Well, I don't know about the sky falling katlaughing, but a bogus crisis has been created by Joe and the clones regarding what is and what isn't "acceptable" posting of BS threads. More invisible rules, know only to those who create and enforce them, that the rest of us never knew existed. Rules that still haven't been defined. To solve problems that have yet to be identified as problems by anyone except Joe and the clones.

And one thing is for fucking sure, if the forum is going to be moderated, it certainly needs some non-American moderators, who understand irony and don't take every little thing like the opening post of this thread, or the original "Terror alert: Purple haze" thread that started Bruce off, so literally. According to Joe, the problem with that thread and it's original post was that it didn't give the author's opinion or position on the subject, or some such bullshit.   Bruce complained about the deletion of the thread, not me (the thread originator).

It would help if the moderators of the forum were both politically and socially tolerant and astute. A large part of the "problem" they have created has come about because they are neither. And that, to a large extent, is what has caused this faux "crisis" that Joe and the clones claim they are responding to with the new jack boot rules. Intolerance lack of political astuteness on Joe & the clones' part.

One thing that isn't getting recognized here is the problem of just dumping all politically related BS, all Iraq and all PEL threads into one daily thread. It totally destroys the continuity necessary to have a thread that is of value to anyone. When a thread goes over a hundred posts, most people stop reading them because everything has already been said at least twice, and the thread becomes repetitive. So when we see 300+ post threads on Iraq still getting posts moved to them by Joe and clones, Joe and the clones have effectively censored the discussion. Nothing substantially different from what is already being said, is being discussed in those uber threads after 100 posts.

Another problem with the consolidation/deletion tactic for threads on subjects like Iraq, especially in light of the de facto forum moderators lack of political knowledge and acumen, is that Joe and the clones do not now, and likely never will, appreciate the subtle differences in one thread, being spun off to another thread for discussion. The reason we have for doing that isn't to make ourselves a pain in the ass. We are doing it because that is proper netiquette. There is such a fine line between natural thread drift, and thread hijacking, and Joe and the clones seem to be totally ignoring the very creative and civil ways that the posters to the political, Iraq, and PEL threads are already dealing with the thread drift/thread hijacking issue on their own. Or I should say, had been dealing with the issue until the new jack boot rules were imposed.

Like I said in the "Thread Proliferation Thread" I shudder to think what would have happened to the Drumcree threads under "the new rules". I can't think of another series of BS threads started here which have been more full of frivolity, a darker and more ironic sense of humor regarding the musicians being skewed in the threads, and a better parody of Mudcat that wasn't understood by so many of the Mudcat insiders, who are now dictating to the rest of the forum's users, what is and isn't an "acceptable" way to start a new thread.   

But maybe katlaughing, you didn't get the joke of the Drumcree threads, because they parodied Mudcat members like you, who were bellowing and complaining so loudly about anonymous guests who also post using multiple identities, starting multiple, frivolous threads about the same political subjects over and over again, like the Northern Ireland threads, that cause heated debates here in the forum.

The Drumcree threads would be gone in no time for sure now, because those threads fit every single "problem" Joe has outlined with the BS threads. Every single one of them.

Long live the Drumcree threads? Nah. The "new Mudcat" wouldn't allow a Drumcree thread to last beyond an hour.