@miasm posted a new topic, subject "Good Bye, Sweet Prince!". It read:

   Continuing the discussion from Bbs = BS; Quality of discussion plummets:
    
    Bbs = BS; Quality of discussion plummets
    
    > Antinous has resigned. We're very sorry to see him go and hope to work with him again.
    
    Crap.
      *[feathery]: hairy

To which @Donald_Petersen (Donald Petersen) replied

    I'm very sorry to see him go as well. He's incredibly smart, jaw-droppingly well-informed, funny as hell, and probably hung like a horse, damn him. The complete package of a human being, at least in my experience, and I will sorely miss both his unusually deep compassion as well as his exquisitely-timed Banhammer on the truly deserving.
      *[feathery]: hairy

Then @Brainspore (Tim) said

    Well, poop. He was a heck of a troll slayer and always good for a dick joke.
      *[feathery]: hairy

To which @beschizza (Rob Beschizza) replied

    Yes, sad to see him go, for sure. Doesn't mean you're off the hook, though: viva @Felton!
      *[feathery]: hairy

So @Mindysan33 (Ráitseach - Wanton woman. Chatterbox. Prattling Person.) replied

    A million sad faces! I'm going to miss him!
      *[feathery]: hairy

@miasm replied

    Damn. Quoting from that topic seems a little contentious but it was just where I found out. I'm here to stay and hope that antinous will somehow contribute again in the future. But if that really is it; then so long and thanks for all the fish. Ima miss that guy.
      *[feathery]: hairy

To which @Felton (Daniel Johnson) replied

    I've tried to use the Banhammer, but only Antinous can lift it.
      *[feathery]: hairy

To which @Kimmo replied

    miasm:
    
    > Quoting from that topic seems a little contentious
    
    Oops, _this_ was the thread I should've bumped to say bummer.
      *[feathery]: hairy

Then @noahdjango (Noah Django Gross) said

    it's awfully weird without him around here (´･_･`)
    
    antinous36.jpg2400×2000 2.67 MB
      *[feathery]: hairy

So @codinghorror (Jeff Atwood) replied

    Early feedback from @Antinous was essential in deciding what new moderation features we were going to prioritize in Discourse. He will be missed!
      *[feathery]: hairy

@robulus (robulus) replied

    Well, that fucking sucks.
      *[feathery]: hairy

So @Israel_B (Israel B) replied

    Cant say I'll miss his enforcement of politically correct opinion but at least I give respect for having done an often unpleasant job for so long.
      *[feathery]: hairy

So @GlyphGryph (GlyphGryph) replied

    I only heard about this in a recent thread, but I wanted to share my opinion because, honestly? The only thing I feel from this is relief.
    
    I appreciate the effort he put in, but I can't say I liked the guy. From my point of view: Many of his administrative decisions seemed to be of the “agree with me or get banned” sort, and he too often contributed to exactly the sort of fights and personal attacks and derails he was suppose to be controlling (which usually lead to a straight wipe of the comments section, since there isn't much chance of recovery once the mod is right there in the mud with the idiots). I don't know if this was a limitation of the system, but I also found his moderation far from transparent - I'd get seemingly inoffensive posts deleted for no reason, as far as I could tell, and I was never sure where the line was other than “don't piss him off”. As such, even this understanding could well be wrong, because often times there was no explanation for why things would disappear or moderator action was taken. He was also an aggressive and dismissive arguer (though most such comments were removed not long after, along with huge swathes of other comments), and seemed fond of personal attacks - neither of which were traits that I think suit a moderator well.
    
    But he was far from the worst mod I've come across, and being a mod myself it's hard to stay neutral AND stay on top of things AND still be an active participatory force in the community without stressing yourself out to no end. Dealing with trolls is a frustrating experience even on less well-trafficked sites. For his flaws, he's only human, doing in many ways a thankless job, and I appreciate the time he took to do that.
      *[feathery]: hairy

So @Dr_Awkward (Andrew Faehnle) replied

    Not sad to see Antinous go, not by a long shot, for the reasons so eloquently penned by GlyphGryph. Kinda sad to see the cult of personality formed around him here, and it's generally why I avoid participating in the comment section here.
      *[feathery]: hairy

Then @miasm said

    waitwaitwait wait waitwait wait.
    
    godwinned?
    
    :3
      *[feathery]: hairy

@Dr_Awkward (Andrew Faehnle) replied

    aa[quote=“miasm, post:15, topic:6095, full:true”]  
    godwinned?  
    [/quote]
    
    You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
      *[feathery]: hairy

So @miasm replied

    Is he using the same wind that we are using?  
    The whispering winds of the hyperbole.
      *[feathery]: hairy

After which, @robulus (robulus) added

    Dr_Awkward:
    
    > Kinda sad to see the cult of personality formed around him here.
    
