Gleichman fiasco: keep families out of it.

So about the recent Gleichman fiasco thread.



Brian says something, people get up in his face, he's getting passive aggressive shit (I'll cop to it, my apologies Brian) and aggressive shit, basically living a world of Amber "bad stuff", and then this happens (sorry about the lack of post links, the thread is locked):

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Butcher, post 183 What, gleichman bred?

which cracks the door open.



Brian says this (post 185):

Quote:

Two, twin boys. Both went on to military service with one currently deployed in the Persian Gulf. I now await the wishes that he's killed while in harm's way, for that's just about how you bastards think.

and rather than back off at the "keep my family out of it" hint, inevitably enough this gets posted:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Novastar Quote: Quote: Originally Posted by gleichman Unlike the common poster at therpgsite, he is neither a child nor suffers emotional damage when told he made an error. That's not what you just said: Quote: Quote: Does that bother me? Only in the say way that human stupidity always bothers me. It would be a better world if it had better people. You just inferred he's stupid and a flawed person, because he made a different call than you in an RPG game.

So first things, "it would be a better world if it had better people" was directed at ME, I can deal with it, thank you. But secondly, twisting it into an attack on his own son is textbook taking something out of context and using it to attack someone.



Brian takes some, I'd say legitimate, umbrage at the implication, and we're off, with The Butcher, Novastar again (yes it escalated quickly, but what the hell did you expect when you brought his family into it), Will, Marleycat (indirectly, expressing you might enjoy seeing Gleichman getting attacked through his sons), jeff37923, and Emperor Norton.



So what do we have here? The current vernacular is online harassment, I'll just call it straight up bullying. You may not agree with Brian, you may not like him, you may enjoy needling him, but you need to keep it to him. As One Horse Town said:

Quote:

I'm sorry, Brian. A couple of those comments are well out of order and i totally understand your anger on this. Jesus people, leave the personal family stuff alone.

Let me repeat that, don't attack people through their families.



These kinds of comments make a mockery of the ethos of this site. Vigorous argument is one thing, blatant PAs that get community support in some sort of blood in the water feeding frenzy is something else entirely. It holds the whole site up for ridicule. This is exactly the kind of shit Zak got accused of stirring up. You'd think that would make people a little more cognizant of acting like online bullies, but apparently not.



We are supposed to be self policing and better than that, this shows we aren't. So here's what I'm doing, I'm calling The Butcher, Novastar, Will, Marleycat, jeff37923, and Emperor Norton, and anyone I may have missed, out. I don't care if you think what you said was legit, you should have shut it, and you need to apologize for it. Make it flowery, make it a simple "I'm sorry", I don't care. Suck it up, do the right thing, and post an apology here, show we can be better than that.



I'll start:

Brian, I'm sorry. I saw what was happening but didn't say anything, and given the bullying should have known better than to contribute to it with my passive-aggressive BS. I don't always agree with you, but in general I think you have some interesting things to say. I would certainly prefer you continue to contribute here. I'm sorry.



Oh, and just to repeat, keep peoples families out of it.





And in case it needs to be said, this isn't a point at the people I called out and act holier than thou thread either.

Gleichman fiasco: keep families out of it.