Gina's Journals

A Rant On Internet Tyrants

Or just one. As it stands, it is pretty pathetic to let something still bother me four months after the fact. But part of the problem is that I lurked his site and found the same crap going on. Someone has to speak up and tell the truth. Tiny is still just a small man that rules like a maniacal dictator over a chatboard because the country is being ran the way he likes it. He takes it out on his posters.

The truth is that I quit a message board I favored. "Tiny" who runs the board got mad about the farewell post I left because I dared to suggest there might be unfair treatment on the board and that I was having no fun there. My post was clear, concise and in accordance to his rules. It was deleted after he posted a response which began "Have a nice life."

I was a little miffed that my post was deleted for no good reason and that Tiny never contacted me one way or another about it, so I posted a message in the General Forum again adhering to the rules. That one mysteriously vanished as well without a word. Luckily I have a couple of friends who were able to read them before the two messages were deleted. So, in this, I am sane.

Apparently Tiny doesn’t mind anyone leaving the board so long as they slink out the back quietly as if they have something of which to be ashamed. He even wondered why do people feel the need to announce they are leaving. To put it frankly, because we were under the idiotic notion that Tiny gave a damn about what we thought and how we felt. This is not the case.

He wishes to use his board to exert influence over the posters in how they vote, what they think, how they act and what they say. This mini-Mussolini has taken chatboard tyrant to a whole new level. His board might as well be 1940s Italy. Additionally he uses is administrative powers to hold an iron fist over the entire site. Which is sad because the site is very good.

We were told that we had freedom of speech (provided we watched our language) on the board. The truth is, we don’t. Even to the extent of not being allowed to tell our friends we won’t be around. We are only given freedom of speech if we blindly go along with whatever Tiny says. To disagree or show dissention is to have the post mysteriously vanish.

Ok. Take a step back. Tiny’s sandbox, his friend's playground. Whatever. Just walk away. Knew this going in to an extent.

Later I heard from a third party, a completely uninvolved third party, that Tiny requested that any posts I made on this third party's board on a different site be censored in case I wanted to discuss what happened on Tiny's board. Specifically he requested that the third party lay the hammer down on me if I started bashing Tiny or his board. Specifically, Tiny threatened this mutual friend.

In the meantime, I have had no email or message from Tiny. No message telling me I am banned and why. No calls of courtesy telling me why my posts were deleted when they violated no rules. Nothing except a backstabbing, underhanded attempt at censorship at another site.

Why? Because my skin is thicker than Tiny’s I imagine. Private email can be ignored but in public humiliation, Tiny can feel vindicated.

I am at a loss to describe my feeling on this. I am mixed between flattered and appalled. I am flattered that someone who has so many better things to do with his time thinks me such a threat. That I could influence what anyone on or contemplating joining his board thinks is laughable. I can only state the fact. That he has to request an administrator on another site to keep me silent on this subject because he has no administrative privileges on this other board. I suppose since Tiny's administrative powers end with his site, he is left to threatening one of his posters if I say anything anywhere else. I also add I hadn’t even considered dirtying any boards outside Tiny’s or the General Forum because I didn’t want to put anyone in the middle. My thoughts have changed on this since apparently they need to be dragged in.

I am appalled that Tiny thinks I would sink as low as he has or would. I would not and did not involve the third party. The third party in question had no knowledge of this from me, Tiny, himself, broke the news. I would not and did not try to exert influence over a poster with an understood threat that life on Tiny’s board could be very unpleasant if my posts were not censored or deleted.

I don’t do that to my friends. If I have a problem with someone, that person is my focus, not the mutual friends. And I don’t let anger over things that I can’t control influence the anger of things I can. And I certainly wouldn’t use my respected position to get my way through threats. It is brutish and childish to do so.

I have an idea. Why not contact 1&1 and see if they will censor my blog that I pay for so that nothing bad is said? Or how about the ads for newspapers? Or the other sites I frequent where Tiny is not a member?

All of this for me saying I was not happy and I thought that the board treated liberals unfairly. Silencing other opinions. Something Tiny said that the president did. Sounds like Tiny has a lot in common with a person he professes to despise.

I do not engage cowardice such as backstabbing myself. And I do not suffer such cowards gladly. If anyone wants to comment on this or the other blogs, there is a comment form on each one. I only censor free advertising for people I don’t know because I PAY for MY OWN site, not mooch off a friend. Anything else is allowed. I believe in giving people enough rope to hang themselves.

And now, I feel vindicated.

Posted by gmwood at July 26, 2005 10:13 AM