Banned user for suggesting "format C: /y"

[reboot]

Yes, you can...if you intentionally misrepresent the product by either NOT specifying what it really is, or intentionally avoiding telling what it really is.
A bag of green leafy stuff, is just that, a bag of green leafy stuff. If someone thinks it's pot, and purchases it with the understanding (spoken or not) that it IS pot, then finds out that it's NOT pot, who do you think he's gonna blame?
To get back to the original topic...ask a few of my fellow mods over at http://forum.pcmech.com what happens when someone suggests format c: /y

[tekkieman]

WTF? it is true! That's the dumbest crap I've ever heard of!

Criminal intent
LA R.S. 14:10

Criminal intent may be specific or general:

(1) Specific criminal intent is that state of mind which exists when the circumstances indicate that the offender actively desired the prescribed criminal consequences to follow his act or failure to act.

(2) General criminal intent is present whenever there is specific intent, and also when the circumstances indicate that the offender, in the ordinary course of human experience, must have adverted to the prescribed criminal consequences as reasonably certain to result from his act or failure to act.

[indolikaa]

Ok, I'll admit, I thought it was funny too, but this isn't a room full of people you know well, and know they would get the joke. We can't always know the skill level of people we give advice to. Look how many posts start off looking like the person knows what they are doing, and the when given the simplest task ask "ok, how do you do that...."

Do I think the guy should have been banned rather than warned.....I don't really know.

Maybe he was banned because after he got his yellow card, he sent a PM to somebody telling them to **** off or something...

[Supreme2k]

There must be some major karma or something going on. The "pot" thing actually happened to me (well back in my youth).

To teach a couple of friends of mine a lesson, I sold them some "pot" (orgenao, plus a few othe spices). Turns out my lack of marijuana economics caused me to sell at a very low price. Not much later, a friend of one of my friends comes knocking on my door looking to buy. I tell him that I don't sell. He takes it that I won't sell to him at the great price. He then proceeds to call the cops and alert them where and when they would be smoking (outside a hangout, the shack), also adding the info about me. The cops show up (1 car), grab the stuff from my now "stoned" friends, and almost die laughing after informing my friends that they're better off making a nice Italian sauce than smoking the "reefer" The cops never make it back to me

-------------------------------------------



And for the record, it is not against the law to tell someone to format their drive. You guys with your "somebody could have gotten hurt" attitude are sad That has to be the ultimate in nerdom to believe "if he formats his hard drive unintentionally, it could be devastating!!!"

based on his post, it looked serious. Why? No smiley. It looked like he fully intended for the format command to work when he suggested it. On this board, jokes and sarcasm will usually have a smiley reflecting the poster's intended emotion since we can't see each other's faces or hear their voice, so we rely on smileys to indicate if the text has a spin on it. He just typed the command with nothing else, like it was a statement of fact. It looked dead-serious to me.

I never saw that part of the TOS. You know, the "You agree to place a smiley after any post that is not 100% correct and serious. Failure to do so will result in banning" clause

Here's a few who also forgot that clause (apologies to the posters):
hammer and water
Microwave, blowtorch, et al solution
another hammer solution

There are others, but I'm not in the mood to search for them :P Like I said, if I tell someone to swap PCI slots (forgetting to caution about removing power) and they fry their system/themself, neither I, nor this site will be held accountable, nor is the "damage done, nonetheless" since any reasonable person can see that sometimes free advice needs that extra little bit of caution.

I'm not trying to dictate policy. Just voicing my opinion on the matter. The topic implies that the ban was unreasonable (since the command won't work), but I'm elaborating on it a bit.

offline, you sure you're in Oz and not down the street from me (N. Cal) I'm in the land of silly litigation, from spilled coffee to getting fat from McDonalds, people are always looking to make a quick buck. The one thing that I am sure of is that if a guy goes to a lawyer and says, "some guy in Germany, who is not from tech support, posted on an anonymous message board that I should pour battery acid on my computer in order to burn movies onto my DVDs. How much can I get?", he would get all five toes inside a boot to his ass.


EDIT:
For Indolikaa: Nah. Here it is -

mr. anderson was not just warned. He was banned. Good decision
in my book. Funny - hell yeah. Destructive - potentially so. Think
of videohelp.com as a 3rd party to a lawsuit. We'd win but the damage
would be done. This forum survives through its reputation and
relationship with commercial providers. Damage that and this
place, your home if I dare say it, is history.

Also, this in no way implies that I am stalking offline
(makes sure it doesn't say Will Hay above the odd kitty )

[indolikaa]

Don't forget that using sandpaper is a great way to polish out the scratches on your DVDs...

[tekkieman]

Maybe he was banned because after he got his yellow card, he sent a PM to somebody telling them to **** off or something...

Could be, in which case, maybe he should be banned. Did I think the comment was funny? Yes, I knew it was a joke (whether the original poster knew it or not). Was it wrong? Yes, for the reasons previously stated. Should he have been banned? Not our decision, and the decision has already been made. Is that the decision you, or I, or anyone else have made? That is what is being discussed. I still don't know if I would or wouldn't.

