I apologize to all..

“You're intolerant of different people - that's the reason I disagree with you

Phaedrus
10:28:48 PM
05/22/02

Phaedrus, you are intolerent of different people. I find that hypocritical.”

“(and I think Bacpac is mistaking consistency for integrity, <G>)"
Tilt
10:44:27 PM
05/22/02

Perhaps I am mistaking inconsistency for a lack of integrity. I know what integrity is. I don't really understand inconsistency.”

“Is this the annual spring racist thread? I think that steve hiker and bacpac have bellyied up to this bar before.

Ugly jokes don't make you live longer. Try green leafy vegetables instead.”

“Studies show that cheap, racist comments are made by men with small peni$eS.”

“Actually studies have shown that a good hard laugh can increase your life expectancy.”

“There you go, Lipstick Hiker was man!


....handing out magnifying glasses again...”

“Artex, we have heard the liberal's claim that everyone who isn't a liberal has a small #&%!$. Somehow this makes the liberals feel bigger.”

“Father Goose...hmm...offensive jokes are not allowed on this site...and neither is the threat of bodily harm....real nice TACT you have my friend...argueing and threatening pple you don't know on the internet.....wow...you got me beat.”

“this thread is dead in my book..i will no longer post to it or read from it..hoping it dies”

“nope that was not me. im still here. but im very proud of you all. you showed that you can carry on with a conversation as adults. i thank you for getting down on some one who makes very bad jokes.
thank you”

“I am continually perplexed at double standards and hypocrisy carried out on this site by Matt and many others here. Do I like racist jokes? No. But the thing I hate even more is hypocrisy. Telling a joke that degrades a person of ethnic is so wrong and taboo but then in the same breath we have those who are defending the minorities degrading others by calling them names like a@@hole and even threatening them with a good old fashioned a$$ wuppin‘. This is no better, if not worse than, the original offence. Degradation is degradation. How we deal with racist remarks is up to us. Next time maybe ask yourself this, “WWMLKD” (What Would Martin Luther King Do?).

The thing that totally pisses me off is when a thread with a black joke is zapped within hours of being posted but yet we have entire threads dedicated to the “Death of America“ and the “Death to Israel“ with such horrible things as:

“Kill all them worthless Jews."

“More worthless Jews”

“I pray for the destruction of Israel.”

As well as personal attacks on people who speak out against these slurs. These are not even jokes. They are displays or hatred. Even after no less than two people contact Matt displaying their displeasure and calling to attention the blatant violations of the terms of participation set up by HIM in order to keep a certain level of civility, what happens? Nothing. Absolutely NOTHING. I could even live with changing the thread title and deleting the offending posts. The fact that these hate threads remain as well as the violator, I can only take from this that either Matt is TheBackpacker or he at least holds the same views as he does. Even if he doesn’t it is the grossest display of hypocrisy and double standard I have seen in a long time. No one likes a heavy-handed webmaster but the least we can ask for is consistency.

Every day I get on TT and search for the “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” threads and when I see them still here I can’t even imagine participating on such a board. No other backpacking board on the net would let hateful posts like this remain. If we had consistancy it could be chalked up to freedom of speach, but it's not. This thread seamed like a good place to vent my frustrations.”

“thank you for saying all that you did. you said everything that i wanted to say. this si what ive been talking about. things have gotten way out of control and when i tried to bring it to everyones attenion i was told to go f--k myself and have a beer. i may not have said all the right things but its how i feel. right or wrong.”

“"(and I think Bacpac is mistaking consistency for integrity, )"
Tilt
10:44:27 PM
05/22/02

Perhaps I am mistaking inconsistency for a lack of integrity. I know what integrity is. I don't really understand inconsistency."
bacpac
06:03:18 AM
05/23/02

Beind consistantly misanthropic is not a virtue. I don't know, Bacpac. It seems like a majority of your posts are tongue-in-cheek, but it's impossible to be sure.

As has been stated, demeaning statements diminish the speaker as well as the subject.”

“Nigal: I definitely slammed tbp for his anti-jewish remarks (much more than for the anti-Israel ones). I also anounced that I was reporting that to Matt and followed through. Others slammed him too. The thing is, I think a lot of people just stopped responding to TBP.

BTW: Matt never deleted the Robot caddy joke which was very anti-black. I did mention it when I mentioned the "worthless jews" post.”

“bacpac - Whoever said I was liberal? Show's what you know, I'm actually pretty conservative. Don't make it sound like all conservatives are racists.”

