RhesusMonk

Member Profile

Real Name: Jim
Birthdate: February 7th
A little about me...
I joined the Sift for the privilege to get things I liked in front of your eyes, and I'm really excited finally to be Gold-100 and to promote the hell out of your vids.

Member Since: November 17, 2007
Last Power Points used: December 1, 2016
Available: now
Power Points at Recharge: 1   Get More Power Points Now!

Comments to RhesusMonk

siftbot says...

Happy belated anniversary! Due to a glitch in the Matrix, we forgot to mark year number 7 since you first became a Sifter. The community wouldn\'t be the same without you. Thanks for your contributions!


Januari says...

Good for you! As someone who recently graduated, you reminded me before i head off to school in a couple weeks i need to go find a couple of my teachers and thank them for a number of things!

Very best of luck on the year!

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.

lucky760 says...

I concur. That was one of maybe two things he said that made me smirk. : )

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. :-)

lucky760 says...

Sorry you felt so betrayed and that this was my response to your first submission in years, but my being an admin does not exclude me from having or sharing an honest opinion.

I wasn't expecting any kind of physical assault, and if there was any I would've down-voted rather than abstained.

It comes down to a simple matter of opinion. In mine, there wasn't anything said that was clever or witty or poignant or a real potent zinger. He didn't shut her down, he just kept trying and failing to give her a good tongue lashing and she still kept right on yelling back. (Being shut down requires a person to desist.)

While he was digging for something good to say I kept watching and listening and waiting for him to hit paydirt and finally put her in her place, but it never happened. I think it's a matter of managing expectations; perhaps if the title didn't mislead me into expecting her to really be shutdown I would have been more neutral about his failed attempts to shut her down (though I still wouldn't have voted).

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.

siftbot says...

Happy anniversary! Today marks year number 6 since you first became a Sifter and the community is better for having you. Thanks for your contributions!


not_blankfist says...

I never got the chance to thank you for the kind words you left on my wall right after my first account was banned. Cheers. Hope you're well.

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.

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