It seems that the ES forum moderators have taken to deleting threads which have even the least degree of rancor or antagonism in them. You'll go to the topic to see the latest, and it's just gone! No warning, no lockdown, no reason given. It's just gone.
While I'm not going to claim that this the same thing as censorship by the government (it's not), it is disruptive of the community. People disagree, they talk about it, maybe resolve it or not. But wiping the record of the disagreement out of existence does nothing to resolve it. And it demeans the members of the forum – treats us a small children who aren't allowed to talk about certain things.
Enough soapbox politics/philosophy... Here's a topic that got wiped off the forum today that I didn't want lost...
PS: If something like this happens to you, try setting your browser to work offline and then searching your browser cache...
Dark Flame was a person on the forums who achieved quite a bit of notoriety, and ended up being banned in several of his/her incarnations. Recently, Ninja Mokey claimed that Britney and DarkFlame are one in the same. This possibility came up as an aside in a topic started by Britney and I threw in my two bits... In short, with a bit of analysis, it seemed that there were some good arguments for the claim, though I wasn't completely convinced. Britney replied briefly, then I replied again, and then the topic disappeared.
Here's what I can reconstruct from my browser cache...
ox!d: and, why do some people think you are darkflame? why would they want to think that?
Ninja Monkey: Because he tells people she is through pms, mostly me, but that's beside the point.
Britney: I don't know - I guess they just don't like me very much
A couple of things strike me about this:
• Britney hasn't denied it. (Note that her response above does not deny it.)
• Britney said in earlier thread that she's been lurking for a year. But she only joined May-05. And now she's a disciple. What's the likelihood that anyone who likes to talk that much would lurk for that long without saying anything?
• The timing of her joining is shortly after a couple of darkflame's alternates ids left/were banned.
• The id itself seems a little strange. It's obviously a mask identity. I can see "Britney fan" as an id, but "Britney" with britney pictures from a person who seems unlikely to be a Britney fan? Seems a bit contemptuous, as if to say "Of course, I'm lying about my id!"
• There's also the contrast in language and apparent knowledge over the range of her posts. First posts sounded like a gushy female newbie to Morrowind...
Britney: "Hi!
Ok so I downloaded this modification called Giants and I go through this huge installation process right? Then it says its finished and I begin to play Morrowind, but nothings different! I dont see any Giants or anything, which makes me think that there might be something wrong with this modification. Does anybody know whats goin on??"
Britney: "what is leveled list merger??? it never asked me anything about this when I installed?
I walked around the river and went to that ballsomething city and I didn't see any giants or anything except a scrib! So I dont know if this game is working I dont think. And also I typed in what you said to type in Mysticshadow but nothing happened. what do I do now?"
"Ballsomething city"??? And she was lurking for 7 months before that?
Later posts run more like this:
Britney: "whomever made this thread sure was right about one thing... a whole lot of useless posters on here joined in 2005... darn tooting right... yeah... useless spammers the lot of em... uh huh... always addin their two cents... yep... jabberin about absolutely nothin... why we aint never had a spammer on these here forums til 2005 came round... no sir ree bob mckenzie..."
Britney: "do a search for darkflame in the mod forums, his threads may still be there (some are actually rather entertaining to read)"
Britney: "of course. its called rationalizing your emotions. It involves taking a step back, and examining and understanding why you feel the way you feel."
Hmmm. Kind of convincing, actually. But if so, at least she's a lot better behaved then DarkFlame was.
obsess much?
your assumptions are both illfounded and unwarranted. Please refrain from cluttering my threads with useless spam.
[Having to reconstruct, since I this wasn't preserved in my browser cache...]
So, basically, "I'm not going to discuss it." No argument, no "I'm not DarkFlame!". No opinion on DarkFlame (other the the mild admiration of the previous quote). No, "The reason that I acted like a newbie, is well, that's what women do." No, "The reason that I lurked for so long is that I'm basically a shy person."
The reason that I'm following up on this is that DarkFlame was a total spotted owl, someone whom I added to my ignore list after reading just a few of his/her posts. So, when Ninja Monkey made the claim, I wanted to know the answer. It's not a huge deal for me, but it does affect my willingness to reply to Britney's posts. And I suspect that it's the same for other people. So, if Britney is not DarkFlame, then the wise thing to do would be reply to the accusations in a substantive way.