Part 91: Victoria / Boards
“ . . . has been accused of misconduct by his client, Britttni. The pop star alleges that the producer has misled, mistreated, and manipulated her throughout their professional relationship, and is seeking . . .”
Mrs. Brixton made a guttural sound, both disgusted and disgusting, as she passed through the living room. “Men. Typical.”
“Hey, mom?” said Victoria from her contorted position on the couch, head hanging off the seat cushion, now that the seal of silence was broken.
“Don’t ever let some man tell you what to do, Victoria,” she said in response, having abandoned the idea of writing her Last Word after it turned out that Feminism was no easier to capture than Rationality. Instead, she would treat every utterance as though it was her last word, and eventually she would be right. Besides, true rationality meant recognizing that her daughters were largely irrational and more likely to remember her by some offhand remark rather than a systematic summation of her thinking.
“I won’t,” Victoria said cheerily. “So can I go to Hannah’s?”
“I thought Hannah went missing.”
“She went to New York but she’s back now, she was at school today but, like, I barely got to even see her, there were all these other people around and, like . . .”
“Victoria. I haven’t said no yet, you can stop making your argument.”
“So can I?”
“Well, let me think about it.” Mrs. Brixton sat down on the other couch, muted the TV. “So here’s the way I see it. I took away your computer until the end of the weekend, and if you go to Hannah’s, I’m sure you’re going to go on the computer.”
“We won’t, I promise!”
“I find that hard to believe. But I know how close you and Hannah are, and how difficult things have been for you lately” - she could be compassionate, too - “first with Hannah, and your dad being away--”
“Dad’s away?” Victoria hadn’t noticed.
“He’s been in New Mexico for a week now, Victoria.” The TV news had gone through a whole cycle already somehow, was back on the pop star’s lawsuit, B-roll footage of her music videos. “And then with my news on top of everything else--”
“It’s been a lot.”
“I know it has.” Mrs. Brixton nodded sagely, fought back the urge to tell her daughter to sit up instead of letting the blood flow to her head like that, which had to be bad for the brain, and brains were so important. “Of course, some daughters would want to spend as much time with their sick mothers as possible while they still can, but if you think it’s more important to go see Hannah and get some computer time in . . .”
“We’re not going to go on the computer!” Victoria protested, finally sitting up, tears welling in her eyes (another effect of positioning herself like that.) “And we already spent time together, Mom. We spent all day, and last night, and then there’s right now, so. Three days, basically.”
Mrs. Brixton sighed, acquiesced. “Does Hannah even know you’re coming?”
“How am I supposed to tell her?”
“Well, you see, in 1876, there was this very smart inventor named Alexander Graham Bell.” She’d done this one before, but Victoria required a lot of repetition, and this would make such a good illustrative anecdote: witty, factual, but in the context of saying-yes. “Of course, as with any Great Man, there was surely an even greater woman behind him, but she has sadly been lost to time, and all we are left with is the product of their labor: the telephone.”
“Oh, that’s another reason why I have to go!” Victoria said, making for her bedroom in a rush, responding only to the last word. “Hannah left her phone here, remember?”
“Of course,” Mrs. Brixton said to the newly-empty room. “How could I forget?”
*
Mods Only (L1) Board: 05/24/07, 05:33 PM EDT:
newbie mod question????
xanthangum1245
heyyyy fellow mods!! so i’m sure this has been answered already but i wasn’t sure where... and i figured it would be better to ask, esp after the whole ykw situation (sorry again abt that btw, i guess i got carried away, i was just so excited to finally be a mod but now i know i should have asked first... but anyway, so you know how we just told them they aren’t allowed to try and get other ppl banned? so does that mean they aren’t allowed to use the BDF tag anymore too? or is that different?? sry for not knowing but i rly just don’t wanna make another mistake.....
kerriewordFarewell
Thanks for bringing this up. Personally, I think that the rule needs to apply in all circumstances, including post tags. If we aren’t willing to enforce our rules, then why make them?
Also, please make sure to close your parentheses in the future.
xanthangum1245
ooopssss sry ) there! :)
kerriewordFarewell
I appreciate the humor, but that doesn’t actually solve the problem. As I said, just please be more mindful in the future. There are some posters here who have OCD and other disorders, and you may not have realized this but an unresolved parenthesis can actually give them extreme anxiety.
user6582921737
disagree w/ kfw. post tags are totally different than regular posts. most of the bfd folks aren’t actually typing it out everytime, they’ve got it set to add automatically. and if we ban everyone who uses a bdf tag, well, like, there goes half of the boards....
kerriewordFarewell
So if a lot of people are breaking a law, then the police should stop trying to enforce it? Is that what you’re saying?
user6582921737
no i’m saying like... if everyone decides that “red” means “blue” from now on, then it does, doesn’t it?
kerriewordFarewell
Of course not. That’s absurd. I can call my cat a dog as many times as I want, but that doesn’t mean she’ll start barking and wagging her tail.
xanthangum1245
omg user ur sn is so long.... why so many #s???? i only used 12 and 45 cuz there my fave numbers... long story y, ask if u wanna know lol
Private message from xanthangum1245 to kerriewordFarewell: hey im rly sry abt the parentheses thing.... i was just trying to be funny... i didnt realize it could be an ocd thing. i guess ive still got a lot to learn and im glad i have someone like you to help me. sry again and i promise i’ll be more careful (ps i totally agree w you about the bfd thing) <----see i did remember lol
*
The moderators would like to remind all users that it is not acceptable to advocate for the banning, or the continuation of an existing ban, of another user. This rule applies to all forms of speech on the boards, including posts, usernames, and post tags. To be absolutely clear, we are specifically responding to the BDF post tag. From now on, any user who makes a post using this tag (regardless of when he/she created the tag) shall be issued a temporary ban. However, do not misinterpret this announcement as being only about that specific tag. It is intended as a warning to all users about a rule that has always been in place and will continue to be enforced diligently -- The Mods
*
another q??? (sry)
xanthangum1245
how come bfd has been banned, but unban and bpt are still ok? isn’t that kinda hippocritical?
kerriewordFarewell
Neither of those tags are advocating for the ban of a user and therefore do not violate the rules.
xanthangum1245
ohhhh ok... some1 asked me and i wasnt sure so i wanted to check
neverALwaysONE
this does present an interesting philosophical question.
what is our real aim here?
do we want to limit ourselves to banning one type of speech?
or do we recognize that the real problem with bdf is that it was questioning the decisions of the mods?
if that’s the case, then the unban movement and the bpt movements are doing the exact same thing.
regular posters are thinking they have the right to dictate who is banned, who is not, and for how long.
this can only lead to chaos and confusion.
we have mods for a reason.
or at least we used to.
we need to take back control.
kerriewordFarewell
So, what are you suggesting exactly? Please be specific and refrain from generalities.
neverALwaysONE
a show of strength. a reminder that we make and enforce the rules here, not them.
user6582921737
yeah... but what? If we respond by banning post tags, aren’t we doing exactly what the BPT people want us to do? so much for a show of strength.
neverALwaysONE
hmm well let’s think. who’s getting them all riled up? who started this whole little rebellion in the first place? we need to address the problem at its source. cut off the head. kill the queen and the drones all die.
ban. hellraiser.
user6582921737
won’t do any good, imo. picking up the first domino doesn’t make the rest of them come back up. the tides are turning, we’ve got to turn with them. what if we unban D and OBM, pretend this whole thing never happened, and then just post a super strongly-worded reminder of the rules. that might be the only way to preserve our power
xanthangum1245
omg... this is getting kinda scary. what if they try to take control of the boards? what if they get in here somehow and overthrow us...?