MacRumors allowing unsubstantiated posts about the death of another user

[Eric]

This flies right into the face of their "verification" rule and they refuse to address.

RelentlessPower made the unsubstantiated claim that Zenithal has died

Coronavirus (Covid-19) informational thread

I suspect a lot of Health professionals who were involved in studying the pandemic from the beginning, merely were mud slinging and undermining the potential damage this disease could havoc. We needed studies and more backed science, which nobody had in the very beginning stages of the...

forums.macrumors.com

There have been several subsequent posts asking for more information, none was provided. It was then reported and the response was "no action".

If you can't apply the verification rule here, where can you?

 

[SuperMatt]

This flies right into the face of their "verification" rule and they refuse to address.

RelentlessPower made the unsubstantiated claim that Zenithal has died

Coronavirus (Covid-19) informational thread

I suspect a lot of Health professionals who were involved in studying the pandemic from the beginning, merely were mud slinging and undermining the potential damage this disease could havoc. We needed studies and more backed science, which nobody had in the very beginning stages of the...

forums.macrumors.com

View attachment 8567

There have been several subsequent posts asking for more information, none was provided. It was then reported and the response was "no action".

If you can't apply the verification rule here, where can you?

I remember all these feelings. If I just point out to the mods that they aren’t enforcing their rules, they will notice, care, and do something about it.

News flash: They don’t give a . The rules are a pretense for suspending or banning people they dislike. People they like can do whatever they want. If you don’t believe me, just read through the thread on the “hoax rule” again. Then tell me that their rules mean anything.

 

[bunnspecial]

Pretty sick of an individual to post something like this in the first place unless they have absolute rock-solid proof. It takes a really disgusting person to do that, especially when it's phrased as a "Look at me, I know more than you"...

It's also equally disgusting of Macrumors to allow it to stand, but the spineless moderators are at it again with their favorite poster.

I really, really hope this isn't true.

 

[User.45]

This flies right into the face of their "verification" rule and they refuse to address.

RelentlessPower made the unsubstantiated claim that Zenithal has died

Coronavirus (Covid-19) informational thread

I suspect a lot of Health professionals who were involved in studying the pandemic from the beginning, merely were mud slinging and undermining the potential damage this disease could havoc. We needed studies and more backed science, which nobody had in the very beginning stages of the...

forums.macrumors.com

View attachment 8567

There have been several subsequent posts asking for more information, none was provided. It was then reported and the response was "no action".

If you can't apply the verification rule here, where can you?

What do you guys expect? I don't recall a single reputable person stating the "virus will disappear", most of us were talking about control. Even the stance is made up, LOL.

I'll add that SARS-CoV-2 almost exactly did what we expected it would and we are lucky AF that it's a lot less dangerous to children. We are also lucky that to date it couldn't vastly outmutate vaccines. Considering we've never had a coronavirus shot before, this is pretty impressive.

 

[Eric]

A friendly reminder that I once had a post removed because I "was asked to show proof" that most doctors agree that masks would help prevent the spread of COVID.

Yet this guy can make this claim publicly and anyone who questions it is shut down. Worthless hypocrites, it's no wonder so many have left their shitty site.

Additionally, even if this were true, why in the world would they allow it to be shared in such a way by such an untrusted user.

 

[bunnspecial]

Additionally, even if this were true, why in the world would they allow it to be shared in such a way by such an untrusted user.

I have a lot of hobbies that...well...tend to attract an older group of folks.

On most sites, the death announcement is handled let's say in a much less casual manner. I've made such announcements myself when I learned of one that likely wouldn't have made it to a source otherwise, but often it comes from family logging into an account an posting or from a friend posting.

Let's just say that death announcements typically aren't mentioned off-handedly as in "Oh, BTW, I'm going to say something about this person and by the way they died."

Something just feels strange about this whole thing too because if he's "not at liberty" to give details, whoever the source is probably wouldn't appreciate such a casual drop of the information either...

 

[Joe]

I no longer visit that site. Not gonna give them my traffic. Good riddance.

