I'm surprised this has gone on for as long as it has. There have literally been 92 posts from tocky since this started, all lunacy, all pollution. No one has time to decrypt this stuff.
At first I just thought he was having a bad trip or something. But this is some fantastic trolling, intentional or not.
If this was another user, another time, they would have been banned a week ago. How many double posts? How many necro'd threads? Moderators shit talked?
Most of all, rule one is don't be an ass. I feel like 92 posts of raving fit that criteria.
What does all of this communicate to prospective members?
I had a crippling depression once myself. I pulled myself out of it and came back to reality. I've also tripped many times on many things. On none of those occassions did I think it would be appropriate to express myself in a rational forum like this. What a waste of time that would be for everyone.
Most people understand on a fundamental level when they're in a mental state that is not conducive to rational communication. Probably everyone here has miscommunicated at least once, or made a mistake of etiquette. But occasionally someone is continually blind to their lack of etiquette, or they don't care, and it always ends in the forum being without that member for a time. Which is good for everyone—the forum is quiet again, and that person is given the opportunity to gain perspective.
Joker can be related to pixels, paperclips can be related to life. I am open-minded enough to listen to this. But the connection must be drawn through logic. And to be relevant, it should probably have some use to people. Otherwise, who cares? It's just noise. If any of this were sound, even if it rocked the boat, or revolutionized the way we look at pixels, everyone would listen carefully and there would be a fruitful discussion, as has been the case so many times.
None of it is sound. It's just games with semantics.
This community, to me, is many things... among them, a group of role models, people who think more carefully than I do. I prize this forum because it's always been a center of rational, methodical thought. I speak for myself but I suspect there are others; all of this sudden, senseless noise is nothing but a distraction. I really don't see why this should continue.
Pollution is the word that comes to mind.