In all fairness, I think we should all, perhaps, take a deep breath here for a second. As someone who has been involved with the small press scene, and published widely there, since the '80s, I know that most literary journals are labors of love, operating at at no profit with the main quest of providing a forum for quality writing, and, as such, are the only door open for the furtherance of literary art untainted by the demands of the marketplace. Most small press editors (and I'm not talking about the university sponsored presses here), wind up investing long hours, at the expense of the pursuit of their own literary careers, to keep their journals, whether print or cyber, afloat, many times digging into their own pockets with only the hope of breaking-even through voluntary subscriptions. It is customary, with the launch of a new journal, to find places where writers and aspiring writers may congregate to announce a "call for submissions" to help birth the new publication. I looked over the Gin Bender site, and the publisher seems to be launching the publication with every intention of integrity...this is NOT a rip-off scam like Poetry.com publishing all submissions, regardless of quality, to sell back books at a huge profit. So I believe (Mr. or Ms.?) Thompson's intentions in posting this announcement here to be good, though perhaps a a bit misdirected, since this is not really commercial Spam in the usual sense...there's nothing to sell here, although it does promote the journal. (and we must point out that, even in Poets & Writers a call for submissions does require a paid classified ad...and verily, ginbender, with a small classified ad in Anu's AWADmail newsletter you'd reach over 500,000 subscribers here [word-lovers all!], instead of the handful of folks who frequent this board!)

So, all in all, I ask ginbender to see musick's intentions as good in simply trying to protect the site by being invaded by Spam (as has happened before); and I ask musick to see ginbender's intentions as good in that this is a small press journal with, ultimately, no hope for financial gain (indeed, many established writers eagerly submit to these journals with the only payment contributor's copies (print) and exposure for their work (cyber). So I welcome both, ginbender's good intentions and efforts in furthering the avenues of literary art, and musicks's good intentions in furthering the support and protection of Anu's efforts at maintaining this site as a labor of love, and speading the love of language and the written word. So I think we can all learn something and shake hands on this, and hopefully, ginbender, you'll continue to look in and contribute (if your time allows) and become one of our band of Merry Wordsters.