For a man who purports to believe that we shouldn't have rules, Shambles can sure make 'em up to control other people. He seems to think that since I do editing here, I shouldn't be allowed to post. And if I have an opinion that somebody might disagree with, I shouldn't be allowed to express it. I suppose Shambles isn't the only person who thinks this, but it's Shambles who expresses it most often.

And then there are other people who think I there's something wrong with my responding to Shambles at all when he talks about the stuff that I do. I dunno, I find it an interesting challenge to attempt to give a rational response without repeating myself. I also find it an interesting challeng to respond to insults without resorting to insults. Although I guess I have to admit that I have sometimes given in to that temptation, I think I generally do a pretty good job of expressing myself rationally and with good humor..

I think that Shambles makes too much of this editing stuff. He sees it as some sort of Armageddon of the Internet, a cyberpower struggle between the forces of good (Shambles) and evil (those who have edit buttons).

I don't see it as quite so dramatic. We volunteers rename threads to make the titles more consistent, informative, and useful. I suppose I could write seventeen pages in the FAQ about thread naming conventions, but nobody would read or understand them. So, we add or change tags when they're missing, and add explanatory information when needed. We figure that as time goes on, most people will catch on to our naming conventions - or not. It doesn't really matter, because the Forum Menu is just an index, and we can fix it if it's broke. I suppose we devote our time to teaching, and send Mudcatters preachy little messages about how they should do this or that in thread title naming. We had a lot of that preaching before we had the ability to change thread titles, and it got really old. Now we just make changes when they're needed, and don't make a big deal of it. Most people accept our thread renaming practices very well - most of our complaints come from just one person.

I suppose if the Forum Menu is to be an effective index, it has to have some sort of balance. I rarely start threads myself - I'd be surprised if I start two a month. Usually, I try to add what I have to say to existing threads, to participate in ongoing discussions. Other people start one or more threads per day, every day - whether they have something new to talk about, or not. A very few people consistently start threads on topics that are already currently on the Forum Menu. I don't know why, but they seem to have a compulsion to start threads. Sometimes, we humor those compulsions and let those threads continue, and sometimes we combine them with existing discussions - it all depends on what seems to be the sensible thing to do at the time. The other day, it seemed sensible to me to consolidate the dozen Shatner threads that were to be seen on the Forum Menu. See, that's the problem - if we allow Shambles to use the Forum Menu as a platform, we have to give the same privilege to Shatner. So, no, I think we'd better let the Forum Menu be an index, and let Shambles and Shatner say more-or-less whatever they want to say within their own messages (in case some of you didn't know, William Shatner has been an Honorary Mudcatter for quite some time. It happened shortly after Little Hawk joined us - about the time Cletus left us...).

So, I'm sorry that Shambles takes this personally. It isn't meant to be that way. It's all just housekeeping, not a power struggle. It's just trying to make some sense out of the chaos. And we will continue to welcome Shambles to say whatever he wants in every message he posts. He may not get the "front page" coverage he wants for his every word, but his comments are easily found. Just click on his name in any message he's posted, and you will receive a complete collection of everything Shambles has said on Mudcat. And not one word of it has been deleted, except for some of his more glaring duplications.

-Joe Offer-