I am sorry, but something needs to be said about last night. [View All]

[Skinner]

I am stunned by the behavior of some members last night. I'm not so much angry as sad. I think we have really hit a new low. Maybe even rock bottom. I think this behavior showed a special level of contempt for this message board, and for the other members of this message board.

There is no other way to describe it, other than to say it was deliberate, orchestrated disruption.

And if that wasn't bad enough, they chose to pull this stunt on an evening when we were obviously having serious problems with our servers (problems which are likely to continue today). Everyone on the board was already frustrated. The poor performance made it extremely difficult for the moderators to do their jobs. And the admins were occupied trying to fix the server problems. The appearance is that you were taking advantage of the situation. I am shaking my head in disbelief about the whole thing.

It is apparent to me that this small group of people gave themselves permission to be disruptive, because they have convinced themselves that their opponents are doing worse. That is just sad. I have certainly seen plenty of crap from all sides of the candidate debates, but I have never seen the type of deliberate disruption which I have seen from some of you in the past few days. In your efforts to compete with your opponents, you have blown way past them. It is just sad. What ever happened to trying to be better than our opponents?

I am sure that there are some of you who will take no responsiblity for your own actions. You have convinced yourselves that ultimately I am responsible, or that ultimately your opponents are responsible, for your actions. This is folly. Only *YOU* are resopnsible for your actions.

No doubt, some of you are going to stubbornly cling to your belief that you were totally justified. For you, there is no hope. But I believe that there are some among you, and among your friends, who are capable of regret, and capable of remorse. I believe that there are some of you who can feel a shred of shame, and will take this as an opportunity to try to do better. For that reason, the admins have chosen not to ban any of you, even though it is clear that we are more than justified in doing so. I hope that some of you will see it in your hearts to take the olive branch which we are handing you.

That's all I have to say.

Skinner
DU Admin