Hmmm. should I shut up, or should I respond? Well, what the heck....
I don't harbor animosity and I have no reason for vendattas, but I do enjoy a good verbal joust every once in a while.

You can search this forum for as long as you wish, and you can search every e-mail and personal message I've sent, and you will never see any indication that I think that the subject of PEL (Public entertainment Licensing) is inappropriate for Mudcat. There are very few topics that are more appropriate. I am in complete sympathy with all those who oppose PEL's.

Is that understood? PEL's are a worthy topic for discussion here. I do not think that any establishment should have to pay a fee if they wish to allow amateur musicians to sing in their establishment. This is a serious problem, a threat to traditional music in the UK.

HOWEVER, this is a problem that will be cured by logic, persuasion, and negotiation - not by burying Mudcat or Parliament or anyone in a flood of words. Mudcat is a perfect place for discussion of this topic - but not a place for propaganda. Click here for the entire list of PEL threads. Even Shambles complains about the length of the list, because it appears at the top of every PEL thread. I last counted sixty, but now I think the number is 115. There's a lot of good information there - but you have to wade though a lot of repeated information to get to the new stuff. So yeah, I think a little moderation would be nice. And yeah, I think it would be good to post chiefly to existing threads on the topic.

As for removing the They Came For Me thread from the PEL group, I think my decision was reasonable. The first 22 messages in the thread made no mention of PEL's, and the 23rd is a complaint about it being included in the PEL group. I admit it - I'm the one who copied the thread numbers from Shambles' PEL threads list, and I put this thread in the PEL group based on information from Shambles. He did not ask me to include it in the group - I copied the thread number from his links thread. It was my mistake. When it was determined that this thread was included by mistake, it was removed, and then inserted again due to miscommunication when Shambles demanded it. It was removed once again, and will not be included in the PEL group.

I suppose there could be a vague connection between the saying and the PEL issue, but "They Came For Me" is usually understood to refer to the Holocaust, not to Public Entertainment Licenses. To me, linking "They Came For Me" to PEL's is a sacrilege. PEL's are a serious issue, but the Holocaust is the most awful thing that has happened in the history of the human race. To lump the Holocaust and PEL's together is to cheapen the importance of both of these serious issues.

So, that's mostly the facts, plus a small dose of my personal opinion. It's unfair to condemn me for my opinion if you fail to state my opinion correctly.

-Joe Offer-

---

Aw, c'mon, Mark! Did I say anything insulting in that message? No - I just said I was not on a vendetta and had no reason to be on a vendetta - but that our friend floods the place with too much verbiage. I even said I agreed with and admired our friend.
I see no reson why my comments shouldn't have humor or a human touch at times. I am no longer a government official, and I am no longer required to be excruciatingly circumspect.
I AM fair, but I AM human. And I'm here to enjoy myself, not to be put on trial.
-Joe Offer-