So I got banned. That happened.
I could yell, bitch, and moan but alas I don't have the energy for that. Plus I am NOT mad at this point. Not even close. Wasn't even mad for more than short period of time.
The comment that got me banned was inartful to say the least. I won't revisit it nor even try to make any excuses. It is what it is. I can easily see how it would be offensive to many here even if I wouldn't have typed Obama when I meant to type Osama. I am sorry!
Heck it wouldn't surprise me if the Secret Service is knocking on my door in the next day or so :).
So let me say that again I meant Osama and NOT Obama!
Now with that out of the way I just wanted to take a couple seconds and thank folks here for all the support. The Diaries. Comments. Emails. Phone calls. Oh and Meteor Blades. I do appreciate it. In fact, I greatly appreciate it.
Now below that darn fold what I take away from this.
People here are often surprised it takes like 30 seconds to find out my name, phone #, my company, and address. I am often asked "why would you put yourself out there publicly like that?" Well I have been posting in forums since before there were web browsers and these things called blogs (insert mid-to-late-80s).
I recall some of those first times I posted online and I always told myself (as older members reinforced) anything I post online I ought to be willing to say in public. In front of my family. My friends. By clients. My neighbors. Therefore there shouldn't be any problem attaching my "real" name to what I write and and not "hiding" behind a screen name.
Now clearly I am nothing close to perfect, far from it.
But I try very hard not to say anything here I wouldn't say to your face. Or put another way I try not to write anything here I wouldn't say to Markos, his wife, and his children if we were all sitting in their living room having a cup of coffee.
How do I feel about getting banned and then reinstated? I was both frustrated (at myself more than anybody) and more than little mad for a few hours Saturday. But I actually found it kind of ironic in hindsight cause I tend to fall squarely in the camp of "this is Markos's site (insert living room) and if he wants to ban somebody cause he doesn't like the cut of their jib, then so be it." Like I said, kind of ironic.
The anger was short lived, maybe a few hours. It was mostly focused on me thinking I spend a lot of time here. I think I am a productive member of this community. I support causes and give a fair amount of money to them. HOW DARE YOU BAN ME!!!!!!!! As much as I like to think I live this "Zen" lifestyle, well I as I said above, I am not perfect. I put that thinking out of my head as quickly as I could.
As emails went back and forth between me and Meteor Blades I could have easily said things that I would later regret.
Yet as folks know Meteor Blades is just to darn fair and nice so that didn't happen. In the end I felt sorry for him, having to deal with my BS. The just of his reinstatement email to me was, "dude, just put in writing it was a typo and you meant Osama and not Obama and we're cool."
I mean I am not sure there is enough money in this world to pay me to try and monitor this site. Keep us "kids" in order. Heck they had some technical problems getting me back up for a few days and I mentioned to Meteor Blades as he communicated with me frequently to let me know the status (I didn't ask for this BTW -- he IMHO went out of his way to help and be helpful) I said I was sorry he had to deal with this. He wrote, exactly:
YOU'RE sorry?? Man, I feel terrible about this.
So that is how that happened and darn you all to hell Google Chrome Grammerly extension. Damn you all to hell ....
BTW: At the time I got banned I had a Diary up about my new smart phone. My first. I always saw the stories and screen captures of epic fail autocorrects. In the short time I've had my phone I've had my share already with under a 100 text messages sent. If I keep going at this pace some of my friends and family members are going to block me there :).