Response To Charges Against THE FORUM Options

[Stephen Speicher]

It is time to set the record straight. Betsy and I are distressed by several charges made against us on Diana Hsieh's NoodleFood and other forums that we consider unwarranted and untrue, and extremely unjust.

Many members of THE FORUM, particularly those on both sides of the recent controversies, know firsthand how hard we work to keep the debates respectful, avoid flame wars, and keep the focus on facts and values. Yet some critics have asserted that our moderation of THE FORUM is unfair.

While most critics merely assert "unfair moderation," I know of only one who actually tried to provide any evidence. I deleted a post by Tom Miovas from THE FORUM. He posted it elsewhere and several critics have pointed to it as prima facie evidence of our "unfair moderation." Here is the missing context.

Long before THE FORUM, I had a friendly relationship with Tom Miovas for many years. We had a number of private discussions on several subjects and I even personally helped Tom get through a rather troubling time in his life. When Tom joined THE FORUM almost a year ago, one of the first posts he made was a rather long promotion of his philosophical essays on his website, replete with URL pointers to each of a whole host of categories. I deleted Tom's post and on December 1, 2005 in part by way of explanation, I wrote the following to him:

I do not want postings on THE FORUM promoting off-site intellectual content that I have no control over. So, thanks for the post, but I am returning it back to you. Feel free, however, to engage in actual discussion on threads in THE FORUM instead.

This was followed shortly after by another post, one having virtually nothing to do with the thread to which he posted, advertising Tom's framed art prints business. I deleted that post and on December 13, 2005, I wrote to Tom:

I deleted this post because it has nothing to do with the thread. If you want you can post the essence of this in the CAPITALIST CORNER, which would be more appropriate.

Tom responded to another post with a somewhat out-of-context essay, and on January 7, 2006 I wrote to Tom:

And, Tom, I don't mean to imply that you should not start a thread of your own. Just keep in mind that these should be posts, not essays.

And not much later, in January 20, 2006, I deleted another of Tom's posts and wrote to him:

I deleted this post. I discussed the issue of promoting your site with you before. Please do not post here again unless you have serious interest in discussion, rather than repeating your older essays and posts or advertising your site.

All in all I had to delete quite a few of Tom's posts.

Now, some ten months later, Tom tried to post something I found particularly offensive. The first version of his post had a disrespectful reference to Leonard Peikoff. I deleted the post and on October 27, 2006, I wrote the following to Tom:

Hi,

I deleted this post. Reference to "Objectivist Pope," whether in scare quotes or not, is offensive and not appropriate for THE FORUM. I stopped reading your post at that point, so if you have any other language or tone of that nature, make sure you remove and/or change it before re-posting.

Tom removed his "Objectivist Pope" remark and posted again, and I again deleted his post, writing to him on October 30, 2006:

I deleted this post. Among other things, you are putting words in someone else's mouth with your "making it all up" remark.

Tom, I'd rather you not post to THE FORUM again. Your major contact with THE FORUM has been to occasionally drop by and post something here that you posted elsewhere, squeezing it into some thread where it often barely applies. You have shown little intention of engaging, but instead wind up using THE FORUM as a drive-by depository for a few of your writings. I think you not posting here would serve both of our interests best.

My suggestion that Tom not post here was the culmination of the history I outlined above. And even then Tom could have responded to me with some sort of indication that he had heard and understood my concern -- a concern that I had communicated to him several times in the past -- and if he had convincingly communicated that he would change his approach, then in spite of his history on THE FORUM, and in deference to our past friendship, I would have agreed to yet another chance.

Instead, Tom took his rejected post to the other forum and asked people to judge us by it -- neglecting to provide the information and context that justified my action.

We find this sad, but even more sad are the unjust and unwarranted charges some of our other critics have made against us (see additional posts).