    Don't be sad. He was a major part of the site and it's culture for many years. You shouldn't be surprised a lot of us liked him and are sad to see him go, even if you didn't like him.
      *[feathery]: hairy

After which, @Medievalist (Charlie) added

    Let me tell you about my favorite thing about Antinous. It wasn't his bon mots, cutting snark, and obvious intelligence. It wasn't that he got extremely obscure jokes none of the rest of you did (in fact that's actually an indictment of my jokery, I think).
    
    If you were having an argument with Antinous _himself_ , he'd become much less likely to delete or ban you, even though he'd rhetorically tear you a new one, if he really felt strongly enough about the issue. I saw him leave posts standing that he normally wouldn't, and it made an impression on me, because deleting or banning the other person in an argument you're having unmistakeably implies of abuse of moderator powers. That's something that poisons forums, and it's why some moderators simply should never post - they can't resist using their power to “win” arguments. Even if the thread went so far overboard that Antinous banned you for a day, you could be sure that if the argument had been with anyone else, he'd have banned you for at least a week. The bar got raised if he was emotionally involved. More moderators should be that way.
      *[feathery]: hairy

So @codinghorror (Jeff Atwood) replied

    Medievalist:
    
    > The bar got raised if he was emotionally involved
    
    I would argue that moderators should not be getting emotionally involved on a regular basis. Everyone slips now and then, but…
      *[feathery]: hairy

@Medievalist (Charlie) replied

    Totally agree. But if it does happen, the moderator needs to put down the ban hammer and call in another mod.
      *[feathery]: hairy

To which @NathanHornby (Nathan Hornby) replied

    I wonder if Antinous will continue to engage with the community under another name… we may never know.
    
    Although if I lure him into an argument I think that I'd spot him from a mile off. Haven't noticed his presence yet though.
    
    My guess is that his leaving was to do with his ‘being ashamed of BB' when that comic was posted, that one from the series that no one here seems to like, yet BB keep posting.
      *[feathery]: hairy

To which @miasm replied

    Rob pointed out that they are more of a parody than a serious attempt at a philosophy. I think it would be terribly embarrassing to take satire at face value; so tend to reserve judgement on these kinds of things. Kind of a cop out, I know.
    
    But I think it was The Enders Game thing that done it. I've never heard such a partisan view expressed by Antinous. Really the logic of his statement can be applied to the way groups handle individuals too; as well as the fact that you can have a fair bleed over of subjects from group to group in the partisan-by-necessity examples he mentions. Seems to be a finalistic stance from someone I'd never seen give up before.
    
    Why I'm not boycotting Ender's Game
    
    > _nickthedick said:  
    >  “I know this act cuts against my moral beliefs, but I like it and am going to do it anyway.”_
    > 
    > This is why black activists have learned that they can only trust white liberals so far, why feminists have learned that they can only trust their sympathetic men friends so far, why LGBT people have learned that we can only trust our straight friends so far. No matter how much they want to be helpful, the fact that they can fall back on privilege inevitably deforms their perspective on the matter. They will always end up retreating to doing whatever they damned well please because, ultimately, it doesn't directly affect them.
      *[feathery]: hairy

After which, @daneel (daneel) added

    NathanHornby:
    
    > ‘being ashamed of BB' when that comic was posted
    
    Link? I think I missed something here…
    
    I'm inclined to agree with @miasm though.
    
    Edit: never mind, found it. I've not been reading those posts, seems like they got even worse after I stopped.
    
    I was wondering what was so shameful about Tom the Dancing Bug!
      *[feathery]: hairy

To which @NathanHornby (Nathan Hornby) replied

    daneel:
    
    > I was wondering what was so shameful about Tom the Dancing Bug!
    
    Lol!
      *[feathery]: hairy

Then @joshsamuels (Josh Samuels) said

    daneel:
    
    > Link? I think I missed something here…
    
    For any future folk w/ similar confusion:  
    Boing Boing – 25 Jun 13
    
    ### Real Stuff: Het!
    
    "You're not supposed to be here. This is a women's event; no men are welcome." From Real Stuff #2 (Fantagraphics, March 1991).
    
    daneel:
    
    > I'm inclined to agree with @miasm though.
    
    Ditto. I've actually always wondered what he would've been posting about or musing on if he'd ever been given some of the editorial reins.
    
    daneel:
    
    > I was wondering what was so shameful about Tom the Dancing Bug!
    
