NMU

[Benji Duncan]

gene said:

Call me a veteran of NMU as well. I just lurk there now, and act in a spam capacity to bring attention to my music and other local music events.

It fell from favor for me mostly because of inconsistancies in admin policy, I'd agree there. The trollers got WAY too long a leash, in my opinion, and it ruined the thing. Tough decisions had to be made, and they weren't getting made. Usually, in most forums, flagrant personal attacks, racist and sexist remarks and vulgar profanity get you bounced right now. There were a few instances when I was dead certain a couple trollers most definitely crossed the line, then I just waited for them to be dismissed. It didn't happen. To my knowlege, it may have STILL not happened. That was the first sign to me that it may not be my style of thing to hang out in.

I really have no problem with trolling myself. But a forum needs to still allow the possibility of fair discussions too. If someone wants to waste 15 minutes of their life every day writing about how they hate me, that's their curse I suppose. But using personal insults and blabbery to keep an interesting topic from being discussed is something no webmaster in his right mind should allow. If a troll wants to do troll stuff, the troll can start his own thread to do it. Hijacking interesting threads with troll remarks ruins the site for everyone.

I have a problem with sexist, homophobic and racist slurs but I don't think I would take action against them if I ever got a user who used them, as long as that person was willing to back up what he said in a fair discussion and didn't just blab those words again and again as a tactic to deflect from the issues at hand. Krauh actually wrote polls that used the "N" and "F#g" words in them, which is just crazy.

What I can't believe about NMU is that physical threats are allowed. Physically threatening someone is the only thing you can do in a webforum that is against the law. And a webmaster allowing physical threats is also breaking the law. It is especially stupid to allow physical threats in a local website where most of the users are within driving distance of one another. Any physical threats in NMF result in a ban of that person's IP adress. I have a zero tolerance policy. Not only is it illegal but if someone were physically assaulted the webmaster could be held liable.

I also have a zero tolerance policy about privileged personal information. For instance, I know alquedakeller in real life but I've never used his real name in the forum because he's never indicated that it was okay for me to use it.

Yes, I also agree 100% about NMU's double standards. People can physically threaten each other left and right and say slanderous things about someone's child 500 times, but if I turn around and state disagreement with conservatism or religion I get my post deleted. I've been in webforums that were worse than NMU in this respect (if you can believe it) and I call webforums like that "stance based forums." Because it's obvious the forum was invented not to have discussions but to push forward a certain belief system. If you say anything against that belief system you get banned. NMU is not quite a stance based forum but it's close.

Stance based forums usually breed really crazy kinds of people. This is a result of the group polarization effect. When you get people together who agree with one another without an opposing voice those people become more extreme in their views.

The line of topics brought up by participants seemed very intentionally controversial, almost baiting. The vibe was very negative and preachy, and "discussions" seemed an it's-all-about-me, one-way affair. Either that or lots of chat-room-style one-liner posts that really didn't say much of anything.

I chalk a lot of that up to the fact that the users are rednecks. Still, that sort of thing would never happen here.

Reality entertainment is all the rage right now, where confrontationally "shaking it up" and getting in your face passes for great entertainment; I get that and everything. If this is a calculated direction on NMU's part, it might be a fashionably marketable one to take right now. But personally, I'm definitely not with the majority, here, and sensationalist stuff kinda bores me, to be honest. I'd rather learn something. It occurred to me that NMU isn't much interested in the kind of stuff I find worth spending much time on. It's clear it was just not a good fit, so I had to get scarce, for both our sakes. Nothin' personal or angry or anything, it's just not my kind of thing nor was it really trying to be FOR me, so I "changed the channel"...

I think you're giving Krauh too much intellectual credit. Krauh doesn't want a website with controversy at all. The fact is Krauh doesn't find most of the people in the site controversial because they agree with him. He considered me controversial because I disagreed with him, even though I followed all the rules.

I welcome controversy, so I think what you're saying applies to me actually better than it does to Krauh. I'm a big believer in the principle "controversy breeds conversation." But the problem is you also need the "conversation" to happen. People can be as uncivil as they want, but they still have to discuss the topics if they're going to engage in them.

