There is more for me to review before I fully engage this delightful conversation, but I just wanted to quickly remind all of you that we do not owe you an explanation. Or anything else for that matter.

You see, what happens here, in most of these threads in questions, is a recreational activity known as rhetoric. One sees something on the news or pulls something right from their ass and declares "I contend that this is thus." not because they necessarily do believe that this is thus, but it marks the start of an instance of the game. Think high school debate class. I once successfully argued and won a debate FOR slavery. Please note that me being the better participant does not change the ethics or truth surrounding the issue of slavery.

So when I am asked to give an explanation for why we do the things we do, I am hearing "Come play the game with us."

Now, I am not saying that is what you did here John P, but it delights the players who ready to pick apart our words looking for inconsistencies and duplicity, weakness or other exploitation of policy for a forum built by a 23 year old kid about traditional music, not international politics.

We simply don't have time to play. We're sorry. We are musicologists, enthusiasts, historians and folklorists trying to do research and provide accessibility and preservation here. We're NOT trained, educated, certified or qualified as ideologues, referees, debate coaches or forum moderators and we're doing the best we can towards a goal none of you are even considering.

I actually specifically and strategically obfuscate our policies, finances, procedures, organization structure, tactics, goals and purpose, just so the players are not empowered to fight stupidly with their fine host.

Since no one in their right mind would finance the BS section, it is provided as a luxury by me. I host it and pay for it and defend its existence from my own volunteers and mentors let alone members and guests. I was taught that folklore and tradition cannot be separated from the community in which it is shared, so the BS section was the host of the non-music portion of that community that could later be referenced for personality and perspectives archived in the music section.

Hopefully I have lived a life, participated in my community and generally been visible enough so that if in 100 years someone stumbles over my successful bid for slavery, even though all those words they held in their hands expertly and positively stated such, there will be enough laying about that they'll know that I, me the person, the human being, did not WANT slavery to be allowed.

However, as it is, fewer and fewer folks are agreeing with me about the BS section and Guest Posting, and I am losing patience myself.

Folks like Bluesman are simply cheating at the game by being anonymous they have no accountability therefore anyone of any merit would disqualify every single one of his statements, yet I see fine fine people being worked into a frenzy and the whole lot of us being dragged through the mud for it. There are no consequences for an anonymous man to be wrong, or an idiot.

Bluesman is playing a different game, however, he believes in nothing other than the opposite of what you most strongly do. So with no consequences to his person or reputation possible, he aggressively argues his side, for which we are clear by his anonymity that he is ashamed of. That is cowardice and its defense mechanism on display, for which I feel pathetic and experience pity rather than anger when he speaks. His aim is to make you be willing to publicly humiliate yourself, lose all candor, expose your dogma, be irrational, express anger so that you end up with equal and opposite extreme paths and viewpoints to his radical ideologies game-starting-contentions.

So, in summary, BS threads are a luxury not a right. They are provided and financed by me... you are welcome. We close them when we see something that concerns us. PERIOD. This is not a democracy, we will not open this for public debate. We are sure in our path and sure we are doing right because we are audited yearly by Karma Guard (tm). We have a well respected system of checks and balances and have scored "righteous" on each of the last 5 Karma Analysis with our policies and practices. That's the most we can offer you as reassurance that we are thoughtful, fair, up and up, not slanted, no favoritism, no cultural, political, religious or gender bias within our moderation practices. We work harder at it that you could possibly imagine and strive to get better at it every day. We mourn every single edit, deletion, closure, and interjection and always attempt a human solution over an authoritative or technical one.

It's just that not all of you are human.

And I must admit. I absolutely love and am endlessly amused at the absurd brilliance of this thread being closed.

more soon. ~max