I request the first ones to read this post, to save this post on your hard drive. I understand this forum is not moderated, and have carefully worded this post with the utmost consideration for Simon. However, in case gremlins cause it to mysteriously vanish, you can share this post with others who might want to know a little about me. Afterall I have been publicly villified on this site (as a search for "Rick" will verify). Why not hear what the horse has to say from his own mouth? Because some might not like it.
Have you come to the point where it is ok to censor a post because some don't "like" it? Or because you reason "turnabout is fair play" alluding to moderator actions on my site? We shall soon find out.
Once upon a time, I, Derrick (Rick) helped Australian Jehovah's Witnesses start H2O at a site that has since stopped offering anonymous unix shell service ( http://www.c2.org/ or C2.ORG). I have long since endured the searing heat in the "kitchen" when someone turned the thermostat to its highest setting. I sat back and accepted criticism for "having the unmitigated gall to administrate a moderated forum and thus promote censorship" as someone scolded. I even let myself get tied-up in the public square without offering resistance and flogged until bloodied as a spectacle before a jeering cybercrowd.
My crime?
You want to know?
Turning on the pool filter to cleanse posts of profanity!
Now it's my turn. Do I deserve to say anything in this "court" or must I sit there gagged as the jury reaches it's guilty verdict?
Many had their say about me, murmurring "Rick this" and "Rick that." Search for "Rick" and "H2O" if you don't believe it. They even claimed I was "bitter," a "sore loser" and "jealous" of Simon! And every other petty claim. Far from the truth.
Allow me, please, to let those of you involved in this debacle in on some things that I perceive as facts.
FACT: I welcomed the creation of Simon's site when it started in March 2000 as diversifying the Jehovah's Witnesses community.
FACT: I like Simon. He's a cool guy and certainly a dedicated brother.
FACT: (clearing my throat and puckering my jowels to give you my Marlin Brando impersonation) I feel for the wrongdoing committed against Simon by The Organization(tm). Sometimes the Boyz in Brooklyn and their elder proteges tend to get mean spirited (imitating Marlin taking big drag on expensive Cuban cigar) but business is business. (changing my voice to mimic Darth Vader's to the beat of air repeatedly forced through a small orifice) You understand Simon. One day when you sit in your air-conditioned office behind the Watchtower President's desk, staring out plate glass over Patterson farm land, you will understand completely.
FACT: I like Simon's bulletin board software over the buggy WWWBoard software, and have been since shopping around for a robust package for H2O. I have found one for under a thousand dollars that has everything this board has, but I have held off because I want two additional features:
(1) Archiving into a web-accessible archive accessed by a neatly indexed HTML page, and
(2) The option to display the board with reply-threading like WWWBoard.
FACT: There is too much swearing on this site. Too much gratuitous use of the "F" word. As my Protestant mother would have said if she were alive to read this board, many of you should wash your mouths out with soap! Does it take a Jehovah's Witness to see that? Nada. Visit the many forums on the web to see the move toward family-oriented sites. There is even an international rating standard for family oriented sites that I would like to see H2O meet. Surely most of you want to help this site strive for that level of good taste and consideration for the tender sensibilities of others?
There is a filter that Simon can activate that will sanitize the bad language that is awash on the board lately. For example, the filter will edit the post instantaneously as it goes up, so that if I said to you: **** off! (because a robotic sensor (or profanity bot) dressed the "F" word with one asterisk per letter), then you would feel the heat of my anger...minus the sunburn. Don't you agree that even with filtering the "kitchen" gets hot enough, without the heat of bald and naked profanity (as I once heard it called on a Usenet forum, in reference to profane language that is not dressed with asterisks)? Many of you will likely admit that I'm right. Bees are attracted to honey not vinegar. Every swear word is like a splash of vinegar on the topic. If you're trying to make a salad out of a hundred post topic, at least mix it with some good grade olive oil. ;-)
FACT: Banning disruptive participants of a forum is the only way to keep that forum alive and healthy. Many pleaded with me for years to ban a few participants of noteriety, but I ignored their pleas because technically the Forum Participation Policy or FPP was not broken. I discovered too late that was a BIG MISTAKE. There is a happy ending to this seemingly tragic situation, however, because in starting from scratch we can focus on developing a quality site for true Jehovah's Witnesses interested in reformation, in order for them to live good Christian lives in a fully reformed organization.
