Froggystyle
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2007
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I had a great Executive Officer take over the reigns of SEAL Team One while I was there. We have a reputation for being "No Fun One" or "Stalag One" because we tended to keep shit wrapped tighter than the other two West Coast teams at the time. More history, more professionalism to a degree but less fun for sure.
During my second platoon, we had gotten kind of lax. We didn't have a war, Clinton was an asshole, we weren't very well funded and we were getting a microscope shined on us with the interest of getting more congressional awareness and more funding. Taking off early was the norm, and they had gotten us this great new building built with platoon spaces where we once had CONEX boxes, and individual cages for your gear and as your personal space instead of a crappy wall locker that didn't breathe. It was a real step up, and we rewarded them by covering the cages in porn, having beer in the platoon fridges and piles of it pretty visible and an overall lackadaisical attitude.
Then this new guy took over and tried to tighten things back up. Keep in mind, you have never seen a group of people that resist authority with greater vengeance than a SEAL team.
He locked the back gate (our escape route) until 4:00 pm every day. Started requiring uniform inspections of some sort every week, and when we didn't do it he made them command-wide. Haircuts, shined boots etc... I hadn't worn my blues or whites in years. Had to buy them in fact. Shit... everyone did. We were SOOOOO pissed. People are quoting Patton about how a unit ready for battle can't pass inspection etc... But he whipped us into shape, and pretty soon everyone was passing all inspections, we had a full set of uniforms, order was re-established.
As a perfect example of resistance to change, the guys all hated the idea of taking down the porn. Seemed like a real guy thing to have up, there were no women there and it kept visitors out. When the mandate came down the pipe, half of the porn came down, with the idea that people had different definitions of porn. So, more rules came down that you couldn't have any pictures in your locker that wasn't of family. So "Smitty" leaves up a brutally raunchy pic of some hot chick spreading for the camera with an autograph on it "To Smitty, love, your Sister..."
It got taken down...
It also seems like something I would do around here in the face of new rules and shit...
Once it had gotten all dialed back in over the course of a couple of months, the XO called a meeting of all hands. The meeting was short and sweet, and it was talking about specifically the kind of effort it took to get back to professional. The kind of effort it took on all parts to do this. He left me with two key takeaways I will never forget... and which seem to apply to RDP right now, and particularly with the introduction of LSDp.
"The pendulum never stops in the middle"
Seems so easy, but it is so true for almost everything. It will get too lax, then it will get too strict. It will get too angry, then it will get too boring. The pendulum swung all the way out because of a couple of people who played a huge role in the tone of the whole board. The owner and a couple of heavy hitter posters. One got his nose bent out of shape irrationally, and started casting a lot of false accusations. To keep the peace, the board owner put a kybosh on it instead of stomping a mud hole, and the backlash from a lot of folks, including myself was pretty significant.
The breaking point that Dave got to was tragically foreseeable. It is what happens when internet meets reality. Throw in some full blown crazy and you have a very volatile situation that currently still exists and nobody wants to see escalate. There has been a lot of side-choosing, but as with many altercations, there was a lot of hatred and animosity that boiled to the surface in one episode. Instead of being confronted by a single event, 2FF now finds himself looking down the barrel of several wronged members who are coming to light separately to draw a much clearer composite picture of a seriously disturbing series of forum and real world related events.
Things will swing back toward the middle after this, but I feel that a lot of people have been waiting a long time to say their piece regarding 2FF and Brown... and they said it for the most part. The feeling we all have right now is like a Daddy punched Mommy moment, where all the kids are trying to figure out what that means for Christmas...
"It takes the whole team to raise the bar, but one person to let it drop..."
I am reminded of this recently more than anything else. If we want the pendulum to slow it's roll toward the middle, we are gonna have to work on it. I don't like moderation for the most part, but I strangely like being moderated. It gives me a limit to push on, and a consequence to consider. Unchecked, an unmoderated forum would go critical pretty quickly I think. I don't think it would lead to anywhere good in any case. Threads need to be locked, or deleted, and they need to be chilled sometimes. Some of the best fights are the ones where it's clear nobody is gonna back down and their friends break it up so they can all stay in the bar. Nobody looses face, and the hostility has been expressed. Most people stay clear from then on out, or they eventually take it around back and exchange dentist bills, which sometimes has to happen.
The world we live in has real world consequences to your actions. There is nobody on here that I wish ill will to, but there are a ton of people on here that I literally have zero interest in meeting in person. Their attitudes on here I believe are indicative of their attitudes in real life, and so they can stand in line to go fuck themselves as far as I am concerned.
Conversely, there are a couple on here that I absolutely can't wait to meet, including but not limited to JBB and FBT. But I exist on here knowing that I will likely meet you folks in real life at some point, and I will likely have to answer a few questions or suffer a few jokes because of my content... I promise you this... you won't be surprised to meet me. You'll know it's me.
I say we all work toward acting like this board has some consequences in our lives. Let's take it out of the abstract and put it in our living rooms. I want the Lighter Side to succeed, primarily because I can't stand these fucking ladymen bitching about how everything is too harsh and they just want to be here and have a good time. I would like to have a place to take a football, not THE football mind you... just another football and play some real fucking full contact sport and leave the two hand touch to the lounge.
