Sorry you got caught in a deleted thread, Terry. This place can get pretty nasty without a bit of control, so we do what we can to keep the peace without controlling too rigidly. It's impossible for us to explain or defend our actions, because each situation is different. If everything had been running smoothly and there had been no animosity about Martin Gibson, we might well have left your "martin" thread untouched. That's not the case here and now, so we delete just about every Martin Gibson thread that gets posted. No, this is not to protect Martin or to show "tolerance" for any aggessive act or person - it's just done to keep the peace. We don't allow personal attacks - even if the target appears to deserve to be personally attacked.

You can argue against that all you want, and it's not something we can defend. There are too many factors involved. All we can do is use our judgment and do what we think we ought to do.

I do have to say that it does hurt, all this cavilling against our editorial actions. Max and Jeff and I and all the volunteers really do believe that Mudcat should be a forum for free and open discussion, and we do our best to keep it that way. However, when the forum is overwhelmed by animosity and aggression, a great number of our participants do not feel free to carry on a discussion. It's really hard to carry on a serious discussion -or even to carry on lighthearted banter - in the middle of a battleground.

So, we do our best to keep the battles toned down, with full realization some people won't like some of the things we do, and some people will NEVER like any of the things we do. We hope that most people won't even notice what we do most of the time - we want to gently and quietly nudge things so that most people can feel comfortable here.

-Joe Offer-