Dusting off my keyboard to weigh-in on this topic
1) For those of you that don't know me (mostly referring to the merging of multiple PU forums) - I'm a veteran GC poster (though not nearly as active anymore). I started out on the forums after a girlfriend cheated on me and then I resolved that if I wanted to avoid that happening in the future that I needed to learn to talk to women. So, I hit the forums, read the info and then painfully took my first few steps forward about 5-6 years ago
2) I was around for the first wave of Indian race whiners on the boards. There were a few of them and each of "them" was warned multiple times to cut it out or be banned. In my experience, bans on GC have always happened because people could not follow the forum/board rules (respecting your Elders, no flaming, incessant complaining, etc.) but never because of disagreements BECAUSE disagreements are healthy and very much needed on forums like this. EVERY single Indian poster except for OP was banned because of this and, at least at the time, OP on his GC account had cut the crap of posting/whining about race or other toxic mentalities. He probably (most definitely?) still had them BUT they were not as visible or noticeable so he was barely given a pass. In a nutshell, every whiner was banned except for the ONE that was seemingly getting over his own bullshit.
3) Onto the whole topic of trolling; I don't think OP was a troll. He had trolly behavior, for sure, but I think his constant whining about Indian race/brown guys/etc. was moreso because he wanted an answer and not because he was purposefully trying to irritate us. The answer we all (new Elite guys from other forums, included) gave him, however, was not one that his toxic viewpoints would agree with. After a while, his viewpoints surfaced again (from what I'm seeing - it's hard to be sure though because the IRT conglomerate has already been merged into a single account so it's hard for me to research what account posted what on here) and he was disagreeing with a lot of the senior members so his ban was imminent. He was given a pass ONCE but it wouldn't happen a second time.
4) To circumvent my point, I've kinda devolved to a neutral 3rd party and can look at things through a more objective lens. So, I also want to take this time to point out something else (aside from the IRT thread) and that's the state of the boards and what the boards/forum actually mean because I see differing opinions and it seems to be the choice of inclusion vs. exclusion; to some degree it’s probably normal because the majority of us come from different boards that operate differently. What I think it comes down to is the simple question of “
What do the boards mean” or “
What is the purpose of these boards?”
EDIT: Something I didn't think of until writing this post is that with this forum being the last strong-hold for active PU knowledge it's going to get the most traffic so the two bolded questions are probably more important now than when there were multiple boards on the Internet.
5) Earlier in my GC days I was on the side of exclusion to the point that I almost left the boards when Drexel came in and talked about polyamory all over the place. It’s ironic that I currently don’t’ side with monogamy at all, though, and that just speaks to my development as a person and I am wholeheartedly on the side of inclusion now. What I see from some people is this mentality of “You’re either with us or against us” and I think that comes from how people want the boards to operate and what different people want the boards to be used for. But, I also understand the side of exclusion in wanting to preserve the wealth of knowledge and the knowledgeable posters we still have. In my opinion, the point of the boards/forum is to spread knowledge and help develop pick-up and a little disagreement/argument is necessary and healthy so inclusion is a necessity in my eyes; maybe that means more active punishment for non-compliance but I think inclusion is a
MUST. As with all things there has to be a happy middle-ground where everybody wins but I’m not in a position to make that kind of decision. In a nutshell, I think everything comes down to “What is the purpose of these boards?”
Anyway, love and appreciate all of you crazy fuckers
