about our rules here, this is the place for it!

Why are my posts being deleted from the Arena Poker Room thread when I am respectful and on topic?

I dont know. On tapatalk I can't see who deleted it or the reason given.

I just looked and the post that was deleted seemed to be some sort of typo you made. But your user notes say that you were excluded from that thread for violations of the privacy guideline. So please don't post there going forward.

What are you talking about? There was neither a typo nor a privacy violation.

If it wasn't a typo it was a no content post. The entirety of your post was "aye?" while quoting another poster.

Your users notes actually indicate you were exiled from all of B&M (now CCP), not just the Arena thread, in 2013. the exile was lifted in 2014, and then it was re-instated in 2015 because of privacy violations. I wasn't a mod at the time so I don't really know any of the relevant details of those decisions, but that is what is indicated.