You can clearly see where I have been trolled by it in this thread. It's trolling the entire board right now, and I don't think this thread will be the end of it unless it is changed. I did ask a Mod of this forum to look into it a couple days ago.
You haven't been trolled by anything. You clearly don't understand what trolling is. There was no intent to anger or bait you or anybody else. You're annoyed by something and don't like it. That's not sufficient reason to start banning avs and handing out warnings. There are threads on this board I find annoying too. I stay out of those threads. I suggest you do the same.
If you are not satisfied with this course of action feel free to start a thread in QSF debating the appropriateness of the av. That's where any further discussion on this matter needs to go since it's a board wide issue.
I suppose it would be best not to chime in at all, but --
This thread started as a relatively humorous rant that Scotty was black based on how he looked in the poster (at least I'm assuming that).
Mr. Cogley did not intend offense by his avatar. Most probably think it's just
Sam being
Sam. But, I'd have to think he knows that the minstrel blackface is probably
not a good source of humor. The image can offend. It simply carries too much baggage to be a source of humor, especially for something as frivolous as this thread, or the entire Trek BBS, for that matter.
The minstrel shows began in the 1830s, long before Jolson, by whites in blackface. They started many of the popular sterotypes of blacks that even continue today. And when blacks were finally allowed in minstrel shows, they had to play to the sterotype, and it was advertised to the public as a view of black life.
The avatar may not be trolling, but it does trivialize what the blackface has come to stand for.
Just my two cents from the peanut gallery. I'm done.
However, the idea of Mr. T as Scotty is funny:
Kirk: Scotty, we need more power.
Scott: I pitty the fool who thinks there's more power in these engines.