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[Flying Dice]

"He was trying to have a discussion."

Yes, about as much as anyone else in that thread was.

e: Also note that the thread would have died entirely if he hadn't kept bumping it until the bickering started. He got what he wanted. Most of the first page was a derail about corporations and media attention.

[Baffler]

Yet he was the one who was punished for it.

[Flying Dice]

Yet he was the one who was punished for it.

Yes, because it makes no sense for someone who started a flamebait thread and repeatedly avoided any semblance of real discussion to be punished more than the people who responded to him.

If someone shouts "fire" in a crowded theater and someone is trampled in the panic, they don't try to figure out who stepped on the dead person.

[TempAcc]

From what I got from that thread (while it was still going on, and which I chose not to participate in because I could just see the banhammer flying in the horizon) Rex was clearly being an asshole, and some other people arguing with him were too, but it became more and more obvious he was intentionally turning it into a flame war, as in, it wasn't a real discussion (if it ever was), but something being orchestrated to piss people off.

Keep in mind I actualy do think the whole "clock build by discriminated muslim student" story the american left leaning news is parading is highly shady, to say the least.

EDIT:
ninja count: 8
presidents kidnapped: 0

[Baffler]

Yet he was the one who was punished for it.

Yes, because it makes no sense for someone who started a flamebait thread and repeatedly avoided any semblance of real discussion to be punished more than the people who responded to him.

If someone shouts "fire" in a crowded theater and someone is trampled in the panic, they don't try to figure out who stepped on the dead person.

But if someone gets a group of people to riot and they start looting storefronts and setting cars on fire, the hooligans will be punished right along with the one who incited the riot. That's what that thread was, really, one guy whipping up a mob, who then proceeded to throw shit at each other and at their surroundings.

[TempAcc]

Also this^
Rex wasn't exactly the only one flaming.

[Flying Dice]

I mean, let's be honest, there's no way in hell I'd bring something like that to school back when I was in it, and that's as a geeky white kid. As an Arab-looking kid in the South I'd only do it if I was feeling suicidal. That's basically zero common sense on his part, American schools are fucking crazy about security regardless of who you are, and there've been plenty that sanction kids hard for stupid things like making finger-gun gestures. 

e: that was in response to TempAcc earlier.

It's not the same principle as a riot, that analogy is flawed. The only harm that might have been done would have been to his ego, and I'm doubtful about that.

[Egan_BW]

Let's ban everyone who posted in that thread.
I believe that this would help to create a more helpful and caring forum environment. 

[Rolan7]

IDK.  I have to confess I'm on his "side", at least to some extent, but the OP looks reasonable to me.  He pointed out things which were, in his view, common misconceptions.  He provided sources from multiple sites.  Seems like he put a lot of earnest effort for it compared to, well...

Compared to what *I* said in this very thread, honestly.  If his OP was trolling, my post was worse.

I mean, let's be honest, there's no way in hell I'd bring something like that to school back when I was in it, and that's as a geeky white kid. As an Arab-looking kid in the South I'd only do it if I was feeling suicidal. That's basically zero common sense on his part, American schools are fucking crazy about security regardless of who you are, and there've been plenty that sanction kids hard for stupid things like making finger-gun gestures. 

This was my position pretty much!  And in return, I still feel like the police were overzealous with him.  Might have even been racially motivated to some extent...  I just don't blame the teacher, and something similar happened to my white best friend in high school.

[Flying Dice]

What I'm saying is that there were points I agreed with him on -- it was completely overblown -- but he insisted on making it some sort of grand liberal conspiracy and refused to debate rationally.

[Frumple]

It looks to me like he tried to start a discussion in good faith.

If that looked like good faith to you, we've got very different understanding of the concept. The first post could be generously referred to as that (excepting, perhaps, that it was copy/pasted from elsewhere, anyway, and had other notable problems), but basically everything after that... wasn't. The discussion could have been handled gracefully, but the OP pretty much immediately (literally immediately, really, straight from the thread bumping second post and continuing with pretty much every post after either attacking another person in the thread, denigrating someone involved in the story's character, or something along those lines) started to try to drag the discussion into a fight instead of a conversation. Which happened, and people stopped taking things particularly seriously (to say the least).

Those who cannot handle good-faith, respectful discussions should not take part in them, and shitposting a thread to death should in no way be a way to get the thread locked or the OP banned.

That's true, at least the latter bit. Unfortunately for rex, it was more than just other people's actions that got them banned.

And @Rol (and points that came up while typing), unfortunately, being provoked ultimately won't prevent you from being banned. If you engage with antagonism with more antagonism, you get considered part of the problem. Pretty much the first bulletpoint in the forum guidelines. Considering rex both had a history of doing so, and explicitly stated in that thread that they were setting out to entice and give out said antagonism, well, the obvious happened. When it comes to stuff like this, the OP nets more of the blame -- they have the tools to stop dogpiles (locks, reports), and the responsibility to set the tone of the thread appropriately (by not escalating or sniping back if people are being offensive and reporting, as the guidelines specifically state to do). OP in that case failed on both points, which combined with other things lead to the ban.

... it's just. Look, folks. If you want to talk about stuff like that thread was, you can. You just have to handle it correctly. If you know you're going into a controversial topic, you can't let the tone of the discussion get dragged down. If you see it getting out of hand, you warn appropriately, possibly lock the thread of your own volition and report troublemakers if that's not enough, not contribute to the problem. As the OP, you have to manage the tone, start with and maintain decorum, and respond appropriately probably inevitable antagonism. Rex failed on absolutely every point of that, and as the OP and the one that took on the responsibility for the tone of the thread when they made it, got hit the hardest for doing so. Other people probably deserved warnings or mutes at the least, but the targeted ban wasn't particularly out of line.

[Orange Wizard]

Can someone give a TL;DR for those of us who don't know what's going on?

[Flying Dice]

Wait, about the thread, or the original story?

The thread's the same story as it always is: someone is a dick to people, other people are dicks back, banlist gets a new name.

[Morrigi]

I didn't see him being much of a dick at all until people started accusing him of conspiracy theories, which was almost immediately, and also totally uncalled for.

[TempAcc]

TempAcc's Uninformed TL;DR:

Ahmed brough suspicious bomb looking object to school, teacher went omgwtf called bomb squad. While its obvious it wasn't a bomb, they charged him with intentionaly taking an object to school to cause a bomb scare. Media jumped on the story and made a race war out of it, as if NA didn't have enough of that already.

Rex made a flamebait-ey thread about how the whole thing stank of malicious intent and SJW type attitudes of turning a potentially dangerous conduct on the part of a minority into an opression olympic that only ended up getting tons of free advertising to several companies and rep points to totally not opportunistic politicians.

People subsequently started arguing with Rex, some flamed and accused him of being a conspiracy theorist, Rex argued back and flamed harder, it turned into a flame war of political opinions, Rex got banned, the other people got out scot free