Are we to have elections here then?

Joe Offer is in some kind of official regulating position on this forum (which consumes some of his valuable time, I'm sure). I am not. I accept that I cannot control Joe Offer, nor can I control this forum, nor does it particularly worry me that I cannot always make things here exactly as I would like them to be.
How about you?
I understand your points, Shambles. I would rather those threads of mine had not been deleted...and I would have been happy to explain to certain aggrieved people who didn't like them what my intentions were...but...shrug! It just ain't that big a deal.

Well it depends on where you are coming from and your expectations. I accept that I can't control Joe Offer or indeed anyone else, but have no wish to be controlled by Joe Offer or to have our forum governed by his personal taste. When I first started posting to our forum – Joe was already a 'volunteer' loaded with his edit button but used it mainly for 'tiding up'. He posted along with everyone else and tried to set an example by the manner of his posting - which was an excellent example and one and many of us were more than happy to follow and I was one of Joe's biggest fans.

However, this has slowly changed to one where judgement, editing, deletion and moving of other peoples contributions, without their permission has become routine and folk even post only to request that someone else's contribution be censored in some fashion. Everyone seems to want to judge everyone else's right to post and appears to be being encouraged to do this – by the example being set.

Your posts were deleted from our forum – it would seem purely on a question of taste - as Joe decided in advance of any complaint being made that someone may have been offended. Your posts may not have been to my personal tastes but as they were to your taste – I would probably been of the opinion that there would have been someone out there who shared your taste and that no one has to open every thread.

This current situation, where even BS contributions are censored because they do not conform to the personal tastes of Joe or the other volunteers – who are supposed to report to Joe before taking editing action but repeatedly do not - is not an example that I am happy to follow. If I had only just come across this site – I would quickly move on.

But I have not just arrived. I feel that along with many others I have made many positive contributions and that we can all take a certain pride in (plus a few not so positive ones).

For this is OUR forum – it is not Joe's and it should reflect all of our tastes – as it always has done and not just reflect the personal tastes of a few individuals who sit in judgement. If we don't like what we post, then it is up to us to address that – by simply not posting it. By not replying to and goading obvious trouble-makers and extending the life of the thread. By not wishing to deny the freedom to others – that we would wish to have ourselves, and so on.

I feel that it is indeed time to rings some changes and to see if our baby can be allowed to finally grow up and reflect all the contributions of ALL those that create it and enable us all to be proud of it.