 

[Clix Pix]

To me, this is all about respect. Where is it here, in Relentless Power's ever-so casual throwing out a comment on MR that a member has died -- a remark suddenly tossed into the middle of a thread on another subject? IMHO this disrespects the member who is mentioned and his family, doesn't it? It also disrespects those members of the forum who may actually have had a connection with the member mentioned and who then are abruptly slammed with this casual comment that, oh, yeah, [member name] has passed away, too bad..... Something is very, very wrong here.

Aside from the casual announcement, the fact that there is no supporting evidence whatsoever (no link to an obituary, no comments along the lines of the information having come from reliable sources and that the family requests privacy, etc.).....only leads to confusion and it is natural for members to then question the verity of this remark in the first place. So this leaves a group of members who may have had interactions with the supposedly deceased member wondering what is going on, even as they are already beginning to grieve the loss of a friend.

If the news of the death is true, that's one thing; if it is NOT true, that is quite another isn't it? There is the (hopeful) possibility that the member who was so off-handedly and casually dismissed as having passed away is in fact very much alive. I am sure that the casual announcement of his death on a forum in which he has been pretty active over the years would come as a surprise to him! Again, the issue of respect comes into play. doesn't it? Why was this "news" of his supposed death allowed to happen in the first place and to remain written in a couple of posts on the thread when there has been no supporting evidence one way or the other? Isn't this disrespectful to a member, whether actually the person in question is actually deceased or still alive?

In this situation it's a matter of considering the source, and if in this instance, the source, another member of the site, has not produced evidence that what he stated is in fact true, then isn't this behavior, especially the cavalier way in which he casually made the announcement in the first place, breaking more than a few of MR's guidelines/policies/rules/laws when it comes to treating other members (deceased or alive and still participating) with respect?

 

[bunnspecial]

I am sure that the casual announcement of his death on a forum in which he has been pretty active over the years would come as a surprise to him!

If in fact he is still alive, which I hope is the case(and am optimistic considering Sceptical Scribe's recent contact), I wonder what the reaction/response would be if he himself were to report the post.

It seems like saying "Hey, this guy said I'm dead but I'm not" would be a god reason to at least take the post down, but then this is MR we are talking about.

 

[Herdfan]

I have a lot of hobbies that...well...tend to attract an older group of folks.

On most sites, the death announcement is handled let's say in a much less casual manner. I've made such announcements myself when I learned of one that likely wouldn't have made it to a source otherwise, but often it comes from family logging into an account an posting or from a friend posting.

The one I remember was at DBSTalk and it was announced by a Mod.

 

[Eric]

The one I remember was at DBSTalk and it was announced by a Mod.

Right or announced properly by a well known and trusted member of the site. Not in the middle of a thread blurted out of nowhere in passing by a narcissistic blowhard, it's not just RP (we expect that from him), the bigger issue is that staff has allowed it when they've penalized so many of us for not providing citations for so much less.

 

[bunnspecial]

Here's such a death announcement on another forum a frequent. These have unfortunately become all too numerous in the past few years, but this is a common way it's handled at least in my circles

Jeffery RIP.

It is with great sadness that I report the passing of dear friend Jeffery Ollswang of Milwaukee Wi. on April 7 th. I have known Jeff for over 30 years. We have attended countless local, Chapter, Regional, and National events with Jeffery and his wife Lynn. Our group at the Regional, and National...

mb.nawcc.org

The member posting that is a good friend of mine(a really good friend-as in he and his wife were on the guest list at my wedding even though COVID kept them from attending, I talk to him 2-3/month, and have stayed at their house...not an RP "Maybe I've exchanged a few PMs with you" friend), and he had called me with the news a day or two prior to posting that. It often "circulates" before an official announcement is made.

 

[Eric]

Turns out Zenithal is alive and Relentless Power did lie after all. Not sure what sort of pull he has with moderators over there but he gets away with everything. They covered for him, removed the posts, including this one, and swept it under the rug.

 

[Thomas Veil]

Sorry if this has been covered, but I haven't been over there in a long time.

