I might be veering slightly off-topic here, but let’s get one thing straight: you don't have to be some kind of sexual deviant or someone using needles to contract HIV. All it takes is having unprotected sex with someone whose status you aren't certain about. Given how common it is in this country to skip testing—or even just ignore protection entirely—even when dealing with people who don't look like typical "risk-takers," isn't it obvious that anyone could be carrying HIV? And isn't that exactly why we need to be careful?
My intention isn't to scare anyone, but I felt like I had to say it.
Ditch your GP immediately, seriously! My doctor won't even dream of prescribing an antibiotic without a throat swab first. Honestly, the last time I actually took antibiotics was years ago. When it comes to viruses, I don't even bother seeing a doctor because they just pass on their own if you stick to tea, soup, plenty of rest, and spicy food—you know, things like hot sauce, pepper, horseradish, or garlic—plus some steam inhalation with a drugstore inhaler and peppermint extract. I've got a bit of a cold right now, but it’s nothing major, and I dealt with something similar six months ago. That’s all there is to it.
Yeah, but look, I went through a phase just like yours where I was catching every cold under the sun, especially during the winter, mostly because the air in my apartment was incredibly dry from the central heating. Try turning down the heat and get some humidifiers going—even just putting a pot of water by the radiator or using a damp towel... and for heaven's sake, make sure you're airing out your rooms every single day.
Betty Hayes10, you singled out my last two short posts as examples while completely ignoring my longer critiques. You see, I don't buy into the idea that they don't contribute to the topic. I believe they raise necessary awareness regarding the purchase and breeding of birds. If someone is absolutely determined to have a bird, they should prioritize adoption from rescues over breeders. And if you're going to cherry-pick what you quote, why not just quote all my deleted posts to give the full picture? My recent replies are brief specifically because you delete them. What’s the point of spending ten minutes crafting a thoughtful response just to have it vanish with a single click? How am I supposed to know which of my thoughts you deem worthy of keeping and which ones warrant deletion? Does seventy percent of every post have to be direct advice just so I can counter the other thirty percent of criticism, or what? Maybe even then, one of the three of you would still find a reason to wipe out ten minutes of my effort.
It makes zero sense to start a thread on Verizon because that's not where bird buyers hang out; my goal is to reach the people actually looking for birds, not random readers who couldn't care less about avian care or purchasing. I’m not interested in empty contemplation; I want people who intend to get a bird to think critically about what they are buying. Similarly, opening a new thread in the Pets section won't work because serious buyers won't stumble upon it. The objective is to explain exactly why you shouldn't jump into threads like the parrot in style "I want to get a parrot, but I have two cats." and "I got a parrot from Petco. It's terrified." It is vital that people understand why their birds end up so traumatized. I already explained this in my previous post here.
On the thread you mentioned, Corduroy shut me down right at the start by insisting I link two specific things together. He essentially decided the question was moot and simply silenced me because he could. Those posts you claim were deleted were teetering on the edge of being offensive—one drifted from a discussion into outright insults, and the other responded to my question about dietary supplements by telling me I needed "a healthy brain." It would be truly bizarre if you hadn't sanctioned those. On the other hand, I'm also dissatisfied with the way you handle bad posts by simply deleting them. I didn't ask for you to worry about my freedom of speech. New readers stumbling in might wonder why my tone is a bit sharper (not insulting, just blunt) toward certain members, unaware that it's a direct reaction to being verbally attacked moments prior (deleting a post doesn't erase it from my memory). Instead of deletions, why not use yellow cards or formal warnings? I put a significant amount of effort into that thread to remain polite and reasoned despite the repetitive questioning, and do you know why? Because Corduroy's tactic is to lock the thread the moment the atmosphere gets heated.
I just want to know: why is it that in a thread defined as 1) a discussion about pets—specifically birds in this case—criticism and questioning the ethics of bird ownership isn't allowed? Pets and the industry surrounding their sale and breeding are inextricably linked. You can't have one without the other. Is it really such a crime for people to read about the conditions birds face when coming from Petco just because something is legal doesn't make it ethically sound? I disagree. Plenty of things are legal, much like keeping a little monkey in a cage at a pet store, yet you guys locked the thread on that guy just because he asked about getting a monkey as a gift. Why? You can buy and keep monkeys, and someone might even gift one. He wasn't asking for a wild animal from the jungle, just as bird buyers aren't looking for endangered species. Are we applying double standards based on how "cute" an animal happens to be?
I want to voice my frustration regarding the moderators who are so quick to scrub every single post—specifically the ones where I offer serious criticism about buying those pathetic birds, and the one where I used a bit of light irony (without being insulting) to comment on that recent case involving a guy who couldn't even be bothered to do a little research before making a purchase. Even Betty Hayes10 noticed his total lack of responsibility.
