Well, I must say this is refreshing and welcome, Maverick: A carefully reasoned response which is intended to shed light not heap abuse.
It is late for me and I won't digest all you have said at this time. But I will consider all that you have said fully and carefully.
I can say this much now, Maverick. I am not aware of what "majority" you are talking about.
Are you talking about a "majority" of old-timers who know each other personally, and meet together socially annually, and chat online in their own private talkforum [which ASp has talked about]?
Or are you talking about a "majority" of all the members of AWADtalk, including those like myself who may never have met any of the members of AWADtalk personally?
Or are you talking about the "majority" which hasn't even arrived at AWADtalk yet? People who might look us over without actually joining in because the whole thing looks too much like an old-timer's Mutual Admiration Society?
Personally, I am hopeful that we will have a talk forum here which will be attractive to newcomers because the people who run the place [de facto or de jure] understand the importance of the rules of "natural justice".
What are the rules of "natural justice"?
1. That every person is entitled to a "fair hearing". What is a "fair hearing"? A fair hearing is one which is focused on facts and issues and which is not drowned out by personal insults of the sort which some influential old-timers specialize in around here.
2. The person or persons whose conduct or decisions are being questioned should not be entitled to sit in judgment on their own case. Why? Because such people have a conflict of interest.
It is not a secret that ASp and Of Troy and Jackie and tsuwm are all involved in decision-making around here, or at least they think they are, whether Anu actually gave them that power is another matter entirely.
That means, Maverick, that if there is a criticism of a decision which one of them makes, or all of them make together, they shouldn't be allowed to decide their own case. But they do. They always do. They don't even seem to know that there is anything wrong, fundamentally wrong, with this practice.
To the best of my knowledge and belief, no-one who has had a legitimate complaint about anything the favored few do or say around here has ever had anything resembling a "fair hearing". Certainly I have never had one.
Maverick, you want peace here. I want peace here. Everyone wants peace here. But we can never have any lasting peace on this Board, Maverick, nor can we ever expect to become attractive to newcomers to join us and remain, unless and until we achieve some basic understanding and appreciation and respect for the principles of "natural justice".
I didn't invent the principles of "natural justice", Maverick. They go all the way back to the Romans. They have been recognized in your country and mine and the United States for as long as we have had courts to administer justice in our countries.
But as basic as these principles are to the administration of justice in the real world, Maverick, they are totally unknown, or if known, totally ignored, on AWADtalk. And these principles have been totally absent for as long as I have been visiting and posting here, and that goes back over 3 years.
I wasn't around for the infamous "flame-war", and I have never met or exchanged a single communication with the fellow who was driven away from this Board [who co-founded another Board guided by actual principles]. But, knowing that fellow's reputation on the Board he co-founded, Wordcraft, I am almost 100% certain that there never would have been a "flame-war" if that fellow had been given a "fair hearing".