I didn't part on bad terms and I still think there's hope for it. It may be different now, and I pop in to lurk every now and then to see if it's still the same-ol'. I may make a come-back there; Ya never know...

I honestly don't think there is hope for it. I'm not trying to blow smoke up my ass but the forum was only very active during times I was there. Without me or someone in the forum who disagrees with everyone, it's a bunch of rednecks talking to their reflections on a bar mirror. They all think the same so they have nothing to discuss. Whenever someone with a different viewpoint joins the site he is going to be greeted with the same crap I was greeted with, so it's never going to get active again.

Plus the site has a crappy name. What does "update" mean anyway? If you gave me a list of 100 names for a northern michigan website I think I would chose that one last.

NMF has been open for less than a month. NMU has been open for almost two years and I already have almost as much activity in my forum. In a year there will be 100 posts a day in this site, I guarantee it. I've done it before in a past forum and I didn't even have the forum connected to a website.

[Moose]

Well NMU banned me because I spoke against their belief. Meaning if you disagree with anyone you get banned, named called & I did find it very hard to debate on the forum when all they wanted to do was name call, bash each post. I did find it very hard for me to obtain an adult conversation. I do know one of the members and I should know from my past relationonship with him that, I should have known that his way or the highway, and he has found a foolship to follow him. I do see they are a little click. Which I had several inside laughs because I must admit I said somethings just to get a rise out of one member, it was so fun because I knew I would get his goat each time, and he never failed and always took the bait. Hope to bring some knowledge and again some on this site. Looking forward to great conversations!!

[Benji Duncan]

You're certain to get some Moose.

If Krauh actually banned someone just for disagreeing with him he's a pile of shit. That is inexcusable in my opinion.

[Benji Duncan]

Looks like krauh banned me too, which is hilarious because I've only posted 5 times in the last month and only go to his site to play chess with him.

I was one move away from checkmating his ass when he banned me. lmfao! I'm sorry, that is hilarious!

[Moose]

NMU at it again! They ban everytime you voice your opin. So sad, they will never accomplish a thing on that forum. If you are not liked by Calm, you are banned within seconds, he must sit by his computer and delete as something is posted. He really needs to get a life! Should be a good battle these next few days if someone on the forum goes against Calm on Go Michigan forum, you know he needs to stick up for non american workers! I can't believe he turned out this way, well, I guess I can look at his breeders. They are so judgemental then turn around and preach the word of god, ha, ha, ha....me myself I am way to educated via science to believe in another fairy tale.

[Benji Duncan]

I couldn't believe it when Krauh made calm a moderator. Making a troll a moderator is ridiculous. Since then Calm kept deleting my posts and not even saying it was him who did it.

I call him and Crevis "crevis and calmhead," because they remind me of beavis and butthead. Actually that's a bit insulting to beavis and butthead. Beavis and butthead are much more intelligent and crevis and calmhead.

I met calmhead once in person and he seemed like a pretty nice guy actually. Then again, in the two minute conversation I had with him I didn't say anything he disagreed with, so he may have misrepresented himself. I think he's seriously mentally ill though.

Check out these new insane accusations...

northernmichiganupdate.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=1417&forum=55

You mean like lying that he was a NCMC student and insisting that he was not Moose when he was posting under "fink" & "kkk" all having the same ip:#'s ?
Plus he was here when Raven's picture got posted and you hit the ceiling and made a very stern warning that if anyone posted someone's name or picture without their permission you would ban them.
Plus you already let him come back once after he was banned here.
Now you say that he is bad mouthing you ? lol
IMO - Krauh you have been more than fair with him.

I have never told a single lie in NMU or in NMF.

I have no idea who raven and kkk and fink are. I've posted five times in the past month and haven't used any other names. Plus I am not moose either.

I was editor in cheif of the school paper at ncmc. I never said I was a current student. I said I've taken over 90 credit hours there and am not going back to school until my son is in first grade.

A little lesson on the internet calm: a lot of people have similar IP adresses.