This relentless drive on your part to delete every post, even when I provide quite extensive and valid reasoning for my views, is honestly pathetic. I’ve already reached out via DM to tell you that I’d much rather be banned than have my posts wiped away. It is truly tragic how little people understand about how pets are raised in pet shops, or how they just keep cramming cages full of new young birds. You keep this thread strictly limited to sales agreements and then end up "rescuing" clueless buyers who are in distress because they don't understand why their birds are depressed, lethargic, won't sing, won't be affectionate, or just sit at the bottom of the cage. The primary reason they act this way is that they’ve spent months or years in pet store cages with virtually zero human contact and nowhere to fly except in tiny aviaries, often fighting with other birds in the process.
It’s a closed loop. People ask the exact same questions over and over, and instead of stating clearly what the actual cause of the problem is, everyone just focuses on the symptoms by saying "you just need a lot of patience". The real issue lies with the breeders, the pet shops, and the practice of selling animals to anyone who feels like dropping $100$100, without checking the conditions the animals are coming from. Often, they go to terrible homes—to people smoking cigarettes one after another while letting a bird suffocate in the smoke, to those whose birds escape constantly so they just buy another, to those who never let a bird out of its cage to stretch its wings, or to parents with small children who grab a bird by hand the very first day it arrives from the store, etc.
You know, they aren't mindless creatures. They aren't objects, like car keys or a piece of furniture. They are living beings; furthermore, they are social, and larger parrots are provenly sentient beings. Tigers should live like this, and not like this.
There is no need to justify yourselves to me. I know you’ll just keep censoring this thread regardless of what I write. I felt the need to complain because everything mentioned above deeply saddens me, and it is unbelievable to me that someone can be so exclusive and heartless as to consistently favor irresponsible people without listening to the other side—which is vital for all those reading the thread who are still deciding whether or not to get a bird, so they are aware of the reasons not to get a bird from a pet shop.
Now, go ahead and delete this post too. That’s the easiest way out, isn't it?
Can the moderator body halleck explain why they jump into every single debate in the meatless corner?
You just wiped out posts where people were actually making decent points without a single insult in sight. Most recently, you deleted both my discussion and one from a regular user. Neither of us insulted the other, yet you just scrubbed everything and shut the whole conversation down with "It's Christmas, so I'm not moderating." What exactly were you planning to penalize? A thread where vegetarians are just sharing their experiences? We even had some meat-eaters chiming in to vent about how vegetarians act, which, if you ask me, is actually useful feedback. Did you think we were all just sitting around waiting for an excuse to start hurling insults at each other? How do you actually expect people to discuss anything? Are you trying to create a dead meatless corner where nobody dares to post? You already shut down the other thread where we vegetarians were talking, dropping a few of your own (highly subjective) takes on vegetarianism and then locking it so no one could respond. Now you're doing it again. Just let people talk and debate. So what if we have opposing views? You're preemptively punishing the topic and the participants for insults that haven't even happened. Why should I bother writing long, thoughtful posts if you're just going to nonchalantly delete them? 👎
The way society just turns a blind eye to the human rights atrocities being committed by the CIA is honestly chilling; you could draw a direct line from this collective apathy to how the citizens of Germany stood by during WWII. It’s the exact same pattern of behavior. We're watching a horror movie unfold in real time, yet everyone acts like it doesn't matter.
Slav, thanks for handling the translation. I've uploaded the PDF under Movies > Documentary Commentary and dropped the link in the signature. I'm going to go ahead and catch up on the rest of this thread.
How exactly do you plan on wiping out the competition without tearing yourself apart in the process? Is it enough to just lean in and whisper 'Don't step on my toes'? 😁
So now it's the government's fault because you're too lazy to actually report the guy? They might as well just read your mind instead. Honestly, I suspect you're just a troll...
northerncrane4 said:If the admins think they need to issue a red card for that post by Catov, they have the power to do it. Personally, I don't see anything offensive about it.
Are you actually serious right now? Can you really not see what's happening right in front of your eyes?
Cat6 said:So you’ve finally noticed how incredibly consistent our colleague's arguments have been all along? Is anyone else seriously questioning the whole variola Lozimka situation? 🤣
Now, just imagine if my response to your post looked like this:
Now we’re seeing nothing but blatant bias and terrible moderation. Is northerncrane4 really out here acting like he’s got hepatitis C? 🤣" Take a look at the link. Unfortunately, I don't have any way to dig up your personal details, like which local associations you follow or actually give a damn about.
If you’re going to issue a red card for this, then fine, but you better be prepared to actually address his comment too. If you aren't, then whatever, it's all good. So we live in a world where you can get penalized just for mentioning someone's mother, yet calling a person a walking infectious disease doesn't even raise an eyebrow? Is that really how the rules work now?
