Called into action Darth Vader implements his plan.

The digit has an ideology beyond being the Internet’s masked crusader of the “little people”?

Nine: KnoxViews has more local readership than any other local Knox County blog.

Might be true. And I’m sure you think it’s because of your wit and wisdom and KnoxViews will just wither on the vine without you. Hate to break it to you but it’s not and it won’t.

Nine: The idea to separate users into classes is just another example of far left classism.

Would that be the collectivist far left or the New Urbanist fascist new left? I can never remember which evil thing I’m supposed to be this week.

Butterfly, that is why I like you. You have a sense of humor.

OK, one more time out of

Submitted by R. Neal on Wed, 2007/04/11 – 7:38pm.

OK, one more time out of respect for Uncle and Les who were welcome posters here before and are still welcome to participate in comments.

Uncle posted a silly poll on the front page that was long and took up practically the whole screen. I demoted it but left it published in the side bar. He bitched. I explained. He then went over to his blog and posted complaints about his treatment, bitched about me and the site rules in a mocking tone very similar to #9, etc. He suggested the site really wasn’t open at all. I let it go at the time. Before that he had posted a link to an offensive site and I asked him not to do that, and he complained about it, and this was after having previously been asked to tone down the language a little and bitching about that, too. I was fairly taken aback and somewhat disappointed by all this, because SayUncle and I have always gotten along OK and I’ve tried to be reasonable and diplomatic.

Les has some interesting and more mature posts from time to time, but he also likes to cross-post things that he knows are not welcome at this site. Apparently it’s not enough that the headline for his post at his blog and his post at Michael Silence both appear in the “Blog-o-Rama” sidebar where anyone who is interested can click on it and read it. One day I demoted something that was not appropriate for the intended purpose and audience of this site and he put it back on the front page, I demoted it again, he put it back, and this went on four or five times. I guess he thought it was cute or fun or something. But I let it go at the time. Then he cross-posted something again this week that I did not feel was appropriate or of interest to readers of this site (a gun post with a crude headline and a link to a site I do not wish to promote). I demoted it. He complained. I explained. He complained some more.

While all this is going on, #9 is going off the deep end about an argument between two other commenters that didn’t involve him, complaining about me, the site, the site rules, calling me a hypocrite, etc. etc.

I really hate that Les and Uncle are taking it so personally. I’ve met both of them, and they are nice folks in person, and they are both interesting bloggers. This is just blog business, and they have theirs and I have mine. I don’t tell them how to run theirs, and I would have appreciated the same in return. I note, however, that I can’t post on the front pages of their blogs.

As I said in the other explanation, this change has been in the works for a long time. I just don’t have the time or interest in explaining things over and over to people who complain about how they are treated or how I run this website. I was almost afraid to look at my own website in the morning for fear of what someone may have posted in the middle of the night in the unrestricted mode the site was working in (and there has been some really crazy, scary stuff). As I also explained in the other thread, there are limitations in the software that do not provide a practical solution for me to deal with it in a timely and efficient manner, and frankly I’m tired of the aggravation.

So we decided to take the site in a different direction and more strictly enforce the original “liberal/progressive” intent of the site, and to relieve me of the administrative burden of monitoring people who violate the spirit of that and then want to argue about it, and then have to spend more time posting stupid, lengthy explanations such as this. Uncle actually suggested it. He said the “asterisk should be by ‘open’” (suggesting, I suppose, that I should explain “open” similar to how I had to explain “progressive”). He was right. I have now learned that sadly you can’t have a truly “open” site on the internet and maintain any purpose or quality or mature conversation.

There are 237 users with blog posting privileges. Most never post to their blog. That number will fluctuate over time. Some will be added, some will be removed. Someday there might be updates or addons to the software that will allow a more streamlined and/or “democratic” process, but for now that’s the way it is.

So some people may leave, some people may get mad or get their feelings hurt (the discussion at the thread at SayUncle’s place is a pretty good indicator of the level of maturity and the motives of some previous posters here — it’s a Stalinist purge, I’m a liar and a hypocrite, KnoxViews readers are a mindless herd and/or pack of animals, it’s all related to Imus (?) etc. etc., oh, and I just now saw that Uncle is kiddingly but it’s not funny suggesting that his readers sabotage this site with a legal time bomb — nice!), and that’s too bad, but that, too, is what it is.

After some digging I found the first mission statement from Knoxviews on 1/20/2006.

Digging? Do you mean you archive this stuff?

The view from the back of the bus is always different from the front of the bus.

Rosa “#9″ Parks, ladies & gents. Crusader for the oh-so-very-underrepresented Republican caucasian male majority of Farragut.

