at least on this issue. There's an unfortunate GBCW currently at the top of the rec list that misrepresents a recent diary and its content, and has led to a backlash against a group of users that doesn't deserve it at all. This is an attempt to set that record straight.
Update: If you don't want to read the whole thing, here's the quick summary by banjolele:
The RKBA community stood up to an easily-documented troll, and Fishgrease got caught up in the crossfire.
That is exactly it. I hope FG reconsiders his decision to leave, and I hope that users who are taking this particular incident out on the RKBA group reconsider, given the information below.
Here's the misinformation:
Yesterday, a fine Kossack posted a fine diary (which I will not link) wherein he simply and briefly related the facts surrounding a case where a twelve year-old child was killed with an poorly secured firearm. The comments section of that diary was immediately taken over by a cabal known as the Motherfucking Daily Kos Gun Club.
First, I think this user would be surprised that Fishgrease, or anyone else for that matter, considers him "a fine Kossack", given that none of the user's 10 diaries to that point, all dropped in the middle of the night, mostly devoid of content, and primarily driving traffic back to his own site, had ever garnered more than 10 recs before, exactly zero of which were from Fishgrease. Nor has the user dropped more than 2 comments outside his own diaries, so it's not like he's built relationships outside his own work.
Second, he's been trolling the site for weeks now. I use the term "trolling" with full awareness of what that term means. He's currently in the Hiddens for his latest masterpiece, a list of links back to his own website. More typically, he posts a paragraph of content from a recent news story, writes a couple lines to flip the bird at gun owners, and disappears until the next day, wash, rinse, repeat.
But don't take my word for it... Here's one. Here's another. Here's another. Every night, just like this. But surely this is a "fine Kossack".
You have an argument against gun policies, you make an argument. But if you're going to pop in, night after night, and sling a few lines of insult without contributing to the discussion - and primarily to drive traffic back to your own site - then I'm going to accuse you of trolling this website.
So the situation was primed yesterday for disaster, when the author dropped another of his non-diaries at the usual crowd of frustrated readers (again, don't take my word for it). Fishgrease jumped in without knowing this context, and in his very first comment, called 2nd Amendment defenders "assholes" - an insult he later retracted (to his credit), but you know how these things go. I don't blame RKBA for their reaction in that diary, and they do not deserve all the abuse they're getting in the current one. At all.
Agree or disagree, RKBA has worked hard on this site to make 2nd amendment issues accessible for discussion without the overheated rhetoric that usually accompanies this kind of debate. In return, they've gotten constant abuse from a small group of users who've gone into their diaries to stir shit. Now, in typical dailykosian form, there's a wave of anger directed at them that I can't imagine will end well. And for what?
Final disclosure: I am not a member of RKBA. I am not a gun owner. I am, however, disgusted with the abuse that fellow members of this community are having to face because Fishgrease decided he wanted to leave. That is all.