Just know that every now and then a ref has to step in and throw a flag for unnecessary roughness, or those little spats would lead to some serious injury for nobodies benefit except bloodsport. It's my least favorite thing about Hockey.
Just my thoughts...
During my second platoon, we had gotten kind of lax. We didn't have a war, Clinton was an asshole, we weren't very well funded and we were getting a microscope shined on us with the interest of getting more congressional awareness and more funding. Taking off early was the norm, and they had gotten us this great new building built with platoon spaces where we once had CONEX boxes, and individual cages for your gear and as your personal space instead of a crappy wall locker that didn't breathe. It was a real step up, and we rewarded them by covering the cages in porn, having beer in the platoon fridges and piles of it pretty visible and an overall lackadaisical attitude.
Then this new guy took over and tried to tighten things back up. Keep in mind, you have never seen a group of people that resist authority with greater vengeance than a SEAL team.
He locked the back gate (our escape route) until 4:00 pm every day. Started requiring uniform inspections of some sort every week, and when we didn't do it he made them command-wide. Haircuts, shined boots etc... I hadn't worn my blues or whites in years. Had to buy them in fact. Shit... everyone did. We were SOOOOO pissed. People are quoting Patton about how a unit ready for battle can't pass inspection etc... But he whipped us into shape, and pretty soon everyone was passing all inspections, we had a full set of uniforms, order was re-established.
As a perfect example of resistance to change, the guys all hated the idea of taking down the porn. Seemed like a real guy thing to have up, there were no women there and it kept visitors out. When the mandate came down the pipe, half of the porn came down, with the idea that people had different definitions of porn. So, more rules came down that you couldn't have any pictures in your locker that wasn't of family. So "Smitty" leaves up a brutally raunchy pic of some hot chick spreading for the camera with an autograph on it "To Smitty, love, your Sister..."
It got taken down...
It also seems like something I would do around here in the face of new rules and shit... Once it had gotten all dialed back in over the course of a couple of months, the XO called a meeting of all hands. The meeting was short and sweet, and it was talking about specifically the kind of effort it took to get back to professional. The kind of effort it took on all parts to do this. He left me with two key takeaways I will never forget... and which seem to apply to RDP right now, and particularly with the introduction of LSDp.
"The pendulum never stops in the middle"
Seems so easy, but it is so true for almost everything. It will get too lax, then it will get too strict. It will get too angry, then it will get too boring. The pendulum swung all the way out because of a couple of people who played a huge role in the tone of the whole board. The owner and a couple of heavy hitter posters. One got his nose bent out of shape irrationally, and started casting a lot of false accusations. To keep the peace, the board owner put a kybosh on it instead of stomping a mud hole, and the backlash from a lot of folks, including myself was pretty significant.
The breaking point that Dave got to was tragically foreseeable. It is what happens when internet meets reality. Throw in some full blown crazy and you have a very volatile situation that currently still exists and nobody wants to see escalate. There has been a lot of side-choosing, but as with many altercations, there was a lot of hatred and animosity that boiled to the surface in one episode. Instead of being confronted by a single event, 2FF now finds himself looking down the barrel of several wronged members who are coming to light separately to draw a much clearer composite picture of a seriously disturbing series of forum and real world related events.
Things will swing back toward the middle after this, but I feel that a lot of people have been waiting a long time to say their piece regarding 2FF and Brown... and they said it for the most part. The feeling we all have right now is like a Daddy punched Mommy moment, where all the kids are trying to figure out what that means for Christmas...
"It takes the whole team to raise the bar, but one person to let it drop..."
I am reminded of this recently more than anything else. If we want the pendulum to slow it's roll toward the middle, we are gonna have to work on it. I don't like moderation for the most part, but I strangely like being moderated. It gives me a limit to push on, and a consequence to consider. Unchecked, an unmoderated forum would go critical pretty quickly I think. I don't think it would lead to anywhere good in any case. Threads need to be locked, or deleted, and they need to be chilled sometimes. Some of the best fights are the ones where it's clear nobody is gonna back down and their friends break it up so they can all stay in the bar. Nobody looses face, and the hostility has been expressed. Most people stay clear from then on out, or they eventually take it around back and exchange dentist bills, which sometimes has to happen.
The world we live in has real world consequences to your actions. There is nobody on here that I wish ill will to, but there are a ton of people on here that I literally have zero interest in meeting in person. Their attitudes on here I believe are indicative of their attitudes in real life, and so they can stand in line to go fuck themselves as far as I am concerned.
Conversely, there are a couple on here that I absolutely can't wait to meet, including but not limited to JBB and FBT. But I exist on here knowing that I will likely meet you folks in real life at some point, and I will likely have to answer a few questions or suffer a few jokes because of my content... I promise you this... you won't be surprised to meet me. You'll know it's me.
I say we all work toward acting like this board has some consequences in our lives. Let's take it out of the abstract and put it in our living rooms. I want the Lighter Side to succeed, primarily because I can't stand these fucking ladymen bitching about how everything is too harsh and they just want to be here and have a good time. I would like to have a place to take a football, not THE football mind you... just another football and play some real fucking full contact sport and leave the two hand touch to the lounge.
Just know that every now and then a ref has to step in and throw a flag for unnecessary roughness, or those little spats would lead to some serious injury for nobodies benefit except bloodsport. It's my least favorite thing about Hockey.
Just my thoughts...