FACT: Creating a good privacy policy is a necessity to long-term security of forum participants. H2O posted a privacy policy on the old site that still applies, although I haven't dusted it off and hung it on H2O's home page. People need assurances the forum will never divulge their email addresses to any third party(ies), it will gather no personal information on them, and it will never analyze or compromise their click streams. Exploitation of forum participants in this manner is never a good thing, as I haven't a doubt Simon will agree.
FACT: I want to see Simon's forum live long and prosper! H2O is an entirely different animal, and there is room for many Jehovah's Witnesses forums in the vastness of cyberspace!
FACT: I never "turned against" H2O regulars or wanted them to leave. Those rumors are all hog wash.
FACT: I don't deserve the lack of respect I've been given on other forums where I'm not immediately available as a participant to defend myself, anymore than Simon would deserve the same on other forums.
FACT: Jan G. doesn't deserve the lack of respect she has received for trying to help H2O receive new visitors after its recent bottoming out. She has been active in helping Jehovah's Witnesses, from what I understand, back to when some of you were running around in diapers! The least you can do is afford her some respect, and address your disagreements with her with human dignity. If this was a planet were the feline species dominated, then I could perhaps understand seeing Jan get her eyes clawed out from coming here to express her true feelings. However the last time I checked, felines are passively staring out livingroom windows and getting chased by dogs, not redefining the morality behind the treatment of others.
Those who have treated Jan G. without respect should be ashamed of themselves IMO! Those who have treated this lady and friend to the Jehovah's Witnesses community with respect -- even if they totally disagree with her for various reasons -- are to be commended as examples for those less fortunate enough to learn basic courtesy.
FACT: I personally resent the actions of those who used H2O for years and took advantage of its hospitality (not spending a dime out of their own pockets to help while I funded it -- and ignoring the only "donation" I asked from them: To show some respect for others!). You know who you are. Then when H2O stops performing to your liking because banner ads provide the funding that H2O users failed collectively to provide, hear the wailing, whining and complaints from these collective "few"! No longer serving their purpose, I felt as if these "few" had discarded me like a used paper cup.
I did learn something from all this. One discovers who their friends really are. I'm really glad this happened because I had no idea so many I thought were true "friends" would abandon me, then find them elsewhere saying such bad things about me (things that are not true). I started realizing there was one common denominator between these people who had once said they were my "friends" (but later were to give me the "Judas kiss"), claimed they were there to support me, expressed such appreciation for the many hours a day for almost 5 years I spent administering H2O (and as many more dollars out of my own pocket for monthly ISP charges). That common denominator was that they were all angry ex-JWs with not only a lack of desire to see the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses reformed, but in some cases with a vested interest in interfering with reform efforts.
Those of you who use profanity for sport, why not show your host Simon a little respect and dignity, I mean, your posts are spicy enough. Adding profanity is like pouring extra hot sauce on a hot tomale in a Mexican Food Restaurant! It sickens many who are allergic to hot pepper, and turns off those who don't like that hot green stuff spread like peanut butter over their sushi.
Show some respect to first time visitors to the Internet! Would you show up at a French Restaurant without a shirt? Would you show up at a Kingdom Hall meeting barefoot and in shorts and tank top? Would you sisters who were asked to become bridesmaids at your friend's wedding show up in bikini's? Surely it is not against your very nature to show a little decorum when posting in a public forum viewable by millions who are comprised of many conservative people. Simon's forum has such potential. Don't run it into the ground by exercising poor judgment in your speech. Show some finesse, some class, some decorum that will turn the heads of scholars, the media and anyone passing through Simon's site on their net journies.
Rick