Just Chat

[Felicity]

As you cited a previous post of mine, which, in the end revolved around kittens, perhaps we could only have Avatars of kittens? I am willing to swap my possibly copyright breaching mogwai pic for a kitten... Maybe I could get one with a bouncy kitten... Those of you who do not feel it is manly to have a kitten, you are welcome to use a pic of a cat... no takers on the idea? nevermind...

[Al-khiyal]

I'll let the administrator of this site take a look at this latest piece of self-delusional hysteria masquerading as victimhood.

The fact that a handful of people were kind enough to try to get you off the hook that your own tantrum had hung you on doesn't translate into an electoral mandate.

An 'educator' needs to revisit the concept of education if he considers that images associating Islam with violence or that justifications for being deliberately offensive to any section of the membership or the wider readership of this site are in any way appropriate here.

Would any parent in the West encourage their children to race about brandishing such imagery, and not expect their children to be placed on a police watch list and have the rest of their lives shadowed by hidden files containing suggestions that they are 'suspected of extremism'?

Would any website that had the potential to be a bridge for people from all over the world to cross and encounter one another in conditions of equality and mutual respect ignore idiotic and puerile attempts to introduce imagery or arguments that are potentially intimidating, divisive and discriminatory? Would any website that had the potential to be a bridge for people from all over the world to cross and encounter one another in conditions of equality and mutual respect think that it was 'no big deal' for someone to come and invite young people to follow the example of shoving violent imagery in the faces of others?

Your completely pathetic allegations are just another example of your inability to take personal responsibility for the holes that you dig for yourself and then fall into. I have made no comments about your posts. I discreetly removed the obscenities from your 'joke thread' without making a fuss (that was before you 'got religion', remember?), and apart from that one invisible intervention have left no trace of any pattern of response that could be said by any sane person to be any different to my response to the posts of anyone else.

If you want to attempt to turn your own blunders into some kind of confrontation with me, and whip up some attempted popularity contest based on your woeful mathematical assessment of what a definition of the word 'many' means - you're only digging a deeper hole. And there is a recent visible record of whining hysteria that doesn't emanate from me. I close down stupidity here - I have no track record of introducing it.

I am embarrassed for you, for your inability to calmly assess your own foolishness and accept your own personal responsibility for the incidents that you have recently triggered and for your evident addiction to blaming others for the fallout from situations that you have provoked yourself.

I bring a lot of information about Algeria to this forum - I certainly don't bring Narcissistic personality disorder and anyone carrying that kind of baggage should leave it outside.

[Al-khiyal]

No one in their right mind would or could interpret my previous post as bigotry, a call for jihad or any of that nonsense! Before I go any further, I completely and utterly , without reservation regret and withdraw the so-called offensive phrase, if that is how it was taken. I NEVER intended it to be taken in the way you have. I am flabbergasted at all the implications that you have constructed and got carried away with at the speed of light!!!

Really? You had no intention of a Muslim carrying a rifle being seen in a particular way, for any particular reason? Let’s look at your first response, on this thread, when challenged about it:

Hahaha! The Crusaders didn't exactly head for the Holy Land brandishing olive branches, did they? I've got one with a sword, but I thought that was a bit too obvious...[ I can always change it, if it seriously gives that impression].

So you were being subtle using an image of a rifleman and not someone carrying a sword were you? I'm not so sure that the administrator will see the distinction, but don't give up hope, she might be as gullible as whoever you think would fall for nonsense like that would have to be, eh? (I should deflate any optimism on that score right away - she's not). Despite the offer in that post to change it, you didn't change it, and ignored further comments for some hours, pausing on the way to deliver your 'I just wonder why we have to worry about 'offending Western sensibilities' so much' remark. You did some rapid editing in the early hours of this morning to remove your first response to someone who asked about it (where you also ignored my first comment to you about it), and if we look, here, there it is, evidence of your hasty re-writing of history – and that's not the only post that you were busy editing this morning, eh? Some of your edits were in vain, as they appear quoted on others members' replies, but don't worry, I'm sure the administrator will see your hasty multiple editing in an entirely innocent light. That the editing and the eventual removal of the avatar were carried out in the small hours of the morning, after it had been forcefully made clear to you that it was totally unacceptable, the administrator will also be wise enough to place in perspective.

Compare your comment above with:

...The AVATAR in question meant nothing, nothing, nothing more than a pretty picture to me. I had not scrutinised it as others did...

Those statements cannot both be right, eh?

Let's be honest Al-Khiyal, you are trying to drive me out of this website. It's as clear to me as crystal. This time Al-Khiyal, you are making a mistake because I am totally innocent of the accusations that you are levelling at me.

As someone who was instrumental in allowing you to save face and make a return after your ‘I’m leaving’ tantrum, that allegation isn’t worthy of consideration. But it marks the first blow of your diversionary effort to completely avoid addressing the real, not fantasised, genesis of this issue, your idiocy in selecting an armed man as an avatar, and quickly moves into an unfounded and hysterical personalized attack on me, and on how I moderate this forum.