My ip adress is- 70.225.205.91
Moose's ip adress is- 66.227.128.163

That's not even close to similar, so you can't be confused Calm. You're just making crap up. You're fascist child you can't stand to have someone disagree with you so you delete their posts. Admit it.

He goes on to say this...

Hi, my name is Bruno.
I am genius, just ask my mom.
I tell everyone that I am 6' tall when really I am only 5'-9".
I even go as far as telling everyone that my penis is 8" long, who will ever know ?
I pretend to be a student at NCMC.
I can pretend to be anyone I want here on the net, who will ever know any different ?

You saw me in person Calm, so you know I am six feet tall. Alquedakeller knows me in real life too, and he and anyone else can vouch for my height.

I would not go to any great lengths to infiltrate NMU with fake usernames and try to screw with people's lives. Why? Because you're not that important. You're a bunch of sad old hicks who say the same thing over and over again. I go to forums to discuss interesting issues with people. If you don't want to believe that calm, that's your own delusion. Grow up.

I'd like to see some of you NMU retards try to pull the same shit you do in NMU over here, where the rules aren't slanted in your favor. When it's even and you can't delete anyone's post or ban them, lets see how you deal with me or moose or anyone else with a brain. Common chicken shits! Step into my world.

[Moose]

Benji could of not put that any better! Maybe we should call this forum
NMU Debate !
Gotta go downstate today, funeral, so I will catch up early next week, everyone have a great weekend!!!

[Benji Duncan]

Thanks.

Sorry about the funeral. Come back safe.

[Marvin the Misfit]

admin said:

I couldn't believe it when Krauh made calm a moderator. Making a troll a moderator is ridiculous. Since then Calm kept deleting my posts and not even saying it was him who did it.

I call him and Crevis "crevis and calmhead," because they remind me of beavis and butthead. Actually that's a bit insulting to beavis and butthead. Beavis and butthead are much more intelligent and crevis and calmhead.

I met calmhead once in person and he seemed like a pretty nice guy actually. Then again, in the two minute conversation I had with him I didn't say anything he disagreed with, so he may have misrepresented himself. I think he's seriously mentally ill though.

Check out these new insane accusations...

northernmichiganupdate.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=1417&forum=55

Okay dude, that is seriously the stupidest thread I have ever read in my life. They talked shit about you and NMF (which is a thousand times better than that little popsickle and glue website they have), you showed up to defend yourself and they accuse you of instigating things? lol Benj, it's obvious these guys are just fucking retards. Just don't go there anymore. The website is going to die anyway if it's filled with a bunch of people who act like that all the time. Are those guys all adults?

I also read some of the rest of the site and it's pretty obvious what you've been saying. Without you they don't post about anything. None of the other threads ever get to page 2 unless you're involved somehow. Want to fuck them up? Don't go there anymore. Then they'll have nothing to talk about and their users will end up coming here where we can lay the smack down on their sorry asses. It seems like everytime you show up in the site you awaken it again. You're creating all the activity in the site and it isn't even your website. Just stop showing up there. That's my advice.

[Apple Pie Princess]

im not reading it and i dont want to read it. If people are going to be childish and rude to each other I don't need to be exposed to it. I have a life and i come here for interesting conversation, not to fight with hicks.

[Moose]

Howdy,
Hope everyone everyone had a great weekend. The death was short and yes sweet, my uncle had lung cancer and held on way tooooo long, he needed to go long before this, as a blessing it was!!
Just caught up with NMU see they have not stopped the monkey shit yet and they will not, I see fink posted that myself and him and kkk and benji were not the same, boy benji, they are thick headed over on the site, just cuz, I know we are not the same, I see fink asked if they ever heard of a computer in which more then one user uses. But, calm is so paranoid he lives in his own little wood house which he can't seem to get past others know more then him. HE HAS NOT CHANGED IN THE YEARS THAT I HAVE KNOWN HIM. He is very frustrated because he can't figure out who I really am, sorry benji that he thinks we are the same.
Sorry your getting the blame. (calm are you reading this?) Benji let's let him think we are the same, it does not matter. He is very shallow minded. But it sure is fun F__king with him. I think we shall call calm paranoid on this site! HA,HA, HA!!!!
Benji trying to porve a point is n0t what NMU wants, they want to run the people they want to run the whole show and that sums it up.

