Spring Break '07

Hey guys,

I'm really sorry about the slow service lately. Senior year is hitting much harder than we all thought it would. Most (if not all) of the admins have been incredibly busy.

This week is Spring Break for us, and we're definitely taking some days off. I'm in Toronto, on forced vacation (I get half-hour of computer access a day - on a system that only has a dial-up connection). Several of the other admins are also out of town. Thus, for this week, posting may be even more behind than before.

Hopefully, once break is over, the schedule will calm down and I can start being a real slacker again so I can pay more attention to cleaning up the site.

Thank you to everyone who keeps visiting and having patience. I hope everyone has a great Spring Break!

- Heather

Removed Post #50

[url removed]

This is so. cool.

please don't delete it, admins. It's not spam, I promise.

Anonymous
02:57:00 PM

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Post is in violation of Tangst anti-spam policy (General Policies, Section E). This post was removed from Tangst.

This notice is made public in the spirit of full disclosure.

Mis-Censored

I've been sitting here for quite a while, trying to figure out how much to disclose.

To be honest, this is really stupid.

To be even more honest, I made a bad thing worse.

Since Friday, I've watched the thread on "Class President Suspended?" post continue to grow and become unreasonable. I watched until it got to the point where I was seriously pained. I cheered when someone pointed out:

"I appreciate those who are aiding this discussion by providing clarity and differing rational viewpoints.
I do no appreciate those who are detracting from this discussion through mudslinging, poor manners, and outright lying."

And then they were ignored and I was pained again. This continued for some time, especially after 龙年 commented and a following poster paid no attention to what he had said.

After posting myself, I had hoped that the amount of extreme language would be lessened or outright discontinued. With the following comment, such was not the case. And when I saw who it was... I was seriously annoyed. Given the tone of my comment, and the fact that I signed it, I had thought that it would be, at the very least, regarded. Quite obviously, I was entirely mistaken. And then the Nazi comment was made. I was more than annoyed at that point, since it was an admin that had posted both comments.

I really hate acting without discretion. With the admins, and with the site in general, censorship is a big deal. Twice have I asked admins to reconsider statements they've made. Compared to the thousands of posts generated and the tens of thousands of comments made over the site's history, two incidences doesn't seem like a lot. I don't tell admins what to say or what not to say. I've always thought the admins know that with the admin priviledges, there are responsibilities when they decide to write.

We all come from different backgrounds, believe different things, and have different political leanings. We disagree with one another. Everyone can see that on the posts. There really isn't any particular "tangst ideology" other than openmindedness. The only real requirement for being an admin is responsible behavior.

So when I asked Graffiti Pastry about his Nazi comment, I didn't expect a lot of argument. Some grumbling, yes. A frank discussion, yes. A lot of explaining, yes. But I didn't think it would be a huge issue. [The last time an admin brought up Nazis, they were immediately rebutted by another admin. Admittedly, that was on the thread, not as a side conversation.]

What I got instead where accusations of hypocrisy and high-handedness. He took the comment off, but that wasn't the goal I had intended. Because of our shared preference for reasonability, I'm surprised that we did not reach the same conclusions. (I will not publish the text of our argument without his permission.)

After arguing, I was... quite upset. As I stated before, I don't expect much from fellow admins. I know that everyone is not as huge on the neutrality thing as I am. I know everyone doesn't post with same amount of discretion that I do. However, the notion that I'm forcing certain opinions on the site left me paralyzed.

Reconsidering everything once I'd calmed down, I decided that republishing the comment was the only option. It leaves the users to respond or ignore the comment as they wish and whatever happens, happens.

I shouldn't have said anything to begin with. I should have left a message citing Godwin's Law and letting it die.

A little something I wrote for you, Pops

So I got mad at my folks
And thought of a gun
A raised fist of rebellion
For the entire generation.
But before you wrap your red flag
So tightly about my neck
And string me up to preach
To your thoughtless subordinates
Remember that blood stains everything it touches
And here in the depth of winter
You may find something a little colder
Than your standard industrial refrigerator
When you reach inside me
To rip out my spine.
They never thought of fusion as cold as this
But I am tempted to simply reach escape velocity
From this plane, this household
Exhausted by the thought of red ice cubes
Dripping from my severed neck
And the cheers of Girl Scouts
As they wrench the line
And bring my head, shuddering
Towards the top of the flagpole.

A freight train ride from Hell
Bright flickering lights
Throw shadows when compared
To the blackness of my convictions
My dreams are nothing compared to your monsters
(Shove them back in the closet, quick.)
Help hide me from myself.
Because the dark rising within me
Will destroy you so quickly
Your boots will rock back from the force
Frozen by a crust of your lost ambitions
An orange and black nightmare
Of tigers and dreams
(Let me snap that cat’s neck, one sec.)
Fuck you and your fucking history
I’m tired of waiting for your mistakes
To finally catch up with me
So I’ve turned around and I am hunting them
An AK slung on either shoulder.
Try me.

Your smirk
My fist
You do the math
Let’s wipe clean the slate
(Right off of your face.)
This animosity could stop now
But the fun is just beginning
And I’m on it like Novocaine on a root canal
Forget the tooth, we’ll go for a spirit
This may hurt, but just bear with me
As I slowly remove my soul, tail first
Drug me up, Doc
As I pass the pipe along
And when I slam the habit on the ground
The glass and my blood will combine
To form a sparkling mosaic
To seventeen years of servitude.

Removed Post #49

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hjfcool
12:20:20 PM

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Post is in violation of Tangst anti-spam policy (General Policies, Section E). This post was removed from Tangst.

This notice is made public in the spirit of full disclosure.

Note: Hyperlink removed on username and "here".