RhesusMonk said:

You thought right.

In a fitting coincidence, today was the last day of prep before my first class of students arrives on Monday. I took a job as a high school science teacher at a school for kids who have been kicked out of their zoned schools for academic and behavioral issues--students others have written off and worse. I've been watching and passing around the Taylor Mali and Rives performances all week. After years fighting what I now believe to have been my destiny all along, for the first time in a long time, I feel I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.

Thanks for the heads-up on the link.

RhesusMonk said:

Well, I appreciate the reasoned, thoughtful reply. Still, you have to admit, "shoulda been on the 12:10 instead of the 12:13 bus" is pretty good. :-)

RhesusMonk said:

I haven't posted a video in years. I finally find one that I thought was siftworthy and that i didn't think someone else would post, and this is what I get from you? I guess you saw the thumb and expected a woman to be attacked in some physical way. I find the dude's use of truth and humor to disarm far more enlightening, and is exactly the kind of culture I believe should be more prevalent in this particular forum. To say it shouldn't have made the front page, being who you are, is piss poor form, sir. Piss poor.

RhesusMonk said:

Bill Burr is on top of his game.

*promote

RhesusMonk said:

Hey, buddy. I don't know whether you'll be checking your profile much now that you've been sent on the CircleLine cruise, but I wanted to tell you that I for one am rather disgusted by the way this played out. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Northeast Irish-Catholic (now non-superstitious) liberal, and I don't give a flying fick about your politics.

You've been a QUALITY submitter & commenter here, and were probably one of the main reasons I came out of lurkdom and became a Sifter. When I saw your banination, I spent about two hours reading comments and looking at your submissions to try to rationalize your dismissal, but there just wasn't enough. I may be only a GoldStar, but I've been here longer than I'd like to recount. In all my days, I've seen few Sifters as committed to the QUALITY this site intends to promote. I suppose there is much to your banination that I'm not privy to, and I'm very sorry for that. Even though it seems you have trolled quite a few members in the recent past, I think this decision should have been opened to investigation and consultation with the community at large.

Over the last years, we've had a disappointing diaspora of QUALITY members, but yet you stuck around. As the years have progressed, the QUALITY of submitters and high-level, long-term members has dwindled. I came here for people like you, like @Farhad2000, like @eric3579, @djsunkid, @mlx, @silvercord, @dystopianfuturetoday, @NetRunner, @kronosposeidon, @dag, @MarineGunrock and even like Choggie. You are among these names.

A (seemingly) long time ago, this site celebrated its diversity of both style and opinion. We've banned, and supported the banination of conservative trolls in the last few years, but only because of EXCESSIVE violations (eg. CaptainPlanet, and (to his unfortunate discredit) Choggie; this is NOT an exhaustive list). I've watched the progression, and while I agree with the socio-political principles of those in support of the exclusions, I cannot but think how the actual QUALITY of the site has suffered.

This was a place I came to enlighten myself, with submissions like this, this, this, this, this, this, and this (which is truly just a smattering of the QUALITY you've brought here). I used to hit the VideoSift link and expect to see submissions that I wouldn't have seen elsewhere. Unique submissions, with a higher intellectual quotient than the rest of the horse-apple internet digest sites. But now it's a site nearly indistinguishable from this one, and this one, or this one. Certainly (and obviously) I like and frequent those sites, but this is VideoSift, and I have always expected more bang for my buck.

I'm sure you've realized by this point that this comment is not just for you to read, as it both is public, and draws the attention of many other QUALITY members of the community. But I assure you that whatever the reaction, I want you particularly to know that you've affected my understanding of the world-at-large in a most positive way over the last four years. It was a privilege to have had your influence, and I will miss it.