Hello. My name is RobFarha and I have been a poster on 2+2 for over ten years now. I've quite literally never been banned from any forum or game I've ever been apart of. I received a 29 point infraction for "stirring ****", which is basically 3x what I have received in the past for harmless trolling (I have received 10 points before).

I spend lots of time in the LLSNL chat thread, where many members know each other in real life and it is a very friendly bar-chatter type of vibe including lots of **** talking.

This is not a very serious thread. The are regular posts about cocaine usage, prostitution and general ****ery. I personally have no issue with this.

I've been unbanned for a total of two hours and someone has already made a joke about me having sex with a grapefruit. Once again, this does not bother me as it is the culture of the thread.

There are many back and forths daily in that thread and I have been called all sorts of names. Once again, this is not an issue until a mod decides to step in and subjectively decide what is ok and what's not ok.

I got banned after posting a few memes and having a back and forth with another poster named RoadToPro.



In this DM (pre-ban), Garick references rule #1 "dont be a dick", which is what it is. I understand that(its a good rule when enforced well!), but the following posts between me and RTP were perfectly fine. He has made fun of me in the past (and others) and it's perfectly fine. It is certainly not no-holds barred in terms of racism,sexism,doxxing threats or anything like that - always lighthearted fun that I do not think anyone takes too seriously.

You can also see in that PM that Garick insinuates that RTP is "on the scale" which I assume is a reference to autism and "little social skills" which I 100% do not think is funny, appropriate or correct. When I posted the puppy squeeling thing in public, Garick banned me, then called me a liar while I didn't have a chance to respond, he also criticized me for sharing PMs, which seems appropriate given that he banned me and implied I was lying. I did assume he meant an additional poster in the thread as well, but Garick seems to have only been referencing RoadToPro as being on the autism spectrum.

I am not someone to talk behind peoples backs. I am of the opinion that if thats how Garick views RoadToPro, you can openly share that. I do not understand why he would DM me that and expect me to be ok with saying that behind his back. If you post it in the thread, its one thing, but I will not partake in that privately.

I believe this ban stems from both Garick disliking me (which is fine) and somehow convincing himself he is "protecting" people who can't take a joke. Nobody in that thread needs protecting from light hearted puppetlookingaway.jpg memes.


This is a post (to RoadToPro) shortly before Garick banned me.


Here is another post to RTP, with a response from him, which IIRC was the last post I made before I was banned. Yes there are jokes and we don't agree on everything, isn't this the purpose of the forum?



I am having difficultly understanding how this is bullying, or mean or whatever, when it's just two guys in a very low effort public chat thread giving each other ****.

I do not want this guy to be de-modded or anything crazy like that. I would just appreciate a little common sense of allowing some banter without an attempt to be a stern father figure over an internet message board. Everything with RoadToPro is perfectly fine as outlined in those screenshots, so the implication that people are crying themselves to sleep or something like that is insane to me.

I would like my 29 infraction points removed and a reevaluation of the subjective nature of the modding, which to me seems like Garick is much more likely to ban or restrict people he doesn't like.

This results in several posters that are sort of scared to post any jokes or memes etc. It benefits no one is unnecessary in my opinion.

Thank you for reading and I hope this is reconsidered.

Standard. Have you discussed this with Garick since? Probably not
.

Posting a private message is not cool. That's not going make anyone happy.


I don't know, but posting private messages aren't going to make him like you, for sure.


LOL. Like that would be a possibilty.


Dude, it's 29 points. They expire. Be a better poster. I've been banned with zero infraction points. Mods do what mods do. Garick is good mod. Respect him.


I may have missed some of your finer points, but it really looks to me like you're a crying little b*tch that usually gets whatever he wants. Sorry about that.

Rob, Garick and I chatted about this before he infracted and banned you. I support his decision.

Poker players by nature don't have high EQ skills. In a game where you're trying to take money from other people, consideration for others is probably a detriment, not a virtue. In addition, the internet doesn't allow for the transfer of signals that one is crossing boundaries. Therefore, I'm not surprised by the events of the last couple of days.

However, LLSNL guiding principle is that it is a place where everyone can feel comfortable. While the rules are more relaxed in the chat thread, the reason for that was that most of the posters have known each other for a long time. A ribbing is acceptable because there is an underlying friendship/respect/acknowledgement between the parties. When the receiving person says, "I'm upset by what you said to me," then it must stop.

Garick has asked you several times for it to stop. Since it didn't, we felt you needed more of 2X4 approach to get your attention. If you are looking for a rule that you violated that justifies the points and ban, you don't understand how 2+2 actually works.

My advice is to just let this go. These threads don't go at all well for the poster who creates them if the mod is fairly reasonable and Garick is highly respected.

I see that in January 2012 you were told, "Future violations of the guidelines could result in suspension of your account."

Imo, you should count yourself lucky and lay low for a while.

Good luck.

As I mentioned in the chat thread when you asked where you should post your complaint, the infraction was intended to be 20 points, which became 29 as a typo, and I'm willing to reverse the original infraction and replace it with the number of points I had meant to give.

Other than that, I completely stand by my decision. I explained to you in private messages what was wrong with your posting, and you doubled down on it. If you would like, I will post our PM exchange ITT. I see that you have already posted one of my PMs here. As I said before, posting PMs without permission is frowned on. I don't have any issue with that PM being posted, but you should have asked me before posting it, and posting just one in isolation misses much of the context.

