Dear Shambles, if you visited other forums such as concertina net, the organiser admits he is a dictator, you would appreciate the democracy on this forum, if you do go there most of the people are very friendly, but like all forums you will meet one or two bad apples, one or two people who need to get a life and also the king of pedants.

Sadly it is always the pedants who tend to make the most noise. But tend not to like being subjected to the same noise themselves.... May those who live by pedantry and judgement - also die by pedantry and judgement!!!

The 'organisers' and their few loyal supporters here will now willingly and even proudly tell you that there is no democracy on our forum. Some will even argue - despite the fact that our forum has always been freely open for the public's contribution by the site's owner - that is not our forum (but that it still would seem to be theirs).

But it has always been the case that many have supported our forum and thought it to be special - in that it was possible for posters to post pretty much what they wish to - with no or very little interference from the site's owner.

I just think that it is time for a little honesty. If this approach has changed and for whatever reason - and I have think I have demonstrated very clearly with this 'silent deletion' that it has changed - then it time to be open about this and not pretend.

The reason our current Chief of the Mudcat Editing team does not wish all forms of imposed censorship to be recorded is that it will bring attention to this. For the first time then all poster will be able to see the forms imposed censorship which is now claimed to be undertaken in their name and in order to protect them.

If it was all recorded and a very brief reason provide where and when any form of censorship was judged to be required - all posters would for the first time be able to judge for themselves if this censorship was proportionate. Would having this knowledge be such a bad thing?

Thankyou for getting les cousins thread reopened.I enjoyed it.

I think you misuderstand. I originated that thread a few years ago and I and others have refreshed it many times. This, all poster were able to do to all threads just by posting to it - until our 'moderators' were shown that they could subject threads to imposed closure (so that posters could then only post to them if they sent a PM and asked kindly if a thread could be re-opened).

Recently (see my first post in this thread) many other threads where posters have been conducting a discussion have been closed. And when a reason was given by our anonyomous 'moderators', it was that it was closed at the request of the moderator. As if no other consideration mattered and this total respect to the thread originator's wishes would always be honoured by them and should be honoured by every other poster.

My view would be that any originator making such a request should perhaps be told that they should have given it more thought when they started their thread.

The thread you refer to has not (yet) been subject to imposed closure.
I was making the point - as the thread's originator - by asking for it to be closed - that 'moderators' really do as THEY please and only selectively use such requests to justify imposing their (in some cases - possibly personally motivated) judgement to close certain posts on certain subjects. That thread was not closed - and even though its originator made the request for its closure - this request was ignored.

Where in an earlier exchange - the perfectly respectable title I had chosen for a thread that I had originated was changed without my knowledge and against my wishes - and I was told by The Chief of the Mudcat Editing Team, that even as as the originator- I was not even entitled to choose that.....

The rights of a thread's originator do seem to vary...................