GUEST (one of them, I guess)said:

"Censoring isn't the same as flat out ignoring someone."

True, and neither is "censoring" the same as "being critical".

I think it can be taken for granted that if one comes to a forum where there are all sorts of people, whose real-life identities are hidden (as most of ours are) by nicknames, he'll find that some of them are outspoken and may not be willing to "suffer fools gladly" as they might see it. That's THEIR free speech.

As to "flat out ignoring", no-one (as I see it) has a RIGHT to be responded to here. If one posts an interesting question it's almost sure to be responded to. If one is civil in one's post, the response is most likely to be civil. I don't know whether GUEST counts me in his alleged clique or not (and I don't really care), but when I first came on board a few years ago, an unknown here and surely not a part of any clique, I never had any problem with being ignored. As a newbie I made comments in threads, and sometimes they were responded to and sometimes they were not. It's still that way. I don't think any threads I initiated as a newbie, whether general questions or requests for songs, ever went unresponded to. Sometimes the thread was (as is) not interesting to enough catters to survive long, but that is the breaks of the game.

To sum up, GUEST (whichever one you may be), grow up. If one wants respect he has to earn it, here as anywhere. That's difficult at best when no-one can flesh out much idea of a personality lying (hiding?) behind a generic designation like GUEST.

Dave Oesterreich Now, several years later,