What you propose is a very complicated process for approval of what is essentially a non-issue for most of us.

There is nothing at all complicated in being open.

On what basis do you maintain that censorship on our forum (with 600+ posts on the subject in this thread alone and the countless others) is a non-issue for most of us'? It rather depends of what the question is.

Do you feel that you speak for 'most of us' here. And if you do - do you think that is enough? Should not you be really concerned about ALL of 'us'?

Censorship is thought very much an issue for you and your volunteers - who feel qualified to impose their judgement upon their fellow posters - so why do you think it should it be any less of an issue for most Mudcatters who are subject to it?

If there is nothing to hide - why make it look as if there is?

Joe what I publicly propose to our open forum here and you dismiss - is a very modest and sensible move for many reasons - will you at least consider it?

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Yes, I did consider your proposal, Shambles - and I gave a thoughtful, well-reasoned response on more than one occasion. Now, can you find other people who will give thoughtful, well-reasoned responses in support of your proposal?

No, we have nothing to hide. What makes you think we have any reason to hide anything? Why would any of us bother to hide the editorial work we do? On the other hand, since we operate under a general atmosphere of trust and respect, why should we be required to document our every action as if we were under suspicion of committing a felony? Our editorial actions are tracked by Mudcat software and reviewed and controlled by Max, Jeff, and Joe - isn't that enough? Should I be compelled to post a lengthy public explanation of every HTML correction I make, every line break I add? Must I be required to post full details and defense of every personal attack, spam message, and racist post deletion I make? And if I were to do that, would it make sense? If you do not trust and respect the people who do the administrative work here, why in the world do you spend your time here?

I have to admit that there's something addictive here - something that drives me to respond to Shambles, against my better judgment. To me, my counter-arguments always seem to compelling, so logical, so satisfying, so polite... I feel so sure I'm going to win this game of chess, sooner or later. I'm just sure that one day Shambles is going to admit that I am absolutely brilliant. And then Shambles short-circuits the laws of logic and starts everything all over again.
Oh, well.
-Joe Offer-