You are simply resentful of me. Anyone can see that. I did feel that you were giving me' the cold treatment' , ignoring even my genuine praise of your competence and wisdom.

What exactly am I resentful of? Do you have any evidence of comments I have made or actions taken that support this bizarre and unfounded allegation? And I'm afraid I'm going to have to come clean here and make a confession, and I sincerely hope that your oversized self-important ego can cope with it - I don't even look at all your posts and threads so if you're addressing remarks to me in them, there is no guarantee that I see them. With regard to your 'Anyone can see that' the answer has to be 'Only if they are inhabiting the same paranoid parallel universe that you seem to be in at the moment' - because there is not a shred of evidence here to support your allegation.

What I am certain of Al-Khiyal, is that you have recently developed a personal dislike of me. That is also clear to me. You are trying to portray me -without solid evidence- as a trouble-maker.

This is a remarkable thesis to develop, based on zero evidence other than the thoughts in your own head – which may or may not have been edited, who knows? I think when the time comes for cooler heads to look at this thread they won’t see any evidence of branding, but they will see your resistance to a suggestion that your avatar was not appropriate for this site. I could have removed it, within seconds, at any time, but instead offered you the opportunity to reflect upon just what it represented and take appropriate action yourself – which you failed to do until the early hours of the morning, by which time more complaints had been received.

The truth is you hate my non-serious debates and postings. They are being seen as 'in competition' with the serious stuff that you make available to us all.

More paranoid and bizarre accusations. Have any of your threads and posts been deleted? Are there any comments anywhere on these posts from me that support your (invented) allegation? While it is true that more than one member has made less than flattering comment on some of your material, I have never said a word either about quantity or quality. Why do you feel a need to introduce a lie like that here? I can do nothing about your insecurity or apparent competitive attitude but I am not going to let a lying, paranoid allegation like that go unchallenged.

If there is any justice, before any drastic decisions are made towards me or with regard to the AVATARS are concerned, an investigation ought to be made to establish facts first. Al-Khiyal, you have completely misunderstood me. I am the most modest, non-violent, pacifist and respectful person you have probably ever met in your life. I am not even a practising Muslim!!!

That makes it all the more bizarre then, why you should choose to bring a jihadi-type avatar onto this site. Or maybe not - maybe that actually explains why. I would not expect such a tissue of lies from a practicing Muslim.

One last thing Al-Khiyal, I have returned to this forum because many users felt that I should. And if my posts irritate you, then it's your problem. The users love them. You have only to look at the thousands of hits they have accumulated since I joined Algeria.com. Your boss will disagree with you that I am nothing but a nuisance.

I fear that you have misinterpreted the combined efforts of some decent people, including myself, to give you a way back here without losing face and your misreading of that episode seems to have resulted in your transforming what actually happened into some ridiculously inflated ‘popular mandate’. Never mind that your original thanks to your alleged 'fan base' included thanks to someone who was not even here and so never said a word during the period in question, and omitted someone who did (whose name I invisibly inserted into your post so that he would not resent your omitting him), the truth is that there was no cheering crowd – just a few people who were pleased to see someone abandoning a ridiculous huff - for his own sake, not theirs.

Both myself and the site logs can confirm that some of your threads do indeed attract more attention than some of your other efforts. You know, and I know, and the site logs know, that one of your most faithful and dedicated readers is........ you. I’m not sure if you can argue, with any degree of accuracy, that you returning to your own posts, in the morning, the evening, and even in the early hours of the morning, reading, re-reading, and re-reading again and again and again, constitutes a scientifically acceptable methodology reflecting ‘popularity’. Inflating your own thread count that way suggests performance anxiety and insecurity, not popularity. Today you even resorted to answering yourself on one of your unanswered threads, something that tells its own story. But now that we know that you’re thinking in terms of ‘popularity’, 'thread hits' etc, maybe we’re a little closer to understanding some of your own anxiety to ‘shine’ and why you might be thinking in terms of ‘rivalry’ etc – that kind of stuff is all in your head, not mine. That kind of petty, trivial, childish thinking is all your own work, it has nothing to do with me, it's your own paranoid invention, so don’t employ such dishonest, personalized attacks to evade the real point.

Which was, and which remains, that you are not bringing militaristic avatars to this site. Next time I wouldn’t treat you as an adult and give you an opportunity to see sense – I’d delete it and ban you for a period and let you howl as much as you wanted. The only person threatening the continuation of your membership here is also your number one fan – yourself. Get over yourself and in future when a moderator, any moderator, tells you to take steps to correct a situation I strongly advise you to do it and not to try to defend the indefensible. You do not set rules and standards here and the sooner that you realise that, the better.