<Though I think of the Globals as landed gentry, I do like his reference to them and the devine right of kings. He has made some typos and references to a Poetry board that I know nothing about, but the Gothic Board I am quite familiar with. As you can see there are no swear words in it, but it certainly questions them and their powers. This posting concerns how this site is run and is therefor on topic and belongs on this discussion board. I think it also puts into perspective how censorship has taken over for no apparent reason except that someone disagrees with someone else and has the power and position to act in their own personal self-interest. And all the while hiding behind a facade of saying that they're doing it for the good of the site.

Though I'm not a personal friend of Fencer's (Filip), I have had cordial communication with him over the time that I've been a member of this site and also after he installed me as moderator of the Gothic Chess. Yes, that's right, some nameless Global Moderator removed an appointee of the site's owner without as so much as consulting him or myself. You'd think if someone was going to take such an action they'd at the very least wait until the owner had a chance to weigh in on it. I only made one post to the board. No swear words are in it either, though I certainly did tweak their noses saying I was going to ban one of them from the board because of her disruptive actions. I never even got around to attempting to do it and they removed me. She finally did write to me and thought I had banned her. Talk about not knowing one's job. She never even used her powers as a Global Moderator to see if I'd carried out my threat. If I was to be removed for that post, then why wasn't it just put on hide? Then they could write to me and find out if I typed correctly or what I was thinking for saying something like that. Then they could wait for Fencer to be the final judge.

As for the Gothic Chess board itself, it might be a good thing for me NOT to be moderator of it any more. After I was removed, I wrote to Fencer asking him to overturn what had been done and ask that it not be allowed to happen again. He said he would check into it. While I've been waiting for the results of his investigation, I've had time to analyze my own behavior in this matter.
Though I've not said anything towards Ed Trice since the end of last year and only took action towards some trouble he started about mysterious postings and accusations in late January, I believe that Ed's animosity towards me is bad for this site. Because of the unique circumstances surrounding Ed and his membership on this site, it is probably better for me to be out of his way.

Many of you reading this, but who have never gone to the Gothic Chess board or played the game may not be aware of Ed Trice's importance to a lot of the emotions that flow on that board. I was installed as moderator when Fencer got fed up with Ed's handling of it. I had just learned how to play Gothic Chess and with just a couple finished games found the discussion board. I just happened to be there when Fencer asked for volunteers. Next thing you know, I'm moderator. Though I didn't know much about the bad blood between some of the various users of the board up until that time, I found out about Ed's wrath very quickly when I challenged his having a patent for a game that I consider over a hundred years old. With me as moderator, Ed was no longer able to stop people from posting statements that he disagreed with or challenged other things about Gothic Chess. I'm a firm believer in free speech and only would censor swear words and racial remarks. It is a public board and unlike the fellowships certain words and phrases shouldn't be printed where the general public can view them. I believe this is one of the reasons that the Gothic board was one of the most popular on this site. Ed and his supporters versus his enemies and distractors, along with various unbiased observers that also liked the conversation of the board, plus danoschek. At first it quickly came to a head and Fencer banned Ed and danoscheck. Peace reigned briefly though Ed's supporters started a bring back Ed campaign. It was successful and Fencer's newly appointed moderators unbanned Ed. Then the dump Walter campaign started! (This is October 2004). I got caught up into the action myself and was not doing a good job of moderating. I freely admitted so and changed completely how I moderated after that. Rarely posting except maybe to answer a question about Gothic Chess or a tournament in progress, letting people talk as they wanted. Fencer came on at the same time was I posting to the board about my change and put Ed in his place about lawsuits and threats. (Ed has removed a lot of the relevant posts, so you'll just have to take my word on it though Fencer's is still there in all its glory!) This obviously didn't set well with Ed and he announced that he would no longer post to the board and started urging a complete boycott of it as long as I remained moderator. Ed also formed and joined numerous fellowships related to Gothic Chess at this time and encouraged his supporters and people that just wanted to play Gothic Chess to join them. I didn't edit any of these post either. I'm not against Gothic Chess. It is a good game.

Anyway, with both Ed and myself not posting to the board, it quickly got peaceful and quiet there for a few months. Then out of the blue rumors started to fly about Gothic Chess being removed from this site and Ed himself said he was leaving the site at the end of March 2005. Yes it's April now. When the postings started concerning ways to play Gothic Chess without infringing on the patent or playing other versions of Bird's or Capablanca Chess to get around his taking the game with him, you could tell this wasn't the response that he'd been planning on. So, suddenly he posts some letter written to him from some mysterious person in England or somewhere and starts a lot of innuendo and then accuses Stevie as being the author of said e-mail. I banned him on February 12th for starting this trouble. Towards the end of March, Fencer wrote me asking about Ed's bannishment in the Gothic board and if I might consider unbanning him. I did unban him March 24th. As I warned Fencer, I doubted if my tenure as moderator would last much longer. My prediction proved correct, but it wasn't how I thought it would go.

With me as moderator, even if I do nothing towards Ed, it causes lots of resentment all the same. With me gone as moderator of that particular board, this is removed. This should certainly help with the feelings expressed on that board and perhaps lessen the trouble caused by my presence. Though I doubt that will be the case, if the past is any guide to the future, it is a real possiblity and now we can see for sure. After posting this message, I will write to Fencer and tell him that I've reconsidered wanting to be re-instated as moderator of the Gothic Chess board. I think the person that removed me should be the moderator. Handing it off like they did is pretty wimpy in my estimation. Whoever it was should take the responsibilty of their action. If the roles were reversed, and I felt that I had to remove a moderator in my capacity as a Global Moderator, I would certainly tell the person I was removing that it was me that did it. What are they afraid of? You know it's going to get back to you eventually. They didn't even write me about that! Had they asked, they might have found that I would leave the position voluntarily and none of my bad feelings would even have happened. I haven't posted anywhere on this site publicly about my removal until now. I thought no one cared about me or what had happened. It's probably my fault in someways because I've not joined any fellowships, only read some public boards concerning games I play, and mostly just play the games that I have going. When I read this message that I'm attaching to this posting, I was heartened to find that what happened was not unobserved and some people saw a problem with it. Apparently some debate has gone on about it in fellowships where this is being discussed.
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx This letter is from ughaibu. I've not always agreed with him in his postings, but he hit the nail on the head with this writing.
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I was told to remove the message by NOT a floosie. She said he was banned from this board for it's contents. I'm not sure why that would be so, but I have removed it at her request. I also sent a messsage asking why. I've been up all night reading and writing this stuff that I'll have to see what's up tomorrow. I haven't written anything until now about what happened and there's a good chance this will be last thing I ever write about it again too.


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Thank you for your consideration and please write to me if you have questions or comments, pro or con.
Walter Montego