I first started posting to this forum in 1999, and I stuck around because there was an ongoing and intelligent discussion of music, a spirit of fun, and frankly, a sense that anything short of obscenity and personal attack was acceptable. Mainly though, I kept coming back because of the type of people this forum attracted. Mudcatters were about as accepting and non-judgemental a bunch as I have ever known. I have developed lasting friendships here, even though I have met very few of you in real life.
Those I have had the pleasure of meeting have uniformly proven to be everything they seemed to be in the Forum. These people include Roger and his wife, who came to my house for dinner some years back. I can't claim to be interested in all of the things Roger has passionate opinions about, but over the years I have enjoyed the times when we have conversed in these threads, and I would certainly miss his presence here.
His point, for those of you who are having trouble following it, seens to me to be concerned with censorship in the Forum, and more particularly with the conditions in which that censorship is applied. In addition, it is concerned with an atmosphere of personal attack which has always been an element here, even if a suppressed one. I have witnessed personal attack used against several people whom I like very much, and frankly, it pisses me off. Many people who are confronted by these attacks will simply ignore them, or stop posting altogether.
Obviously, Roger won't do that. Roger has the need, relentless as he may be, convoluted as he can be, to air his feelings and opinions. What he is saying is : Don't fucking respond if you object to it. Don't post! I am certain that what some see as deliberate trolling by Roger is, in fact, a heartfelt concern and burning desire to make his case. You can't tell me that, with thread titles like "What Time is it where You Are?" or "The Shatnerization of North Carolina", Roger's threads are extroardinarily inane or are using up critical bandwidth, or that their titles need to be altered for clarity. I don't know or care what the issue was with the interruption of the "Closing Threads" thread.
I just think its time to stop acting like a band of third graders throwing rocks at Roger during recess.