Further, I did not call you a liar, I said that your post was inaccurate, and told you what the inaccuracies were. If you would like, we can discuss them again ITT.

This has nothing to do with me disliking you, and everything to do with your posting. I've never had a problem with you, or with your posting until recently. You wouldn't have received an informal PM warning if I were looking for excuses to ban/infract you.

Finally, everything is not perfectly fine with RtP. As was posted by both venice and me, obnoxious back-and-forths between RtP and other posters (including, but not limited to you) has been derailing the chat thread and making it suck. RtP is currently temp-banned for his part in this series of suck posting, due to his also continuing to post the same stuff that he'd been asked to stop.

I would refer you to the "Posting in the Chat Thread" portion of the LLSNL posting rules which mpethybridge posted in 2013. If you have any questions about them, please feel free to bring them up ITT and/or via PM.

I appreciate your post, Venice.

I saw no indications from RtP involving "I'm upset by what you said to me" which is where I think our disconnect lies. I will take your word for it.

I'm not looking for a black and white justification, this is the same explanation Garick gave me in PM. I understand the nuance of the rule and think it's a good rule, I just don't think it was fairly implemented in this case.

I also didn't really like the whole autism comment either as I don't think it's cool to say stuff like that behind people's backs.

I've always viewed you as a reasonable guy and if you agree with the decision perhaps I'm out of line and missing something here. If you wish to delete the thread you can go ahead and do that.

I did not see you post anything in the chat thread, but I just reviewed and it looks like you edited an old post to include this.

I am not quite sure why I would need to ask you to correct a typo that gives me more infraction points.

Why would you not just correct your own mistake and why is this being framed as a favor to me that I need to ask for?

Just because it will show up as two "incidents" in your infraction history, as there's no way for me to edit the existing infraction, and even if I reverse it, it stays in the history. Not sure if having the extra entry in your infraction history is worth the 9 points to you, so I asked first.

Also, I'd like it noted that I replied to one of your posts in the chat thread yesterday informing you that I'd edited my previous post, in case you hadn't noticed it, and that you replied to that post yesterday as well. I'm rather offended by your implication that I ninja'd you with that info and your claim that you didn't see it when you responded to it yesterday.

I'm not sure why you're offended by that.

I was also under the impression that the " it took me a while to figure out why you said three times, instead of twice, as many points." was some sort of snarky remark at me not doing the math correctly as it's precisely 2.9x instead of 3x. Similar to here



So in summation, you banned me, entered the number of infraction points incorrectly, edited a previous post to include this error, are unable to correct this error and have not apologized for this error.

You're right though. I did respond to your post and assumed the "more information" was another link to the forum rules or something like that.

I'm not sure why you would edit an old post though instead of just posting your mistake.

I sort of see that this is going nowhere. I am sorry for involving Venice and I am sorry for not noticing your edit. I wish you all the best, including you Garick, and I will try my best to improve my posting quality.

In all honesty, I suspect that this thread is not serious, but more pot-stirring "comedy" that is mostly "funny" because of how much of my time and energy it can suck up, but I'll treat it as legitimate in case I'm wrong and because I should stay professional.

Are you seriously expecting a formal apology for a typo I've already acknowledged? OK. Sorry for the typo. I reiterate for the third (fourth?) time that I can either leave it be, or reverse that one and replace with the correct number. Your choice.

You clearly did notice my edit, as you already admitted above before apologizing for not noticing it.

I genuinely hope that you do try to improve your posting quality. Please be aware that continually pretending to be insulted will not be considered an improvement. That shtick is already getting old.

I appreciate your apology Garick. I'm hoping we can all move forward amicably.

Punk

Epic fail.


You have chosen to venture onto very, very thin ice with someone you shouldn't have. If I were you, I would spread-eagle and move very slowly. You can trust me on this one.

Dogs I have in this fight: none

But I gotta say, the "spread-eagle" comment above has me . I am trying to figure out that works in this case. I mean I am not saying it is wrong just curious. Honestly my first thought was:

Threats (maybe of the physical variety?) in a poker moderating message board post.

2p2 has officially jumped the shark.

Big, that's funny as hell, actually.

I am somewhat into double entendres these days, but in reality, I was just giving the best advice to cross thin ice. I thought it was appropriate.

You missed that boat long ago.

I have met RobFarha in real life. He seems like a decent enough guy and his posts are generally good in the forums I mod. I am glad to see this resolved.

But Rob, don't post ****ing PMs.

More importantly i need to know more about the grapefruit ****ing. Are you ****ing the grapefruit or is it the other way around?

A backpacker is traveling through Ireland when it starts to rain. He decides to wait out the storm in a nearby pub. The only other person at the bar is an older man staring at his drink. After a few moments of silence the man turns to the backpacker and says in a thick Irish accent:

"You see this bar? I built this bar with my own bare hands. I cut down every tree and made the lumber myself. I toiled away through the wind and cold, but do they call me McGreggorio the bar builder? No."

He continued "Do you see that stone wall out there? I built that wall with my own bare hands. I found every stone and placed them just right through the rain and the mud, but do they call me McGreggorio the wall builder? No."

"Do ya see that pier out there on the lake? I built that pier with my own bare hands, driving each piling deep into ground so that it would last a lifetime. Do they call me McGreggorio the pier builder? No."

"But ya **** one grapefruit ..."

RobFarha complaining about shitty moderation. Oh, the irony....