Total Solar Eclipse 8-21-2017

To be fair, I didn't find anything particularly strange about the post itself (the "are you sure you weren't dreaming" one). Seemed like a normal question to ask given the circumstances. Still the way the account behaved overall was a little funny.

On Tuesday, July 9th, 2019 at 7:03 pm, SirAuron said:

Okay, I read that post before any of lam's other posts (because it's the one in her profile as the last post), and I will admit that the only thing that stuck-out to me at all was the last line. And that didn't even stick-out that much.

BUT, once you read all of the other posts, the last post seems more intriguing since it seems so much more serious and cryptic than the others. The only other post that really grabs me in that way is her post about the Mona Lisa and how she suddenly understood the expression the girl in the picture was making one day. That was interesting.

But I do have one interesting note. Just one minute before responding to this thread, lam posted in the chat (saying "yes it's not busy"). Unfortunately, I can't see the exact time (eg: including seconds) of her post in chat and then her post on this topic, but I find it hard to believe she came up with that zinger in one minute. Closing the chat, finding this thread, (presumably) reading a couple of responses, and then typing a fairly wordy response seems a challenge to do in one to two minutes. Soooo this leads me to believe that lam had that response ready before they even logged-in on December 4, 2017. Of course, she could've read about Helena's earthquake post before she logged-in, but I think the bottom line is that it would be hard to type a cryptic message in such a small amount of time.

Also, the chat message seems a bit different from her other ones. "yes it's not busy" almost sounds brisk, when most of her messages in the chat range from casual to silly.

Although it's not a hard and fast rule, we're usually discouraged from talking about banned users. I realize this topic has been active in here so I'll assume there's some leeway here.

The "Yes it's not busy" chat line was a little out of place but I think it was an expression of "oh, as usual, no one to talk to in here". It's, admittedly, a really unusual way to phrase it.

The response about the earthquake made sense to me. Helena was talking about an earthquake that she and everybody near her felt but it vanished from the news (USGS records and local news web sites deleted their articles about it). Something like that could have been a dream if Helena and some others hadn't found mention of it elsewhere online. Maybe Lam didn't catch that part of the discussion.

I in no way want to sound confrontational or brusque in saying this but I'm picking up an "overthinking" vibe. Is the theory that Elisa Lam is posting from beyond the grave here?

To Nitro: Also, again, not trying to be argumentative but I think you jumped the gun in banning Lam's account. Sure it's weird they have things in their profile about it but they don't seem to have broken any rules or disrupted the forums in any way. Just like in the early days, I think being quick to ban people for arbitrary reasons does not create a very welcoming environment.

Hopefully I don't sound too harsh with this. I've been struggling all day at work trying to come up with a way to express this and need to get it out so I can get back on task.

Everyone, the main reason that speaking of banned users is frowned upon is because they cannot post in here to defend themselves if people say negative things about them. If things go too far, it could be considered defamation, so let's be mindful of that. At the very minimum it is bad form to talk about people behind their backs.

Wolfwood, I actually agree about the ban. I am going to lift it because, while the account's profile details are strange, they did not break the rules and, as you said, banning people without a very good reason does indeed create an unwelcoming environment. This isn't Discord, after all.

Now... the fact that the account contains information that unmistakably alludes to the Elisa Lam incident at the Cecil Hotel is very strange. At best, it's irreverent. Still, if that is all there is to it, I see no reason to ban this individual from participating in our community.

I will take full responsibility for making that rash decision.

It may be unnecessary to point this out but this discussion has veered off-topic.

Frankly, this subject matter comes off as disrespectful and I agree with Lexica. Best to drop it.