Apologies to all those who don't like this thread. Of course, nobody is forcing anyone to read it - I just wanted to set the record straight. But I can understand the argument being made by some that it's unsavory for lurkers to see all this.
Anyone who has been following the "250,000" blood transfusion thread closely will know how this thread began. I criticized the transfusion thread because its entire premise (at least initially) was based on naming and shaming someone who happens to be a friend of mine rather than resolving things amiccably. I made a comment on page 4 of that thread to the effect that one of the most frustrating things about being in the Ex-JW community was all the infighting, and the eagerness with which some individuals leap on the tiniest mistake of their fellow Ex-JWs.
For some reason Simon decided to take issue with this observation and engaged in a lengthy argument with me, most of which has now been "sanitized." Even though he objected to my argument about the naming-and-shaming issue he later agreed to take my friend Julia's name out of the thread title at her request, so it seems I did have a point all along.
During my argument with Simon his staunch supporter OUTLAW entered the fray and decided to bring up AAWA, which I am no longer a member of. I was accused of being an AAWA operative out to cause trouble, and in particular I was once more accused of ordering Lee to lock a thread. When I began responding to OUTLAW's accusations I was criticized for taking the thread off-topic - even though it wasn't I who had taken the thread off-topic, it was OUTLAW.
The argument soon escalated with me on one side of the ring and Simon and OUTLAW on the other - both Simon and OUTLAW insisting that I had acted improperly in the whole AAWA-thread scandal. I knew differently, and I knew I could prove that their version of events was incorrect, but they were seemingly not interested in evidence and much more enjoyed painting me as the villain using the AAWA thread closure as their principal argument.
Once that argument died down I exchanged emails with Lee, and we both agreed that it would be fine to share certain emails that gave a more accurate version of events. After all, OUTLAW's attack on me had proven that it was still a sore point for him and Simon, and it was likely to keep flaring up intermittently. I forwarded a key email on to Simon and told him that now he had the evidence there would no longer be any excuse for him misrepresenting what happened.
The next thing I know Simon is making a snide remark on the 250,000 thread about my "caberet" performance and how he needed to clean the thread of my comments. Again, no hint was given that my initial complaints about the naming-and-shaming turned out to be perfectly legitimate, and I could not be held to blame if I had subsequently been set upon by both Simon (who would later act in accordance with my observations) and OUTLAW (who refused to let go of his AAWA thread-closure bone).
I made a few remarks to put Simon in his place, mentioning the thread closure issue in so doing. I hinted at the fact that I had email evidence that proved that Simon had blown things completely out of proportion as far as my involvement in it was concerned. Rather than acknowledging this, Simon goaded me to show the evidence - so we decided to do this on a seperate thread. Anyone who reads the first few posts of this thread will clearly see that, rather than this being a straightfoward case of me being a diva, Simon was properly at my throat at least to begin with before the emails were posted and he quietened down a bit.
So once again, I apologise for airing all this dirty laundry, but I had grown tired of all the goading and I wanted to set the record straight. Despite the peanut-gallery contingent who seem to spoil things without much hindrance, Simon has a good forum here and I often use it for research purposes. It would be a shame if JWN ever vanished along with all its valuable information. However, I do not take kindly to being pushed around. I have a fire in me when it comes to bullies, and it is this same fire that motivates me to expose Watchtower at any opportunity. I can take a joke at my expense (as my wife will tell you) and you can call me names until the cows come home, but I won't have lies deliberately spread about me. I think few would. So I decided to settle the score on this AAWA thread nonsense once and for all so that we can all finally move on. If anyone brings it up again I can just post a link to this thread.
Even if you don't agree with my methods, I hope you will all understand my motives for starting this thread. Despite being somewhat self-indulgent, I don't believe it was completely unjustified. I can certainly think of more pointless threads that nobody seems to object about.
Hopefully the information I've presented speaks for itself. If anyone has any further questions on this issue feel free to email me at [email protected] and I will do my best to answer them. Otherwise I apologise once more and thank you all for your patience and understanding.
Cedars
PS - I would just like to sincerely thank Simon for getting rid of an idiot who has been harrassing both myself and another poster by PM. He acted quickly once I brought it to his attention, and I appreciate this.