Recovery

Posted on July 4, 2002 in IRC/Chat

It is a great victory that comes without blood.

I still op at Dalnet #peanut_gallery — “the home of the not so naughty nurses” — which is run by my longtime friend meaghan. As I expected, the surge of Sunday night did not translate into a permanent crowd, though some people make a regular visit of it on their own while others come if I /invite them and things aren’t too interesting in #politics.

Sometimes I sink into rants about the silly conditions at #news_garden where they believe that words don’t hurt and every person who gets attacked brings it on himself. I understand that my ardent detractors did a victory dance when word reached the channel of my resignation. Things have probably quieted down. I am beginning to fade from memories, except of course for the occasional crack in the /onotices.

The owner of #peanut_gallery and I have known each other for a long time. We hold similar views about the inappropriateness of hatred on a channel and we chat for pretty much for the same reasons which do not include heavy flirtation, ethnic insults, or character assassination. This will keep most of the #news_garden herd from flocking to #peanut gallery, but my taste for their beefs has been oversaturated by the brine.

It should be easier putting a stop to the channel disruptions. Unlike Plaguerat, meaghan trusts those she ops, though she does wisely restrict who can be opped — a lesson she learned from me. Meaghan would not op someone for the purpose of revenge as I suspect might have been done to me at #news_garden. Plaguerat suggested privately in /onotices that he likes to op complainers and then hog tie them with a byzantine, constantly reinvented set of rules that no one else bothers to follow. His capacity to nag me for things that I never did but were common among other ops like baiting and opping people who did not have consensus was something amazing. #news_garden is a place supposedly run on consensus or, rather, to paraphrase Plaguerat, “always aiming for consensus” — a very neat little trick that allows the channel operator to come down hard on dissidents while turning a blind eye to other abuses. Or so it seems.

Though I am glad to be rid of the insanity that was being imposed on me, I must add that I do not advocate any boycott of #news_garden (except for my own, personal one.) Telling my side of the story is one thing. Drawing lines and demanding that people be on one side or the other is quite different. I learned a long time ago that my friends will like people I detest. And I will have friends who hate each other. Telling people not to go to #news_garden is not now nor has it ever been in the cards.