Does Zenithal know everything that went down? If not, shouldn't he be notified? After all, we do have the screen grab that Eric wisely took (see first post in this thread).

From what I do know, this sounds like pretty convincing (albeit circumstantial) evidence that hieveryone ↔︎ Multi Millionaire ↔︎ Relentless Power. A large dollop of that belief is how neatly this lines up with that post in which MM tried to claim he was taking over control of this site.

As for MR and its so-called moderators...fuck them.

 

[Thomas Veil]

Hmm. I just noticed (per Scepticalscribe) that Zenithal has his contacts limited. Guess there's no way to tell him.

 

[SuperMatt]

People should make posts that Arn is dead and that Weaselboy is actually a bot and was never a real person to begin with. It’s allowed, right?

 

[Thomas Veil]

Not a bad idea, although I'm sure those would magically vanish too.

But if you're gonna purposely get yourself banned from MR and want to do it with flare, that's the way to go about it.

 

[bunnspecial]

hieveryone ↔︎ Multi Millionaire ↔︎ Relentless Power

I'm not sure about the hieveryone<->Relentless Power connection, as the posting styles are very different although they also have very made-up personas.

I think we can feel confident that Multi Millionaire is Relentless Power, though. The posting styles, the stupidity paired with extreme confidence, and the repetitive use of a single given "big word" in a post totally out of context all seem to add up.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Sorry if this has been covered, but I haven't been over there in a long time.

Does Zenithal know everything that went down? If not, shouldn't he be notified? After all, we do have the screen grab that Eric wisely took (see first post in this thread).

From what I do know, this sounds like pretty convincing (albeit circumstantial) evidence that hieveryone ↔︎ Multi Millionaire ↔︎ Relentless Power. A large dollop of that belief is how neatly this lines up with that post in which MM tried to claim he was taking over control of this site.

As for MR and its so-called moderators...fuck them.

Given that he (Zenithal) wrote three PMs to me today (mostly about Ukraine), I thought it best to notify him; that is, assuming that he returns to his account to read my reply, so yes, I have informed him of what transpired, and advised him to contact Arn if this whole sorry saga concerned him.

Today was clearly a day set aside for catching up with MR related communications, as both @DT and I received DMs from Zenithal, who rarely visits MR these days.

Zenithal had written to me (by DM) as recently as mid August of this year, which is why I was sceptical about accounts of his death - however, he hadn't posted publicly on MR since the previous August; RP's egregious post was posted on September 4.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Right or announced properly by a well known and trusted member of the site. Not in the middle of a thread blurted out of nowhere in passing by a narcissistic blowhard, it's not just RP (we expect that from him), the bigger issue is that staff has allowed it when they've penalized so many of us for not providing citations for so much less.

Here's such a death announcement on another forum a frequent. These have unfortunately become all too numerous in the past few years, but this is a common way it's handled at least in my circles

Jeffery RIP.

It is with great sadness that I report the passing of dear friend Jeffery Ollswang of Milwaukee Wi. on April 7 th. I have known Jeff for over 30 years. We have attended countless local, Chapter, Regional, and National events with Jeffery and his wife Lynn. Our group at the Regional, and National...

mb.nawcc.org

The member posting that is a good friend of mine(a really good friend-as in he and his wife were on the guest list at my wedding even though COVID kept them from attending, I talk to him 2-3/month, and have stayed at their house...not an RP "Maybe I've exchanged a few PMs with you" friend), and he had called me with the news a day or two prior to posting that. It often "circulates" before an official announcement is made.

Of course it is possible to announce the death of a member of a site, as long as it is done with knowledge (that you know that this person has actually passed away), and the right to do so (a close friend, family, kin, someone who has appropriate authority) and is done with respect.

On MR itself, I recall a few occasions where a death (a legitimate death, a real death) was announced; one that I remember was when CalWizard's son posted to let us know that his father (whom some of us knew was ill) had passed away.

But, to post such an announcement, in a casual aside, is deeply disrespectful and grotesquely irresponsible. It is also downright weird - what a extraordinary thing to do, and to want to do.

Well done, @Eric on reviving this thread.