“Nigal,
Whenever people email me concerning an offensive post, I take it seriously. I will look over the post and make my decision about it. The majority of the time (over 90%), when a person emails me regarding a negative post, I will agree with them and delete it. The other 10% of the time I decide to leave the thread because I feel that while I may not agree with what is said, the conversation of the thread is in an orderly manner. While I do not like the "Death to ..." threads, most of the posts on them are somewhat thought out ideas. Granted there are people that post that everyone must die, but in the overall scheme, the thread is orderly.

There are lots of messages on TT that I do not agree with, but I let them be. There are some that are downright offensive. The offensive posts are the ones I remove. Just this morning I removed 2 posts.

If you look at the list of the current threads, the majority of them are backpacking related. The off-topic threads may be shouting matches about politics, but the backpacking threads still provide a wealth of information that you cannot find anywhere else. I ask all the regulars, and even new people to TT, to not feed the trolls and participate in the great backpacking discussions.”

“Well said from the man himself.”

“Nigal: I definitely slammed tbp for his anti-jewish remarks (much more than for the anti-Israel ones). I also anounced that I was reporting that to Matt and followed through. Others slammed him too. The thing is, I think a lot of people just stopped responding to TBP.

BTW: Matt never deleted the Robot caddy joke which was very anti-black. I did mention it when I mentioned the "worthless jews" post.”

“Father Goose,
As a PS to my previous post. I did not even read what you posted on the pizza joke thread. All I read was the first post and then I immediately deleted the thread.”

“Matt,

About your post above, I like what you said.

Well done.”

“I agree with most of what you say Matt and this is your site run the way you see fit, but isn't that what the terms of participation are for, a guidline of what stays and what doesn't? So, if I start a thread called, "Death to Africa" and spoke about how all the worthless blacks are getting what they deserve, but a logical discussion breaks out and some healthy exchange takes place the thread would stay? You know the answer as well as I do. Why not just remove the terms of participation all together if they are not even used, enforced or followed?”

“I looked back to TBP's worthless jews post. A lot of people responded strongly, with Phaedrus kicking it off. You'll note that TBP vanished a while later... I think Matt did take clear action.

Anyway, I don't see a big double standard. An offensive joke about blacks remained, a vicious anti-jewish comment remained.

I wonder if part of Matt's standard involves being slower to delete posts that might be seen as political.”

“Even with no double standard, why let either one stay?”

“"OK, it's officail...



"

nigal
06:00:40 PM
04/25/02”

“I haven't even clicked on one Death to ____ thread. If you don't feed it it doesn't survive.”

“Good to hear your exact thoughts Matt. Thanks.”

“Hey, whatever happened to the dickless thread? It had some funny shit in there.”

“Sorry, Matt.
Must... control... fingers... of... potty...words...”

“I can understand your feelings about the ‘Death to Israel’ thread nigal, but do you really think ‘Death to America’ was all that offensive and anything but childish trolling?

I feel that I should point out that Spock/tbp/GDE wasn’t a true liberal or he wouldn’t have started those ‘Death to ______’ threads. They would have been ‘Life Imprisonment to ______’ instead.”

“"but do you really think ‘Death to America’ was all that offensive and anything but childish trolling?"

No. I wasn't even offended by the jew hating. I can let anything go. It's the fact that one brand of hate is more acceptable than another.”

“Scary.”

“I prefer no censorship.”

“I prefer no censorship


Liberal.”

“Kleety, Open and honest discussion is not a liberal trait.”

“Obviously.

Liberal.”

“I guess when you stop the name calling you really have nothing else to say.”

“Turnabout is fair play. I figured I would use your method of agument: ignore the argument and repeat liberal until the other party gets frustrated enough to quit posting. Then say "I told you so" and go on with life.”

“I told you so.”

“Liberal.

And I told YOU so.”

“Liberated!”

“I know you are, but what am I?”

“I feel compelled to apologize to anyone and everyone I may have offended here at TT. One of the pitfalls of the net is that we don’t treat each other as kind as we would in real life. Yes, everyone does it from time to time but this is not excuse to not at least admit when I’m wrong and humbly ask your forgiveness. My occasional knee jerk reactions to what others say lead me to say things I normally wouldn’t. This in no way means that I won’t do it again but it is a start.”

“Nigal, You are wrong. I treat everyone on TT with more respect and dignity than I do my own family. By the way, if you accept U Bolt's suggestion, I will have to pass.”

“Ya'll think too much. Makes my head hurt.”

“OK nigal, You Doesn't SUX any more.”

“Evidently U Bolt, sux. His post got sucked right out of the thread.”

“apology accepted”

“steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerike Two!”

“For the record, nigal, I never thought you SUX'ed and I regret the "beer guzzling bufoon" reference to you in the newgirl interview. Purely fictional!”