About Reveille

[broghammerj]

I've been on boards where this has happened before so I'm kinda cynical, but still try and give people the benefit of the doubt. I think that asking the mods to confirm or investigate suspicious posts is the way to go.

Asking the mods is always a good answer, but if I were a mod I don't know if I really would want to be saddled with the challenge of investigating this. That's why I wonder if these thing should be kept out of the public domain and better left to the personal messaging side of things.

 

[Umbran]

Thanks for putting my mind at ease, Umbran.

I re-read my earlier post, and I think it might have sounded a little off-putting.

I was not at all off-put. You simply made it clear that perhaps a word on how we are going to proceed was in order.

 

[Blastin]

Asking the mods is always a good answer, but if I were a mod I don't know if I really would want to be saddled with the challenge of investigating this. That's why I wonder if these thing should be kept out of the public domain and better left to the personal messaging side of things.

I agree in principal, but looking at human nature I don't think it will happen. Could the mods make a rule of no personal info type threads? Sure they could. I just think that it would make this community seem sterile.
Part of the community aspect of these types of boards is that our real lives, personalities and flaws tend to bleed over in the posts. Because we start to feel like we know some of the people here on a personal level it's inevitable that we would feel like sharing things outside of the board's main topic. And I think that people do enjoy feeling like they are a bit more involved with other posters than just debating their opinion on what a Paladin's code means

 

[Umbran]

What if someone didn't have the tact that Catclaw had about calling the post a hoax? What if someone had just come out and simply said, "I think this thread is a hoax." Given the subject of the original post (a well know/well liked Enworld member) with health problems and updates posted by family members, would you have responded with some sort of post erasing or potential ban? I would think you would almost have had to.

It is difficult to respond to hypotheticals, of course, but I'll take a stab at it...

Assuming a lack of tact... it would be quite probable that the post would get edited. It would need a supreme lack of tact - to the point of clear hostility, to get a ban for it.

I think many people felt that way but for the sake of civility correctly chose to say nothing. If the person who opted to post had been reprimanded how would that look in the face of the current outcome?

As others have noted - if someone has something beyond an unsupportable "gut feeling", the really correct thing to do would have been to report the post and/or e-mail the mods with their thoughts on the subject.

As for the person who would have been reprimanded - I have to note that being right is not generally an excuse for being rude. We'd apologize for the part we got wrong, certainly.

My question is this. Does a post on Mandy's Rev take away from the focus of what this board is....a DnD board? Should personal discussions such as this be avoided?

My personal inclination is to say "No" on both counts. When things go wrong, it's quite distressing. But over the history of the place, the good done has far outweighed the bad. But we'll be considering policies, so we'll see.

 

[Glyfair]

Finally... well, crap. This is one of the most frustrating and disappointing days I've had as a moderator over the past nine years. On behalf of our entire community, I'm sorry.

I was a moderator at another gaming site (MKRealms) when there was a similar that that an occasional poster had passed away and left a wife and kids. The owners, being who they were, set up a donation site and called to contact his wife about arrangements. Of course, the person who "passed away" answered the phone.

I thought about that when I saw this and thought this might have been something like that. However, pointing out such a thing is just quite insensitive and really didn't matter unless people started taking up collections or the like.

I still recommend anyone take comments like this with a small dose of skepticism. More often than not such posts are true and heartfelt. However, a noticable part of them time they are like this.

 

[billd91]

I think you have a very good point. All through the "incident" I was thinking that it would be better for "Mandy" to turn to people close to her IRL, instead of pouring her heart out to total strangers on the Internet.

/M

I know too many people in blogger/message board subcultures who do just this, unfortunately. For some people, it's a lot easier to turn to a wider net of relatively anonymous people than to turn to a closer network of real people.

 

[doctorhook]

I noticed that there was a new thread about Reveille, and that the original had been locked, and that there had been a ton of activity in the past couple days. To be totally honest, given the what I had read here a week ago, I basically figured that this guy had died, and that folks were offering their condolences. (That seems like a natural thing to think might have happened here, right?) Instead, the truth is much sillier than I could have imagined.

So, can I ask someone who the heck this "Reveille" guy is, anyway? After all this, I'm pretty curious about the full story. Here's what I've gathered, so please correct me if I'm wrong:

• He's a mega-regular here at ENWorld, so obviously he likes D&D;
• He's got Down syndrome, and he lived at home with his parents because (now obviously) he wasn't emotionally stable enough to be on his own;
• He was an articulate and very nice guy to anyone who ever talked to him, and he had a lot of close friends here whom he hurt with this scam;
• He's pulled shenanigans similar to this before, on a smaller scale;
• He has used numerous alts to manipulate social situations here;
• He invented his real-world life with someone named Mandy.

Also, I'm curious how exactly we figured out that it was fake, for certain. Hindsight speculations about shaky medical practices and bizarre coma-talk aside, what actually broke the story, and who figured it out?

Finally, please forgive me if it's too soon for this. I'll remove it myself if it's inappropriate. I know a lot of people are very frustrated and hurt.

 

[S'mon]

He's got Down syndrome

That seems very unlikely.

 

[Heckler]

He's got Down syndrome, and he lived at home with his parents because (now obviously) he wasn't emotionally stable enough to be on his own;

Actually, he lived at home with his mother, as his father and grandfather died within a week of each other a couple of years ago.

Allegedly.

And its sad that his current betrayal is making me doubt such serious things he told us years ago.

But I'm still sorting out how I feel about this. I cried for the guy. I have bad health myself, and this was really tearing me up. Now...I dunno...

Kudos to PC and the mods, though. This is a very bizarre situation that they've been handling very well.

 

[Umbran]

He's got Down syndrome, and he lived at home with his parents because (now obviously) he wasn't emotionally stable enough to be on his own;

His detailed private medical information is not for discussion here.

He invented his real-world life with someone named Mandy.

We can neither confirm nor deny her existence. Nor, ultimately, is his love life our business.

Also, I'm curious how exactly we figured out that it was fake, for certain. Hindsight speculations about shaky medical practices and bizarre coma-talk aside, what actually broke the story, and who figured it out?

We have said before, and I reiterate, that though we understand the curiosity, the details of the discovery will not be discussed by the staff.

Those interested in his details may communicate with him directly.