[Benji Duncan]

You can say "fuck" all you want in NMF Moose.

The problems with Crevis and Calmhead have nothing to do with you or I. We disagreed with them and proved them wrong in their narrow positions, so they engage in personal attacks to deflect from the topics at hand because they can't hang in the discussion and don't want to be proven wrong. If that fails they just want to get rid of us altogether. It's just a childish insecure tactic a dogmatic person uses who thinks people have no right to disagree with them.

I am going to do two things. One, I'm going to leave Krauh out of this. I don't think he gets what he needs to get to run a forum correctly and that's why NMU sucks so much, but at the same time, it's crevis and calmhead that are really ruining the site. If Krauh wants to allow shit in his site then his site is going to be a shithole, it's pretty simple. Hopefully someday he'll figure this out before I take all the traffic in northern michigan and leave him with the same 5 morons talking about the same crap forever.

Two, I am only going to post about this in NMF where the conversation has the possibility of being fair. If people from NMU want to defend themselves, they can join NMF and post their defense. As long as they follow my three simple rules- no personal attacks outside fight club, no personal threats, no exposing priviledged information- they are all welcome.

But I don't mind bashing them all I want to here. They're morons and I will continue to tell them as long as they keep pulling this crap on people.

I am SOOOOO happy I started this site though. I am saving the local northern michigan internet community concept, where NMU is driving it into the ground.

If your uncles death was a blessing, then I am certainly sorry for his prolonged suffering and the loss to your family. Best of Luck to all of you.

[Gene]

This soap opera reminds me of a situation I had back when I was in a college fraternity whose numbers were dwindling. Hang with me here a bit; There's a point I'm leading up to:...

In most fraternities (at least in mine), each member has the power of a blackball vote against candidate new members, if they choose to play the card. It is seen as the only defense an individual member has to prevent the group from taking a wholistic direction or character that he feels is wrong. It is usually not done, or, if it is, discussions are held to get out in the open as to why an individual would press this, and for everyone to exchange information and get on the same page with what the issue is. (Or, the backballer could be asked to leave the group, perhaps.) Usually, it's only a threat, and is seldom actually taken all the way.

As rare as it was, there was once an instance when I exercised this priviledge. The candidate in question had illustrated repeatedly what a selfish, undependable and outright mean person he was to his peers by the "trial" activities candidates like this go through. It was my belief that, even though we were needy of getting membership up, accepting of people like this was a bad idea for the long run. These folks will eventually COST more members in the future than the 1 member you add now.

If you're following this, the story ended with this person being bounced, but went through the whole membership process AGAIN afterward, where he later impressed me as being the kind that would be good for the group. We patched things up, both learned a lot, and we're still good friends to this day.

The point I'm getting at is that, no matter how deparate you are to bring numbers up, never compromise the core intent of what the group is all about. The temptation can be great, but realize this is no bargain. Don't fall for it. Even if you're dying of thirst, you NEVER drink poison!...

NMU lost me because of how they run things. No telling how many more they've lost...

[Benji Duncan]

I'm actually a little confused by your analogy Gene.

Are you advising me to not allow all these NMU people into NMF? Are you talkning about Krauh banning Moose? Or are suggesting Krauh should ban crevis and calmhead?

[Gene]

admin said:

I'm actually a little confused by your analogy Gene.

Are you advising me to not allow all these NMU people into NMF? Are you talkning about Krauh banning Moose? Or are suggesting Krauh should ban cre vis and cal mhead?

This ain't about you (I don't know about that, nor really keeping tabs on it), and I don't know who Moose is. As for what's left, that could be. (Such people delight in attention, and surely place their names in Search functions to see if they are being talked about, so I try not to give that satisfaction by typing in the specific names...). To your questions, though, I say: "Yes, the remaining one of what you said."...