    Seriously! I was like, “Wait, what did Louis do now…?”
      *[feathery]: hairy

After which, @Kimmo added

    Yeah, wow.
    
    Bit OTT there…
      *[feathery]: hairy

To which @Medievalist (Charlie) replied

    miasm:
    
    > But I think it was The Enders Game thing that done it. I've never heard such a partisan view expressed by Antinous
    
    Oh, I have. It's kind of what I was referencing earlier - one of the things I liked about his moderation was that he didn't use it as a weapon to enforce his own personal views, but instead to do the job that the Boingers gave him (which could be described as enforcing _their_ views, but only if you're even more cynical than me). Instead, he replied to the stuff that bugged him. (In this case, I totally agreed with his point, but it wasn't as much fun when I myself was in the crosshairs.)
      *[feathery]: hairy

@halloween_jack_ (Halloween Jack) replied

    I'm pretty much in agreement with you on all of this. He might not have been the worst mod in the world, but compared to some of the senior mods at MetaFilter, such as jessamyn and cortex, he's not that good. He also would yell at me because of broken links in replies that I made that were some artifact of the commenting system that BB used at the time. No big loss, IMO.
      *[feathery]: hairy

Then @miasm said

    ‘So', we've collected a fair spectrum of views here, there was a Princess Bride reference-flame and everything but as with so many things, answers only beget more questions.
    
    Was Antinous some kind of unbalancing force for creative chaos, provoking discussion as much as he applied subtractive influence on the debate?  
    Some people certainly seem to have felt… ‘shaped' by his moderation, in a fashion they found, again seemingly, persistently unpleasant.
    
    I have no interest in ever being a mod but have to admit, the idea of finding inroads into shaping discussion in a way that is perceived to feel inclusive for everybody (who can keep their temper), intrigues me.
    
    Apart from the fact that I sorta do suspect that with his departure, as with most things, there was an element of showmanship being wrought, I would like to hear back from the others who've felt unduly moderated by him. Especially the previously commented moderators or ex-moderators who feel his flair for unfairly stream-lined conversation/debate was impractically applied to them.  
    I would imagine you have some interesting observations from within the fold.
      *[feathery]: hairy

To which @Medievalist (Charlie) replied

    miasm:
    
    > Some people certainly seem to have felt… ‘shaped' by his moderation, in a fashion they found, again seemingly, persistently unpleasant.
    
    Bah. He reined me in when I was out of hand. And from what I saw of his behavior towards others, that was generally what was happening, but some of the people being sanctioned had egos too inflated for them to admit that they might have needed to be muzzled.
    
    Think on this: if every time somebody quashes your self-expression, you feel totally wronged, then you yourself are probably the source of the problems. Because every human being occasionally gets out of hand - and if you can't admit that, you are most probably an egotistical dick who _really_ needs to be reined in.
    
    Not aiming this at you, @miasm, despite the rhetorical “you” in the paragraph above. As far as I know you are not an egotistical dick.
    
    The only problem I saw was the usual “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” that applies to all moderator roles. Aunty Noose wasn't perfect, either.
      *[feathery]: hairy

So @miasm replied

    I assiduously fill my egotistical dick quota and redeem the coupons for snark-miles.
      *[feathery]: hairy

@joshsamuels (Josh Samuels) replied

    I assume your airline of choice is Jet F-You?
      *[feathery]: hairy

To which @miasm replied

    Untied ( _sic_ )
      *[feathery]: hairy

@timmh (Tim) replied

    Mm yes I also agree. I've been head mod for some large forums in the past and know the pain of being a mod. It's both a fantastic job and a challenging one at the same time.
    
    As a mod, one has to be very clear whether they are participating in a thread as a member of the community or as a moderator, and never ever shift from the former to the latter just because you don't like something someone said.
    
    Sometimes you have to be willing to just not get involved in some conversations that you have personal opinions on. And there are times when frankly you're not welcome in a thread by the community as a moderator, but you are welcome as a community member.
      *[feathery]: hairy

Then @VoxInSpatium (Voice In The Distance) said

    Although the content of that post was not pleasurable to read, it was certainly refreshing to read a normal linear conversation. Sigh. A double loss.
      *[feathery]: hairy

To which @anon68952647 replied

    Moderation with empathy built this city
      *[feathery]: hairy

@crenquis (Cary) replied

    Sounds like it is time for everybody to grab their yoga mats and road trip to Palm Springs…
      *[feathery]: hairy

Then @codinghorror (Jeff Atwood) said

    *[feathery]: hairy


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