GoldLenny replies to the AquariumFish.com mods and members

Posted to (but later deleted by the mods at AF):

http://www.aquariumfish.com/aquariumfish/board/Topic120514-5-5.aspx

http://www.aquariumfish.com/aquariumfish/board/Topic120720-8-1.aspx

[quote][b]doublevirgo
(2/28/2007)[/b][hr][quote][b]wheels777 (2/28/2007)[/b][hr][quote][b]
I understand that people are upset because we've banned a prominent member, but have you ever thought that, just maybe, we were put in a position where we had no other choice!? Why isn't a single person mad at Goldlenny? He knew the rules, he knew that because he was such a fixture here it would take a lot on his part to get banned, yet he went ahead and seriously violated them, leaving us no choice whatsoever. I respectfully appreciate your opinions, but from my perspective, Goldlenny did this to himself. And I really wish he hadn't.
Wheels[/quote]

Hi Wheels,

I realize that with all the commotion lately, and the backlash related to Goldlenny's banning you (well both of the mods) probably feel like you have to justify this issue to many people. That must be a very difficult situation to be in. I don't envy that problem.

The time I have spent reading through all available information on the subject has led me to believe that the problem arose because of some fundamental breakdown in the "chain of command" as it were. I understand that Goldlenny tried other avenues before he resorted to the type of behavior that resulted in his banning. Unfortunatly, before the situation was controlled he lost his cool. Most people do have a limit, and apparently his was exceeded.

The blame game could go on, but I don't believe it's probably effective, or constructive. The only constructive thing that could come out of this would be for all involved parties to learn what they can from this, so that it does not happen again.

From my perspective, for the board this means more effective moderation. For Goldlenny he probably needs to learn to simply know what his limits are, and when to walk away from an incendiary situation before those "buttons" are pushed.

All parties can benefit from this if they are willing to turn a negative into a positive. If not, then we are not much different than the animals, so to speak.

I believe his loss is a real shame for this board, and I have followed him to another board. I will see how things go there. I will continue to stay here only if I see improvement. I am interested in fish. I have a toddler. I go to school fulltime while I pursue a nursing career, and I tutor chemistry 12hrs a week. I have to clean my house, pay bills, etc. etc. etc. These are the things I am willing to make time for. I don't have the time or energy to waste on useless bickering.

I hope a positive solution comes out of all this. I really do.

Tamara[/quote]

[quote]Unfortunatly, before the situation was controlled he lost his cool. Most people do have a limit, and apparently his was exceeded.

The blame game could go on, but I don't believe it's probably effective, or constructive. The only constructive thing that could come out of this would be for all involved parties to learn what they can from this, so that it does not happen again.

From my perspective, for the board this means more effective moderation. For Goldlenny he probably needs to learn to simply know what his limits are, and when to walk away from an incendiary situation before those "buttons" are pushed.[/quote]

I am GoldLenny's next door neighbor and although I only have a Betta, GoldLenny has helped me learn more about how to keep my Betta properly, compared to how I was keeping him before.

He asked me to join this forum for future purposes so I can learn more but he also asked me to post his reply to all of the allegations made by the moderators and the inaccurate assumptions by some of the members.

Here is GoldLenny's reply:

**********************

Hello to all of my AF forum friends,

I have been monitoring all of the comments and replies for the past week and I just wanted to clear up a few things.

I NEVER did lose my cool or allow the little trolls to push my buttons. ALL of my PM's (to the trolls and to the mods), my new topics and my replies in other threads were specifically designed and calculated to get the trolls off of the forums and to get the moderators to start doing their jobs. Both of these things seem to have been accomplished. I sleep well at night because of my actions and would do them all over again given the same circumstances.

My actions were both appropriate and effective... as I now see that the mods are actively replying to threads where their replies have merit to the questions raised in so many topics concerning me.

IF the mods had only shown this same level of participation prior to my being banned, it would have never happened. Further, why didn't the "Report" buttons work? I'm guessing they are tied to the same faulty PM system that still exists. At least the mods have posted an email address to report things in the interim. Now you only have to hope that SPAM filters do not block your emails.

