Sud, you called someone a hobo. Take that comment by itself, paraphrased as "The admins are hobos", and it's an insult.
If you take it by itself you take it out of context. I said "they hire only the finest hobos". Big difference in meaning here. The joke is three parts, the first being a parody of the cliche of "we use only the finest ingrediants" or "we hire only the finest professionals", the second an oxymoron in "finest hobos" and the third in the utter ridiculousness of the idea of there being a hobo stationed at the helm of a computer game server. I cannot see how any thinking human being can not see that this is joking behavior, even if it is not exactly their style of humor. The "insult" was also not directed toward a single person (hence "hobos"), thus it makes an even weaker case to think that anyone possibly could take offense. If you take offense at this, there is something wrong with you, not the joke teller.
You were then kicked/warned that insults to admins would equal a ban. Did you apologize and state that you were joking? Nope.
I had committed no act worthy of issuing an apology, had received action BEFORE warning (kick BEFORE warning), and the "warning" was issued as a direct threat against me. How is this reasonable?
Nope. Instead, you take another stab at an admin on THIER SERVER, tacking on an apology that would obviously be ignored next to the powermonger comment. Surprise, you were kicked again. You were kicked from a server for a tasteless comment, come back, get warned, and then procede to insult them again. Where is the logic in that?
Other people in this thread besides I have seen the humor inherant in the comment, and I have expained it in painful detail such that the people with the sense of humor of Mr. Data from Star Trek might at least understand why it's funny if they somehow can't for themselves, so it was not a tasteless comment. Kicking someone then threatening them is an act of powermongering, if the shoe fits, it is not an insult. So once I have been kicked for making a joke, and now once for admonishing the admin with a true statement. I'm still looking for the wrong I've caused.
Two insults with two kicks along with a warning after each, and you keep pushing their buttons. You were banned promptly, and rightly so.
No, I was banned for having a personality, and expressing the embarassing truth to their admins. What resulted was an abuse of power that shows their character flaws inherant with having no skills in diplomacy, dealing with other people, or anger management; all unacceptable traits in someone who's supposed to be conducting himself responsibly. They have even come into this thread proving exactly what I said - they feel they have the entitlement to do what they want. Be that as so, this is a exposition of their shoddy practices such that other people who might dare "insult" them with a completely unloaded comment not be threatened and abused in such a way.
A joke is only a joke if both parties know that it was a joke.
This is not really a correct statement. For example, look at MAD magazine. They parody everything and anything whether or not it's "okay" with the subject matter. It is the nature of humor that anything can be the next target, and sometimes toes are trod upon in the process, but it is not acceptable in our society to meet something harmless with threats and intimidation.
You've slammed folks that didn't agree with you and not really conceded to any alternative lines of thought that have been presented.
Most of the alternate lines of thought presented have been written in a tone that reeks of "devil's advocate" - they grasp at straws, and try to present a falsified/intensified case, such as taking my comment out of context. I do understand the possibilities inherant in them, but any of them can be riposted simply with "in the case of a misunderstanding, the owness is on the person in power to clarify the situation". If you think someone is being insulting towards you, you ask them "excuse me Sir, is that meant as an insult?". It then puts the person on the spot to say "ya you stupid fucker" or "no, I was just kidding with ya". You don't bloody well KICK then threaten them. THIS IS WHY IT IS AN ABUSE OF POWER. He fought his battle on uneven terms, in a cowardly fashion, and thus why he brings shame to himself and his community.
Your behavior after that point however, took away any weight to your argument. What do you do when you offend someone in the real world? Do you apologize like a logical, sane person would, or do you continue to insult them?
If their offense was stated in the manner of "if you don't shut up I'm going to attack you", I'd be calling the cops. As it was, I issued a TRUE STATEMENT admonishing him for his inappropriate behavior. How this makes my argument lose any weight is beyond my understanding. The wrong has already been done, and calling a wrongdoer a wrongdoer is no basis for derailing the train of thought. Cops call convicted criminals criminals. What, should they call them pre-reforms instead and speak in hushed tones? This is call spin doctoring, and it has no place in a debate.
you're coming across as childish and bull-headed
Neither does ad hominem
I don't expect you take any of this seriously, but I hope it'll make you think that maybe, just maybe, things could have been handled differently on your side as well.
I've agreed so many times that things could have been handled differently. However, I do not agree that it would have been appropriate for me to do them as such. Giving him anything less than what he truly deserved for his actions is condoning his behavior by enablement. When he sees that he can threaten and intimidate me, he gets the idea that "hey, I really
can get away with this, nobody holds me accountable, I'm invincible!". In this case, he certainly did not. He got his abuse in yes, but he has taken some very negative views from a lot of people. Even a BF2S mod dropped in with a statement implying that a ban for a joke is not a reasonable thing to do. This thread has been an exceptional success in exposing what he did, it is relavent to Battlefield 2 because MANY people are having problems exactly like mine, and the next time he decides he's going to push people around, he might keep it on his mind that some people push back.