July 1998 Archives

Yesterday, a certain person on IRC made a derogatory remark about a book another person on the channel had written. The insulted person, an op of the channel, kickbanned the insulter, as is often the custom on IRC. A bit quick on the trigger finger maybe, but as op, it is his right.

The insulter came back promptly under a different account, trying to evade the ban. Ban evasion usually results in an immediate kick and a longer ban, and this case was no exception.

Then the insulter came back under a third account, and threatened legal action.

Sigh.

Let me straighten this out here and now: you have no right to be on my computer if I don't want you there. But these computers are not owned by anyone involved, not owned by the government, not owned by any of us. Rule is determined on EFNet simply by who has op status on a channel. If you have op status, then you are the de facto ruler, and you can do anything you want in there, including kicking out anyone else. I am op, I rule. Period.

If you tick me off, I will kick you. Quid Pro Quo. I don't need a reason. I can kick anyone for any reason. If I do that, there are three options:

1. Live with it
2. If you are an op too, deop me
3. Go somewhere ele

That's it. Those are your only choices. This holds true in all of society. If I own a store, I can't kick you out because you are black, but I can kick you out because you are a wanker.

No justification is needed, and no amount of court action can do anything, even if what was going on were illegal. Heck, if you don't like it that I keep you out, I have a dozen friends in Australia, Norway and Sweden ready to kickban you as soon as you step in. I don't think they are afraid of your lawyers.

Realize one thing: if you threaten legal action for ops kicking you, then expect to get kickbanned by all the other ops. We don't care why you got kicked in the first place. We don't care at all. We just care that you threatened to sue another op for kicking you. And that in and of itself means you will continue to be kickbanned by everyone else.

I could not care less if your opinion is humble, not humble, or anything else. If you have an opinion, just state it as your opinion.

I am not sure why this bugs me. Maybe it is because I am worried that all those extra bits are going to add up some day and I'll need two extra bits to save the 4-digit date of my thesis, but because someone wrote "IMNSHO" I am out of luck.

But I think it is just the idea that I think you are trying to lessen the impact with that extra "H". It's kinda like typing, "I hate you and your dog. :-)", and hoping that I won't take it personally. Or maybe it is just this postmodern attitude that we shouldn't believe in anything. Dammit, own up the fact that you have a thought in your head and that you believe something!

I think humility is important. I think it is important to realize that we don't know everything, and that our opinions can very well be wrong. But you people are wearing your humility like some freakshow badge of honor, as if the absence of a strongly held belief were something to be proud of.

I am a homeowner now. I kinda think those commercials that advertise home equity loans are a bit off-beat. Even the best ones have low production values, like the ones starring Dan Marino.

I saw a new commercial the other day. Some two-bit actors are making fun of the other commercials, saying that sports figures don't know anything about home equity loans. Let me get this straight: a multimillionaire sports figure, an intelligent quarterback who has a high-priced agent, a guy who values his name and his reputation, is to be trusted less than some actors who would kill their agent to get a paying gig?

That was kinda annoying to me, until I saw a commercial with actors claiming that they could have sex now that they got their home equity loan. "Well, that solved our problem," says the woman in bed. "ProbLEMS," says the man, as he turns out the light. You don't need Viagra(TM), you need a home equity loan! We doan need no steenking pills!

Sigh. If I were reading The Brothers Karamzov (did you know that William Shatner played Alyosha in Brothers Karamzov opposite Yul Brenner in his film debut?) instead of watching TV, I would not have this problem.