This week marked a milestone for me. I was actually banned from a forum I participated significantly in. At the time of the banning, I was the third most prolific poster.
You can read the more sordid version here: http://www.moynihaninstitute.com/
To some of you, this comes as no surprise, as I've been banned before from various boards for various reasons.
The first board I was banned from had to have been the Hardgainer Round Table, way back in 1999 or 2000. That was because I was incredulous towards many of the posters defeatist attitudes, and let it show. Oh yeah, lets not forget the trollling. Back then, it was still fun.
The second board I was banned from was another board I participated in quite a bit. This was the Crossfit board. I was banned, essentially, for not toeing the company line and giving the board admins and the Crossfit leadership a hard time about certain issues, mostly related to Dan John's integrity. As Dan's a tremendous friend of mine, it might seem a bit prejudiced towards him, but, in this, I know I'm walking on the side of the angels.
This last board was a bit of a surprise, though, since I'd been posting there since it's inception earlier this year, and, ironically, the reasons given for the ban is that I was stepping over the line, in regards to talking some shit about Crossfit. The thread in question is gone, but it can probably be looked up on an internet archive. It was called "A Classic Example of Karma", which was a long, rambling off-topic thread on the Catalyst Athletics forums, formerly known as the Performance Menu forums. If you peruse that thread, you'll probably wonder where exactly I was crossing the line. Lots of other folks have, so you wouldn't be alone in that.
One thing that seems to be occurring is a certain revision of the "history" of the thread. The fellow who banned me, the owner and administrator, a guy named Greg Everett, stated I was repeatedly warned, both publically and privately not to instigate shit talking about Crossfit, and people associated with Crossfit. I maintain that it was more of a gentleman's agreement, with him being uncomfortable with that sort of thing, and him asking me to keep it toned down, and me agreeing amicably. Ah, the drama of the newly minted internet message board tyrant.
In any case, I'm just a bit miffed. I hadn't thought anything I'd said in the thread was even close to violating even the loose gentleman's agreement Greg and I had forged. To top it off, I really put a significant amount of time into legitimate discussion on that message board. The bottom line is that this is pretty much an irrevocable cutting of my ties with the community. Greg also deleted several other threads dealing with the same topic, and the entire training log of someone who felt he'd over-reacted.
Not exactly a promising start at the helm. A forum is always best as a chaotic collaboration between the members, not operated like a tightly run ship. At this point, being reinstated would only stave of the inevitable, as I would be unable to resist poking at Greg until he banned me again.
So, au revoir PM/CA forums. And Pmenu amigos? You know where to find me. Either here, or at the Infamous Power and Bulk.
http://powerandbulk.com/phpBB2/index.php
