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* sits up and tries to tuck his intestines back in *
Oh dear god. Once more into the breach.
Thanx to all who've said nice things about the late Bill Posters. I was surprised by the number of responses, and as for the ones by Haus and MC - indeed, the issue does need to be addressed, I think, so rest assured, decomposition allowing, I will hang around long enough to do so.
Nick, I was trying to say what was on my mind, and the threads were getting deleted. Meanwhile you were swearing blind that there was no problem, and not getting deleted. Hence my recourse to metaphors. And Mordant, no, nor was I happy with the accusations which weren't quite accusations, but they could have and should have been more had it not been for those pesky deletions or locks or whatever they officially are. (Though Nietzsch, I sympathise with your "general patterns" comment on that thread.)
So, re: Haus' points:
I was getting and remain tired of Bill pulling this kind of shit and then demanding that nobody ever takes it over into real life.
Er, pots and kettles, anyone? (Pardon my racism.)
That claim [about abuse of mod power] is an attempt to denigrate my integrity - which is the kind of thing I *do* take seriously.
Agreed. This whole thing has indeed totally brought the man behind the Haus suit into the equation. I will therefore detail a couple of incidents which left me feeling dubious about either your moderation and/or moderators generally and/or the (then) moderation system generally.
1. Shortly after Xmas, a post of mine was, amongst others, deleted, apparently by you, even though it was a serious and (I thought) valid and possibly valuable one. It was in a thread which was being rotted, so to give you the benefit of the doubt, you may have just chopped the end of the thread off without reading it carefully. Nevertheless, it concerned me, it felt a bit odd, to say the least. (The topic in question was drinks, of all things, and the post related to how ginger beer is extremely popular amongst people of Carribean background here in London. I'm sorry to say I remember not which forum it was in. Possibly one on the Quibla Cola / Mecca Cola / Coca-Cola wars?) Anyway, I thought it could have gone somewhere interesting and that my proverbial chips had been pissed on.
2. Now, this is where things get both more serious, and more complex, and my knowledge of the situation (given that I know not what moderators say to one another in their private, moderating conversations) is far from total. However, around the same time, during a whopping great magickal scrap, certain allegations were made about me and various other male posters. For an individual in my position, the allegations constituted defamation in the English law sense of that term. Nietszch, your personal/magickal integrity was also called into question; I would be amazed if you do not remember. I believe you complained posts were vanishing. Haus mocked you, saying there's little point in claiming that black helicopters were taking posts. I thought that was utterly unfair considering that a moderator had obviously deleted the posts in which we defended ourselves, and for all I know, you Haus may have approved that request (can I safely assume it was not you who actually moved for it in the first place?). It was at that point that the 'Lith became, to me, well, somehow sour, not the same. And, to my shame, I did not bother to complain; if my posts were being deleted anyway, 'what's the point?', I thought to myself, and I couldn't prove a damn thing. The point is, defamatory allegations were made, and rather than allowing me (and others) a defence, they were swept under the carpet where they continue to fester. (And if anyone thinks I am being precious, there is a legal action in progress by a well-known London mage who was defamed verbally, in a similar fashion, in front of a just few people in a bar, not so long ago, never mind in front of the whole flippin' interwebnet.) Bottom line: a moderator, and one who is no expert in magick and has little or no experience of the 'magickal scene' and its wretched politics at that, mocking a non-moderator for making supposedly silly claims about black helicopters, IMHO isn't on, even if that particular moderator had no say in, perhaps no knowledge of, the deletion. (And sorry, Nietzsch, to drag you into this. It may not have been you, if not I'm sure you'll say so and I'll stand corrected.)
3. Don't take it so much as a personal attack, oh man behind the Haus. You are not the only moderator I have felt iffy about, and you know as well as I do that there can be no social relations without power, and no power without someone, somewhere, questioning it or its effects. Moreover, I think that it is still possible to exonerate your good name. All I have said is that I have been rather miffed by a coupla things which you may have been relatively well-meaning in doing, one way or the other.
4. Finally, and just out of interest, how would you feel if I deleted bits of your writing which I didn't like? (And that's addressed to all deletion fanatics, not just the chap behind the Haus suit.) The simple point of the matter is that I want to be people's equal, but not their censor (hence I refuse to moderate) and not their beyatch either. Is that unreasonable of me?
So, I'm sorry to see you go, Bill. But I'm not entirely sorry if it means I don't have to feel like you're using Barbelith as a handy place to insult and attack me
I am questioning your use of your power. I know perfectly well the feller behind the Haus suit is not so jumped-up as to think that constitutes an attack or an insult. (As for attacking the Haus 'suit, well, someone has to. I regard it as a valuable community service which few barring Rage, Mod3, JtB and myself are prepared to undertake. Think of it as a form of moderation in its own right, if you like.)
for what I suspect are somewhat murky reasons
Hmmm... . No. I don't think there are "murky reasons" here (or anywhere) - that at least is my genuine conscious impression and that's all I can say regarding that allegation.
(Oh and I've also posted on the Building A Case Against A Bad Moderator thread there, Haus / ***, you may want to check that one too.)
I'll close by saying that I'm very glad this shitstorm is becoming a constructive one and that there's some good and necessary work being done here and over in the Policy.
Note to self: Slap Bill next time you see him.
I look forward to discovering whether that's a threat or a promise tonight. ;-)
Oh and Frater Farter, hell, this place smells worse than farts now it's got a rotting zombie on the loose! |
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