If I get a complaint about a message or a thread, I'll take a look at it - and usually I'll decide to leave it alone unless it's a clear-cut problem. Generally, we leave political discussions alone because:

• Who in his right mind would want to read that crap?
• How could anybody decide what's appropriate or inappropriate in a discussion like that?

If a discussion like that turns into a hateful brawl, then we'll close or delete the thread - whichever seems to be the appropriate thing to do to settle things down.
But usually, we don't do anything at all with threads of that type.

Personal attacks are another matter, but even then we aren't as heavy on censorship as some would have you believe. Generally, though, we delete personal attacks when we see them or when we get complaints about them.

I suppose that most of what we delete are messages that flood the forum with useless information - mostly Spam; but also non-music copy-pastes that fill more than one screen, and multiple copies of the same post that appear in a number of threads.

In general, though, we delete far less than most people would like us to delete - despite allegations to the contrary from one particular party. I'm sorry, but I just don't see any real value in intervening in the Irish threads - deciding on what is appropriate and what is inappropriate, is simply too arbitrary. In general, we don't really care if people say outrageous things - as long as it doesn't cause general chaos here at Mudcat. Our job is to keep the peace - not to decide whether something is appropriate or not.

So, are the Mudcat moderators anti-English? No, we just don't take a position on either side.

It doesn't do any good to discuss any of this with Shambles. He knows the names of all the moderators, and yet he continues to complain about their anonymity. In a three-day period a week or two ago, I transferred all the messages we usually delete into his "closed and deleted" thread, so he and the rest of the world could see a normal sample of what gets deleted. This demonstration didn't satisy Shambles, and he continues to assert that the Mudcat moderators are silently deleting something or another. I guess I have to expect that Shambles will continue to assert that horrible but nonspecific things are happening in secret. I can't think of how to devise a system that will provide absolute proof that these horrible nonspecific things are NOT being done by Anonymous Fellow Posters. I tried, but he didn't believe me, so it doesn't do any good to discuss anything with him. I guess it's good to just let him continue to believe in these Horrible Nonspecific Things and in his Anonymous Fellow Posters, because it gives meaning and purpose to his life. I do have to limit him to one thread at a time, so the rest of us can actually carry on reasonable discussions. I suppose that since this is "his" topic, this will become "his" thread, and I'll have to close the other one. I'll wait and see what he does.

But anyhow, the mods aren't anti-English. They just don't take a position.

-Joe Offer-