The other point I was trying to make to offline is that noone has outright saie the decision was wrong or right (except for the powers that be), I'm talking general membership here. Noone asked to have the guy reinstated. I see it as a general opinion subject. I even mentioned it in the thread with housepig wanting help with the dir command, when I said I need to be careful giving command line help because people get banned for it. To me it is funny. If I didn't know any better, and my precious computer went TU because someone did it to me......hell yeah, I'd be pissed!

[offline]

@ tekkieman

Tha wee point Ah was tryin' tae make was simply that the decision was
made with a perspective above that of an ordinary member and that
it was the right of the decision maker.

I did not suggest it was not
a point for discussion. I also found it funny but at the same time
I would have considered banning him myself. I say 'considered' because
in any grey area it is best to consult with the other Mods

Whit hoose ur ye? My ancestors were from the lowlands but
we joined a highland clan in the wars and later were kin.

[tekkieman]

@ tekkieman

Tha wee point Ah was tryin' tae make was simply that the decision was
made with a perspective above that of an ordinary member and that
it was the right of the decision maker.

I did not suggest it was not
a point for discussion. I also found it funny but at the same time
I would have considered banning him myself. I say 'considered' because
in any grey area it is best to consult with the other Mods

Whit hoose ur ye? My ancestors were from the lowlands but
we joined a highland clan in the wars and later were kin.

Well it sounds as if we pretty much agree. Thought it was funny, not sure if he should have been banned. Sounds the same to me....

Sorry to disappoint you, but the only "hoose" I am from is the one I currently live in! I am almost full blooded portuguese. I think someone has been watching a little too much Austin Powers lately....

[offline]

I did not like Austin Powers. I left the cinema after 15 mins
and got my money back. I understand your reference. Myers
or whatever his name was, played a Scottish character right?
By using that slang I thought we had ancestors in common.

[stiltman]

Didn't mean to start any sh!#. I just wanted to point out that the command doesn't work.

Any other commands you want me to test

[tekkieman]

I did not like Austin Powers. I left the cinema after 15 mins
and got my money back. I understand your reference. Myers
or whatever his name was, played a Scottish character right?
By using that slang I thought we had ancestors in common.

No, actually the reference was to Fat Bastard (really, that is the character's name, don't take it as an attack) in the movie. Meyers was British. I understood the slang, but I am actually Mediterranean.

[indolikaa]

Didn't mean to start any sh!#. I just wanted to point out that the command doesn't work.

Any other commands you want me to test

C:\VINYLTARIANISM.EXE

[offline]

I have some friends from Faro and know a girl from a small
village down north whose father is the mayor. I hope to
go to Lagos one day.

As for the Scottish accent, you might understand the slang when
written but you would have no hope when hearing the real
thing in person I have an Aussie accent (never been to the homeland), but some relatives are undecipherable.

[Supreme2k]

[tgpo]

I've tried typing in all those commands listed, and my system still works just fine

[tekkieman]

[jimmalenko]

What a sad lot we all are, debating something as trivial as this. I'm with the "he shouldn't have been banned" crew.

If you trust someone you do not know over the net that implicitly that you will blindly do whatever they tell you, then provide me with your Credit Card details, I just want proof that you are over 18 so that I know I'm talking to an adult and that your parents won't come looking for me if my advice brings down the "family" laptop that Dad needs to take with him on the road tomorrow. I won't debit your card, honest, I won't

As I've said all along, I believe that this site is wonderful and offers a plethora of information. I have always believed that in order to get help, you need to help yourself. That means research (web searches, reading, etc etc). I think it is fair to say that if you know how to get to the command prompt then you have a reasonable understanding of computers, considering win95/98/ME only has it as a Start Menu icon, and Win200/XP you need to type "cmd" at Start > Run. If you know how to get there but don't know what it is for, then don't go there in the first place.

Learning from mistakes is what computers are all about in my book. The first rule of computing that I learnt was that if you don't know what you're doing, then you shouldn't be doing it - that's what computer techs are for. Little did I know I would end up being one later in life

I learnt the hard way, and put a password at BIOS level. Of course I must have mistyped the password, because from then on, I could not even get past the BIOS. THis was before i knew about the Clear CMOS settings jumpers. A new motherboard later and I learnt never to put a password at BIOS level ever again. I'm sure just about everyone in this discussion has once done something to completely fook up their system, and learnt never to do that again.

If we start getting technical about posts that could cause harm or destruction then we shouldn't recommend installing any codecs or whatnot because they could cause your PC to hang, or install adware, etc etc.

We shouldn't recommend using a cotton tip and rubbing alcohol to clean the lense of your optical drive because you could drown the laser.

We shouldn't recommend any registry hacks because you could cause your system to be unbootable.

We shouldn't recommend any firmware hacks because they could labotomise your burner.

We shouldn't recommend any methods of cleaning DVDs because you could render them unplayable.

How trivial do we want to get ?

[BJ_M]

never put your pet hamster up your ass

[Capmaster]

never put your pet hamster up your ass

Indisputably excellent advice

[tekkieman]

never put your pet hamster up your ass

Indisputably excellent advice

No grey area there. Absolutely safe advice.

