Thank you for a rational answer, Howard Jones. I've been seeking to understand all this, but it has been so hard to find the facts amidst the shouting.

Steve Shaw, whether it's "nonsense from a far-right propagandist" or not, I want to hear rational responses to the "propaganda" so I can understand the issues and their nuances.

And Steve, what do you mean when you say "We are not the employers of MPs"? That's not a challenge - I simply want to know what you mean.

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Every once in a while, we get these campaigns from groups who want somebody banished from Mudcat. The first I recall, was the lengthy campaign to banish the admittedly obnoxious Lizzie Cornish. Some of our current "usual suspects" were part of that campaign.

For almost 23 years now, we've had a policy of not taking action against people for their political views. We figure that members of the Forum should take care of that by rational discussion, not by badgering us into banishing the current scapegoat. We haven't responded to that badgering, and we're not likely to start doing it now. Indeed, when that badgering starts to undermine our ways of managing the Forum, we're sometimes forced to take action against the badgerers.

I have often said that I don't like the idea of "banning" anybody, and that's the truth. But yet, in several recent threads I have been accused of "banning" Mossback/Greg_F. I have suspended him on some occasions for specified periods of time that I stated to him, but that's all. It did get to a point where I could no longer come up with an argument to oppose his banishment, but I was not the one who banned him, and I do not know who did.

So, instead of these endless and futile campaigns to get us to ban somebody or another, why not accept the fact that we just don't do that? This is a place for rational discussion, not bullying people into banishment.

Please remember that we cannot allow public discussion of the moderation of Mudcat. If you wish to discuss moderation actions or policy, please contact Max or me or any moderator privately.

-Joe Offer-
joe@mudcat.org