> I was exchanging PMs with Morris the whole time that we were both being blamed, so neither of us felt guilty or scared. In the other room, I had a short conversation with Kaz! where I had to tell him that the whole ting was a joke. Had you not explained the whole thing, or had some people left before it was resolved, I could have been blackballed. People /trust/ you, Sam; they believe you when you say 'It was Wormwood being BEER'.

Blackballed? Oh come on. Nobody takes things that seriously around here, and if they do you shouldn't care about their opinion. We've all done dumb or silly things in RW (I remember way back when I was speaking without actually being in the room and it annoyed everybody while I thought it would be quite funny).

By the same token, go read Revenge of Sam II (http://www.rinkworks.com/rinkchat/archives/2000/revenge2.shtml). Sam actually took control over me while in chat, but I didn't feel "enraged" or "helpless." Heck, I went along with it. There was certainly never any malice last night behind Sam/Dave/myself, and that's the important thing.

>
> I explained why I dislike fake kicks, but in case you didn't see it, I'll explain it again.
>
> I'll try to explain it with a metaphor. Imagine RinkChat as a literal room which you, Sam, have invited us, the RinkWorks regulars, into. Now, imagine that for no reason at all, you decide to kick me in the shins. As I grip them in pain, I ask you why, and you respond: "Because it's FUNNY!"

No. Look, when you get kicked in a chat room, you're hardly experiencing any pain. Furthermore, nobody's laughing at your pain. You just log back in. Kicks are almost part of the conversation; they're a way to express mock anger. I've probably been kicked as much as anyone (if not more) and it's a minor inconvienence at worst.

>
> Now, that would be the extreme metaphor. Here's the less extreme one.
>
> RinkChat is once again a literal room. We're all talking, maybe I'm not, maybe I'm just reading. On a whim, you ask security to escort me out of the building. Confusing, embarrassing, frustrating. Maddening.

Confusing? Not really. You generally don't get kicked out randomly. There's a reason (usually silly, like you say that Blood Drops sucks). Embarrassing? Nobody regards you with shame for being kicked. Once again, if they do, their opinion is hardly worth caring about. As for fustrating or maddening, those are extremely strong words for something that is probably "annoying" more than anything.

For what it's worth, I remember a while ago when Sam put a halt to all fake kicks because some people were being upset by them (moreso I think because they were really messing up conversations). Last night there weren't any real conversations going on when all this was happening, so I think it's kind of moot anyway.

> Jokes have been carried to far, yes. However, this joke was carried to disgusting extremes, and wasn't funny in the first place. I agree that you shouldn't be expected to have a flawless sense of comic timing or originality, but you SHOULD be able to determine when a joke is carried to far. Maybe you thought that BEER and BUTT were the funniest things in the world, but as you know, none of us did.

What are these "disgusting" extremes?? This is what I can't figure out. While it was happening, I didn't see anything like "Sam, could you ban these people, they're really being offensive." What exactly did BEER/BUTT say or do that was disgusting in the extreme?

>
>
> > An original twist to an old idea makes it worthwhile.
>
> No, no, no. I could put an original twist on the clock radio idea: it's called Ku Klux Klock. Instead of waking you up with a buzzer, it wakes you up by spouting pro-white remarks that defame black people. Tell me, is that worthwhile?

This is a complete and utter false analogy that I think was picked simply because of its volatile nature. If I didn't know you, Wormwood, I would think you were trolling with something like that. Acting like a couple of frat boys is nowhere NEAR spouting off hate messages. The two are so completely distant in the realm of offensive things to do that it boggles the mind.

Stephen