I honestly love how you're splitting up my posts like this. Even though they were basically the same thing, you made me re-upload from one thread and pull the addition out as its own separate entry, so now it just looks like I've completely lost it and am spamming the same content over and over again.
Your latest comment just proves you can't tell the difference between someone being a troll and someone simply having a different opinion. By your logic, young people should never have a say in anything because they didn't experience the world before they were born, right? 🤦
I see that post from Cat6 is still sitting there untouched. Are we going to wait another two weeks before you start claiming I didn't even report it?
northerncrane4 said:No, it’s more like when you go on a thread about an LA radio station and just spam post after post about how certain media groups totally fail to understand what today's youth are actually about, claiming they're completely wrong and out of touch while acting like you know better than everyone else—just endless repetition of the same tired argument.
It's also considered trolling when you jump into the "appeals of a red card" thread just to complain about someone else's penalty, like when a user brings up someone's parents.
And you didn't even report him back on October 24th. It seems highly unlikely to me that out of the dozens of reports I get every single day, yours somehow slipped through the cracks. You reported a different post that same day.
That's exactly what I thought. Because you don't agree with my take, you've decided it's trolling. I did report him that day. Maybe you missed it, or maybe you just forgot, but I know I didn't. I flagged it the very second I read the comment, fully expecting the mods to step in.
I'm done talking about this. Enjoy your biased moderation.
No, I filed the report on October 24th, the exact same day he sent me that message.
And what exactly am I "trolling" for? Why don't you go ahead and define "troll" and "trolling" for me? Is that what we're calling it now when someone happens to hold an opinion that contradicts yours, Mr. Moderator? I'm done participating in that thread since you refuse to sanction blatant insults while simultaneously handing out bans for everything else.
northerncrane4, you really think calling someone variola Lozimka is okay? Do you even realize how insulting that is? Do you have any idea what variola actually is—a contagious disease that looks like this (eksplicitkan slika)? You don't need to overthink what Cat6 meant by that comment, because let's be honest: labeling a fellow user after a nasty infectious disease is just disgusting and deserves a ban.
I’ve reported him twice now, just like the rules say. Is calling someone a variola Lozimka really considered offensive? Pringles, fine, I'll start a new thread. Even though I've already made my point clear.
Funny, I’m not going to complain about the ban I received, but rather about the one someone else just got. Basically,
k-kekec said:LOL... kids...🤣🤣🤣🤣
Mazarin said:regarding the YU-Trovanj situation, you have as many political topics as you want, whether it's about Yu-tarnji or YU-sipović... you didn't just miss the mark, you missed the entire stadium... besides, if you want politically correct stations like EWT Radio, go listen there and complain. Not a single topic can ever be free from various loafers and barroom patriots....
this is the perfect topic for it because KROQ constantly focuses on the state of the economy—back in the 80s when things were different, they were all about freedom of speech and trashing the administration... now it's the exact same thing, and once again they are forcing us to remember what they used to mock back in the 80s... but then again, kids like Hitmanović don't get it, because back then his dad was too busy figuring out how to "score" with his mom...
and freedom in this thread means being able to criticize the hosts and their programming... so who's to say who's right or wrong?... anyway, KROQ is already drowning in mediocrity compared to ALL the other stations in America, and it doesn't lead in anything anymore...
on the KROQ thread, he got a ban for trolling.
Though, I honestly don't see the trolling. His opinion? "LOL kids" and three emojis? What exactly is the problem?
While this post
Cat6 said:So you've finally noticed the consistency in our colleague Betty Hayes10's arguments? 🤣
on the same thread that I've reported twice already—where Cat6 gives me the nickname variola Lozimka and posts some weird image he cobbled together in a pretty twisted, bizarre way—it didn't earn any kind of ban. Huh, northerncrane4? Insulting people and calling them variola Lozimka is perfectly fine!?
Run a full scan on your computer using an antivirus, Malwarebytes, and ComboFix. I started seeing some really bizarre stuff happening on my machine after I’d get back from the local FedEx Office with a thumb drive.
Do you have Word installed on your other computer? And which version are we even talking about here—is it 2003, 2007, 2010, or 2013? Why wouldn't you just save it as a PDF if you don't plan on editing it anymore?
Yeah, but that always creates a headache—you’ve got the text first, then the calculation follows. Besides, the vertical axis just spits out numbers again instead of labels, which is exactly where things fall apart. It’s one of those situations where no matter how you flip it, the result looks stupid. The client doesn't seem to grasp that if someone already has their system set to American number formatting, they aren't going to want to stare at figures displayed in some German format. After all, is it really worth the confusion when 1.000 means one point zero to an American, but a thousand to a German?