This was, perhaps, not the best way to start off the new year. Some new
works out there got smothered by spam, arguments flashed back and forth,
and life generally got a little strange here. Lurker did one of his rants
and left; Arromdee did one of his demands for apologies. My email account
was inoperable for most of it, so I am left with this response at the end.
Fact is, what Wolfie did wasn't the brightest of things. We all got the
message not to spew "Happy New Year" spam on the list; Wolfie, in a moment
of not thinking outside the server box, decided that a practical joke was
in order. True, it was well within his right; on another list I'm on, we
effectively call the guy in his position "God-boss". On the other hand,
as the reaction no doubt showed, it wasn't the wisest of moves.
To put it simply, it made things inconsistent. Until now, the admins for
this list have taken a "The king is not above the law" attitude for the
most part, ever since the Tybalt mask was thrown away for more human
moderators. This is why they 'tempbanned' themselves as they did; it was
the only punishment they could think of to atone for the problems they
made.
The FFML has rules. Those are given out in the FAQ. They try to see to
it to the letter. And, even to my chagrin at times, they have done that
to the best of their ability.
Now for my REAL purpose of this message. All of the above was
explanation; this is me getting angry.
Don't you think it remarkable that Ken demand an apology from people bound
by silence? Alan and John can't respond, so I will. They are god-boss
here. They don't have to be as nice as they have been - and yes, they
have been remarkably lenient to some people. I may have their
disagreements with them, but they've done the best job they can. They
made a promise of silence for two weeks; I expect them to keep it. Their
silence is their atonement. What will be yours, Ken, for spitting on such
a gesture, and for attacking the honor of those who cannot defend
themselves? Do you even have the courage to make a gesture even close to
theirs?
As for Lurker... to be honest, I'm of mixed feelings. I hold no love for
the man; he's hurt too many friends in his bitterness for me to do that.
To be honest, if I were moderator (and this is why I'm not), Lurker would
not have been around to make such a theatrical departure. However, at one
time he did do good work for the FFML and, while we may not miss who he
has become, we should miss who he once was - someone who worked hard to
make the FFML a better place. In short, do not mourn his leaving now;
mourn his leaving years ago.
-- Nick