I just read Joel's explanation for why he pulled the plug on ?Off.  Apparently a friend of his told him we'd crossed the line into scary behavior?

When did this happen?  Did I miss something?  The postings were wacky but there was nothing scary or dangerous going on.

Maybe Joel should check things out for himself before passing judgement.  Not that it matters since the board has been miraculously resurrected as COT, but I for one was pissed off when ?Off suddenly vanished without any warning.

easy way for him to deny any responsibility for what happened to chris... "they were a bunch of crazies in there.  not my fault!"

Huh? There is no responsibility to deny?

muppet called me a sociopath over a year ago.

<<Huh? There is no responsibility to deny?>>

well, obviously not.  he's covering his bases, anyway, methinks.

I don't think he has to accept or deny responsibility - the only responsibility for Chris is Chris, and ?off came into play primarily because Chris was a bit of an attention whore.

Nonetheless, Joel didn't want to have to deal with it in any way, so it was a perfect opportunity.

I'm actually really bothered by the implication of his message and sent him an email asking him to remove that word. It didn't bounce, so I think I have the right address. I haven't been able to check my email since this morning, so all I know is it's still there.

I was going to ask around to make sure I had his correct email address and forward it around if nothing happened by this evening.

I'm pretty sure FogCreek accepts any address - sometime back I emailed Joel about something (I entirely forget what) and used the wrong address. A couple of days later he replied, indicating that I'd sent to a bogus address that he happened to read.

Just got to my email, no response.

My lack of surprise knows no bounds, he emailed us maybe twice as moderators in an entire year I doubt he's going to learn any manners in the meantime.

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Hi, we're a bunch of downright psycopathic forum dwellers. But when we aren't making people unhappy, we're using Bugzilla! It's great bug tracking software that's easy to use, well supported, and free!
http://www.bugzilla.org/
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Umm, about that easy to use thing.  Since when was Bugzilla easy to use?  I thought it was the entry bar for developers to show whether they understood the term 'twisty passages all alike'.

I'm not a psycopathic forum dweller.
But I play one on TV.

Simon - we're psycopathic, remember?

The friend in question was his lawyer.

I think Joel's comments were a bit sweeping, but MarkTAW, how do they reflect on you directly that it would bother you?

I mean, ?off's gone, so there's no risk of someone digging for dirt on you and coming up with a forum community written off as a bunch of psychos by its creator.