Mr Wilson plays pool (mentioned that so that this post is considered pool-related.) But seriously...........
I do not have an opinion on whether Jimbo should have been banned. In fact, I did not read the controversial posts that led to a decision that seems to have many very upset, and I ache for those who have temporarily lost a valued companion on the forum.........
What I do have an opinion on is the hallowed halls of AZB and the means by which they are, and must be, maintained and defended.
To me, AZB is a library. In a library, there are authors whose works are partially or completely omitted intentionally, for the simple reason that those rightfully empowered are able to manage content before a book hits the shelves.
Mr Wilson is the librarian here at AZB, but he does not have the luxury of being able to manage content before the fact, except that he can remove a thread that is evolving objectionably or distastefully. The threads are the books of the AZB library, the posts chapters of those books, but the librarian must, as a rule, remove unsuitable materials from the shelves to properly manage content, and it's one tough job.
When we go to the public library, we all understand that one objectionable chapter may be enough to keep an otherwise good book off the shelves, yet few accept that one bad post in a thread can, similarly, make a thread unworthy of remaining on the shelves of the AZB library. How often posters go crazy when a thread with some useful content is removed!
We, similarly, understand that a library may choose to boycott an author that has produced just one objectionable book, yet many cannot accept it when a comparable choice is made by our AZB librarian about a poster.
At my local public library, they don't carry all the authors I like, and they don't have all the books I prefer, and they have their reasons. Rather than scream at the librarian for this, I prefer to recognize that the librarian does the best they can to manage content, and that I should be thankful for what I have. I extend the same courtesy to Mr. Wilson, the librarian of AZB, and therefore, the empowered judge of what content belongs here.
Mr Wilson gets it right some of the time and wrong some of the time, but he does his best job to manage content here in the hallowed halls of AZB. He will never and can never please all of us, but I think we need to understand and appreciate how difficult his job is, and how well he usually performs it.
When posters ask whether Mr Wilson is GOD or whether he is somehow depriving posters of first amendment rights of free speech, I find it disturbing. Being here is a privilege, not a right, but how easily we sometimes forget.
I do not have an opinion on whether Jimbo should have been banned. In fact, I did not read the controversial posts that led to a decision that seems to have many very upset, and I ache for those who have temporarily lost a valued companion on the forum.........
What I do have an opinion on is the hallowed halls of AZB and the means by which they are, and must be, maintained and defended.
To me, AZB is a library. In a library, there are authors whose works are partially or completely omitted intentionally, for the simple reason that those rightfully empowered are able to manage content before a book hits the shelves.
Mr Wilson is the librarian here at AZB, but he does not have the luxury of being able to manage content before the fact, except that he can remove a thread that is evolving objectionably or distastefully. The threads are the books of the AZB library, the posts chapters of those books, but the librarian must, as a rule, remove unsuitable materials from the shelves to properly manage content, and it's one tough job.
When we go to the public library, we all understand that one objectionable chapter may be enough to keep an otherwise good book off the shelves, yet few accept that one bad post in a thread can, similarly, make a thread unworthy of remaining on the shelves of the AZB library. How often posters go crazy when a thread with some useful content is removed!
We, similarly, understand that a library may choose to boycott an author that has produced just one objectionable book, yet many cannot accept it when a comparable choice is made by our AZB librarian about a poster.
At my local public library, they don't carry all the authors I like, and they don't have all the books I prefer, and they have their reasons. Rather than scream at the librarian for this, I prefer to recognize that the librarian does the best they can to manage content, and that I should be thankful for what I have. I extend the same courtesy to Mr. Wilson, the librarian of AZB, and therefore, the empowered judge of what content belongs here.
Mr Wilson gets it right some of the time and wrong some of the time, but he does his best job to manage content here in the hallowed halls of AZB. He will never and can never please all of us, but I think we need to understand and appreciate how difficult his job is, and how well he usually performs it.
When posters ask whether Mr Wilson is GOD or whether he is somehow depriving posters of first amendment rights of free speech, I find it disturbing. Being here is a privilege, not a right, but how easily we sometimes forget.