[offline]

I need a clarification on the whole issue please.

Being from where I am from, I'm not sure if you mean
ass to be a donkey or a rectum, BJ_M. This is just the first place
where your advice could cause litigation.

I can imagine a
serious kicking would ensue should one test your advice
as to the negative and approach a fully armed donkey
for the purposes of rodent anal insertion.

[Capmaster]

I need a clarification on the whole issue please.

Being from where I am from, I'm not sure if you mean
ass to be a donkey or a rectum, BJ_M. This is just the first place
where your advice could cause litigation.

I can imagine a
serious kicking would ensue should one test your advice
as to the negative and approach a fully armed donkey
for the purposes of rodent anal insertion.

We're all forgetting the hamster's rights in this. Doesn't one have the right not to be used as a butt-plug? Poor hamster....poor little Raggot

[tekkieman]

I need a clarification on the whole issue please.

Being from where I am from, I'm not sure if you mean
ass to be a donkey or a rectum, BJ_M. This is just the first place
where your advice could cause litigation.

I can imagine a
serious kicking would ensue should one test your advice
as to the negative and approach a fully armed donkey
for the purposes of rodent anal insertion.

Nope. Still no grey area as the advice was to NEVER put a hampster up your ass ( ass of any kind). Unless of course your poor donkey were to die from not receiving some critical medice the hampster was supposed to deliver to a specific target.

[bugster]

never put your pet hamster up your ass

What about somebody elses pet Hamster, or a wild one

[offline]

Nope. Still no grey area as the advice was to NEVER put a hampster up your ass

No grey area? You have just told the population of Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, and half a dozen commonwealth countries not
to stick a hampster up their Donkey.

Meanwhile, in the Northern
hemisphere, Americans, Canadians, Iranians and a host of others
have rushed to their restrooms to make sure they have not inadvertently put hamsters up their backsides.

So while you Amercians approach your donkeys, hamster in hand, without a care; we Aussies feel quite safe to stick classroom pets where the sun don't shine.

It gets worse. Not a single mention of DUCT TAPE.

You guys are gonna get your asses sued off, and by ass
I mean BJ_M and Tekkieman, not backsides or horse offspring.

[Capmaster]

Nope. Still no grey area as the advice was to NEVER put a hampster up your ass

No grey area? You have just told the population of Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, and half a dozen commonwealth countries not
to stick a hampster up their Donkey.

Meanwhile, in the Northern
hemisphere, Americans, Canadians, Iranians and a host of others
have rushed to their restrooms to make sure they have not inadvertently put hamsters up their backsides.

So while you Amercians approach your donkeys, hamster in hand, without a care; we Aussies feel quite safe to stick classroom pets where the sun don't shine.

It gets worse. Not a single mention of DUCT TAPE.

You guys are gonna get your asses sued off, and by ass
I mean BJ_M and Tekkieman, not backsides or horse offspring.

Suddenly I'm not as eager to visit down under

[tekkieman]

Nope. Still no grey area as the advice was to NEVER put a hampster up your ass

No grey area? You have just told the population of Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, and half a dozen commonwealth countries not
to stick a hampster up their Donkey.

Meanwhile, in the Northern
hemisphere, Americans, Canadians, Iranians and a host of others
have rushed to their restrooms to make sure they have not inadvertently put hamsters up their backsides.

So while you Amercians approach your donkeys, hamster in hand, without a care; we Aussies feel quite safe to stick classroom pets where the sun don't shine.

It gets worse. Not a single mention of DUCT TAPE.

You guys are gonna get your asses sued off, and by ass
I mean BJ_M and Tekkieman, not backsides or horse offspring.

I still think there is no grey area. The advice was to never stick a hampster up your ass. It never implied that it was ok to stick a hampster anywhere else. If you choose to relocate various rodents to other places, that was your choice. You received no advice to do so.

Two side points. First, it was BJ_M who offered the advice, not me. Second, if my ass were to be sued off, I would then feel perfectly safe to visit down under without fear of where the population was relocating their rodents!

Now, as for duct tape.......

[Capmaster]

Talk about a thread deteriorating

What is that phrase ..."I farted?"

I FARTED !!

[tekkieman]

Talk about a thread deteriorating

What is that phrase ..."I farted?"

I FARTED !!

And what does it smell like????

I still have it stuck in my head from Goldmember when Fat Bastard was talking about going through an apartment building and smelling what people were cooking and saying "it smells like that............plus crap!"

[Capmaster]

Talk about a thread deteriorating

What is that phrase ..."I farted?"

I FARTED !!

And what does it smell like????

I still have it stuck in my head from Goldmember when Fat Bastard was talking about going through an apartment building and smelling what people were cooking and saying "it smells like that............plus crap!"

I didn't really. It's a code used by some of the older members here for when a thread has deteriorated past the point of return. This thread has gone from an objective discussion of why someone was banned for suggesting the noob reformat c:, to inserting hamsters into nether areas. I'd say it's beyond hope

And my favorite FB quote: "I got a turtle-head poking out"