The fucking wave of people posting images of batman slapping robin, and a few others of similar sort, have led me to have to make a ruling on this.

You see, if its a bullshit thread, with no real purpose, and people post page after page of this:



Then in and of itself it does no harm other than to take up a great deal of our bandwith for no purpose.

But what I've noticed now is people taking SERIOUS threads, and starting to post these kinds of image floods as an attempt to derail the thread into farce rather than address the points of the thread.  I suspect that a few of the individuals who have been most egregious in this posting are doing so with the full knowledge that posting these images (which are always pointless, repetitive, and not even funny) will help to reduce the signal-to-noise ratio of a thread and thus help to kill a subject they don't care about or for.

As of NOW, this is stopping.  Anyone who posts this bullshit in a way that I feel is disruptive will be banned.

RPGPundit

To further clarify, it is not the specific "batman-slapping-robin" image that is banned, it is the practice of posting nonsensical or pointless or repetitive images as a way to disrupt threads.  Though in practice, I have yet to see any use of the batslap image that actually wouldn't qualify under that description for being banned.

The point is, it is not limited to that particular image, and the judgment will be based on disruption and the assumption of bad-faith.  

RPGPundit

My apologies. The "4e is not even a game" thread was really intended as a joke thread. The use of the pic clearly got out of hand.

As for disruptive uses outside that thread, do you have any particular examples?

Quote from: Benoist;435338My apologies. The "4e is not even a game" thread was really intended as a joke thread. The use of the pic clearly got out of hand.

As for disruptive uses outside that thread, do you have any particular examples?

Yes, and if it had stayed there, it would have been another thing entirely, but now its started to be used in the "what are 4e fanboys saying now" thread, and in the "I like mini-reviews" which was for me the last straw.

RPGPundit

OK. I see what you mean now. Thanks for the specific examples.

Well, I'd just like to say I never did it as anything other than a cheap gag -- never with the intent of squashing threads or stifling discussion. I'm disappointed by the ruling, but certainly won't dispute it.

Stings to be singled out as the bad example (that's my image above), but I guess I earned it.

Dude, we all abused it. You're not to be singled-out.

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;435369Well, I'd just like to say I never did it as anything other than a cheap gag -- never with the intent of squashing threads or stifling discussion. I'm disappointed by the ruling, but certainly won't dispute it.

Stings to be singled out as the bad example (that's my image above), but I guess I earned it.

It got pretty old, pretty fast. Surprised Pundit didn't say or do something sooner.
 Put another way: it was getting to be like an rpg.net meme that nobody wants.


- Ed C.

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;435369Well, I'd just like to say I never did it as anything other than a cheap gag -- never with the intent of squashing threads or stifling discussion. I'm disappointed by the ruling, but certainly won't dispute it.

Stings to be singled out as the bad example (that's my image above), but I guess I earned it.

I only used your image as the first one that I had handy to give an example of what the fuck I was talking about, in case anyone didn't know what I meant by the "Bat-slap".  It wasn't that yours was being highlited as an egregious case.  Even so, it was a good example in some ways, because the problem is anytime one person posts that (or things like it) in a thread, it is an invitation for a dozen other people to do so, derailing the thread.

RPGpundit

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;435369Well, I'd just like to say I never did it as anything other than a cheap gag -- never with the intent of squashing threads or stifling discussion.

Yeah, same here. I thought it was a fun thing to do. I got a laugh out of a lot of them. Treating it like some kind of concerted effort to disrupt conversations and threatening bannings instead of saying something like "hey, guys, this takes up a lot of bandwidth, could you curtail it?" first strikes me as...well, a way to damper enjoyment of the place. But, who gives a shit if I post here, right? I'm realistic. If I don't like being backhanded like that, I can always go elsewhere.

Quote from: ColonelHardisson;435434But, who gives a shit if I post here, right?

I do give a shit.

Perhaps people should also be told that it is annoying to post pictures that are too big, messing up the thread layout?

Omg teh opprezsion!!

:d

Quote from: HombreLoboDomesticado;435486Perhaps people should also be told that it is annoying to post pictures that are too big, messing up the thread layout?

Yeah. Same thing about three-kilometers-long user titles without spaces, btw.

No one is going to get banned here for posting an innocent image jokingly; though I will discourage people from doing so.  People who post the same image with the knowing intention of derailing conversation, including those who keep "Jokingly" posting images knowing that they lead to floods of the same that essentially kill a thread, on the other hand could get banned.

RPGPundit