For examples of some of the past trolls and how I handled them, here are three threads that stayed up on the forums long enough for the various search engines to cache/archive the web pages for eternity. If you search "goldlenny" with Google or Yahoo, you will find these threads. You will have to use the "cache" link, within the "hits", to view the actual pages since the normal link that one might click goes to a URL that has now been removed... but the "cache" link will bring you to the page as it existed on the day that the search engine "crawled" through this site.

Here is a snip from my GoldLenny blog which has the links included:

(BEGINNING OF SNIP)

... take a look at these threads that were on AF forums long enough to be archived/cached by Google. These two threads were up for nearly a week over the Christmas/New Years holidays (2006/2007).... long enough so that they are now a permanent part of the internet records via Google's cached archives.

These are just a part of the work done by trolls at the AF forums that mostly have been deleted... but these two threads will never be deleted since they are archived/cached by Google.

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:-2HB7itBfcAJ:www.aquariumfish.com/aquariumfish/board/default.aspx/Topic117664-5-1.aspx+oracle+aquariumfish+goldlenny&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:Y42hlGhixboJ:www.aquariumfish.com/aquariumfish/board/default.aspx/Topic117724-5-1.aspx+oracle+aquariumfish+goldlenny&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

EDIT - 02/28/2007 - I found yet another archived/cached page from aquariumfish.com where the troll known as oracle is even amazed that he's still allowed to post on the forums. Only on aquariumfish.com would a troll be allowed to stay on the forums for days, posting nuisance, vulgarity, profanity and simply being a troll.

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:BIfqyy-z5D8J:aquariumfish.com/aquariumfish/board/FindPost117729.aspx+goldlenny&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=12&gl=us

(END OF SNIP)

As you see in those three very offensive threads posted directly towards me and even titled "goldlenny", I did not "lose my cool" or reply with any profanity or vulgarity.

This most recent troll was only one of many that we've had to deal with over the past several years on these forums. As you saw, in my replies to Oracle (above), I never lost my cool or posted anything that would get me banned. I did reply to a few of Oracle's many PM's to me and used appropriate language in my replies to his filth ridden PM's to me. I believe that these former PM's and my ONE PM that I sent this most recent troll are the so-called things that I have been previously warned about. I stand by my actions. While it may be against the rules to use "certain language" in PM's, I tried over and over and over to use the "Report" button on various posts, PM'ed the mods over and over and over, all to no avail.

I then decided to do a little psychological and reverse-psychology warfare on the open forums. I still refrained from using any profanity, vulgarity, etc., in any of my posts. Albeit, some of my language was necessarily colorful in order for it to have the necessary impact on the trolls, and also to have the necessary impact on the moderators for their complete absence during this entire debacle.... and for their absence during the many previous debacles on these forums. I needed to "cross the line" in order to effect change... change that will hopefully make things better for everyone... everyone who sticks around and for those who join from this date forward.
If this is what it took... my getting banned.. in order to make the moderators start doing their jobs properly, then I'm glad I did it and I would do it again if needed.

I wish all of my friends and peers here the best and if I see fit to reply to future topics concerning me, I'll do so in this manner.

I want to thank my neighbor for posting this reply and I hope it does not cause her any problems with the mods. They keep saying that as long as the constructive criticism is kept within the rules, then it's allowed to be posted. If any part of my reply violates those rules, please edit that part out and explain why for the members reading my reply. Some members will receive un-edited copies of this reply for comparative purposes. I will also post this reply on my blog.

Happy fish-keeping!

GoldLenny

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*******************

Now, Suzie, the_grim_reaper replies:
Dear Mods,

I hope that you will leave GoldLenny's reply up so that people get to see both sides of this story. From what I've read, I feel that the moderators have been posting quite a few comments about GoldLenny without allowing him to respond.

Thanks,

The_grim_reaper (aka Suzie)

*********************************

Thanks for reading,

GoldLenny

Mozy.com - FREE, secure, encrypted and automatic online backup of your documents and files. Check out how simple and secure it can be to use the Mozy backup system. It will back up your most important files, photos and folders... or your entire hard drive, every day/night (you set the schedule) while you aren't using your computer... and did I mention... it's FREE. I have been using this product/service since it was in Beta Testing and have been 100% satisfied with the final product!!!