I think it is clear for even Andy Axel what the problem is. False advertising. Every time I or someone else complained that the User Agreement was not being honored it was changed. Management got tired of changing it so the final solution was implemented.

Now the circle is complete as Les wrote with an “ideological purge”.

It is a loss for everyone that worked to make KnoxViews a great forum. The idea to separate users into classes is just another example of far left classism.

It is funny and sad to watch the “Trusted Users” explain to the lower class “Untrusted Users” that they are overreacting. The view from the back of the bus is always different from the front of the bus.

Welcome to KnoxViews, an open, progressive community space for citizens of Knoxville and the surrounding community to meet, organize, and discuss news, events, and issues affecting the community. We invite Citizen Journalists to contribute news, views, and other commentary. Organizations, community activists, artists, professional groups, and others are invited to use KnoxViews for promotion, announcements, blogging, event calendars, and other online communication. For more information about this site and how to get started, please see the about page. OK, then.

We have a need for civil bi-partisan community online posting and chatting, but I seldom got that at KnoxViews, although I certainly enjoyed your, Uncle’s and Les’s postings.

Isn’t it odd this happen during the Don Imus blowup?

Sure is, but I think that he is happy to see the Duke Lacross story knock him down the front page a little, kind of like 9/11 did with the Gary Condit-Chandra Levy saga.

It is. First (Andrew) and middle. The surname is completely routine, and easily sussed. First appearance of that handle was sometime around 1999, although I’ve noticed that a few other people are now glomming on to my nick. (Like the AndyAxel at Myspace. Not me.)

Axel was the given name of my granduncle, a coal miner and first-generation Swedish immigrant.

The last time I looked, it truly was Kos Lite, which resulted in my exiting the board/site without looking back.

It is a fair question Chris. I believe I am currently the number 2 or 3 poster at KnoxViews and in the top 5 five as far as comments. Some people have asked me offline via email why I invest the time.

KnoxViews has more local readership than any other local Knox County blog. Say Uncle is a national blog and many readers are not interested in Knox County issues. It is not uncommon for me to post the same post on each blog pertaining to a Knox County issue and have no responses at Say Uncle and over 100 responses at KnoxViews.

I was convicted for the sin of double posting. That is silly. It is two distinct audiences. My problem was that I believed the User Agreement. I thought it was sincere. It wasn’t.

I wanted to do two things in blogging. Blog local issues and national issues. Everything was fine until I cross posted a piece on Global Warming on KnoxViews. Even though Randy Neal immediately took it off the front page it still generated over 130 responses. That was the beginning of the end. I could have kissed and made up but I had grown tired of the games. Sometimes getting a Gold Star for “Plays well with others” is not the right thing to do.

You can see above the mindset of the “pack” at KnoxViews with what Andy Axel wrote. They believe if they scream at you long enough you will capitulate. It is very effective. Except for myself, Say Uncle, and Les. You stand your ground and the pack starts circling.

These members of the pack will forsake their own beliefs just to argue. Many times they would say “Of course #9 is an idiot but this time I agree with him”. Same with Say Uncle and Les. Always the pejorative before the agreement . You might call it conditional agreement.

This has been coming for a long time. The surprise is the extent of the purge. This is far left extremism. It is way past liberalism.

Isn’t it odd this happen during the Don Imus blowup?

That’s especially rich coming from someone who doesn’t even have the courage to blog without the protection of pseudonymity.

Is your real name Andy Axel? I’m just asking because if it is, that’s a pretty cool name.

(a) I had nothing to do with the MP’s publisher stalking Randy Neal and blackmailing him. To my knowledge, neither did Tim.

(b) I had nothing to do with Randy’s decision to boot you. You have no one to blame but yourself.

If you could stand up for yourself you wouldn’t need Mr. Neal to protect you.

That’s especially rich coming from someone who doesn’t even have the courage to blog without the protection of pseudonymity.

The last time I looked, it truly was Kos Lite, which resulted in my exiting the board/site without looking back.

I wish Randy Neil well with it, but it’s certainly not reflective of the kind of input that I find helpful.

Also, the level of vitriol in the comments and chatrooms of left of center sites and blogs dwarfs that of the conservative blogs and sites that I read (e.g. “outing” and anonymous poster, as done so nicely above).

I frequently read, and sometimes post on, a website relating to a historical topic in which I have an interest, and the level of antipathy, contempt and sarcasm that the members display causes me to refrain from posting on any topic which is tangentially political in nature.

It is an international site, and at least 1/2 of the posters are non-US residents, which means that they live (i.e. exist) in socialist countries which have forfeited their respective national sovereignties to the EU and/or the UN.

Most of them live in countries with double digit unemployment, so they have plenty of time to post.

WHEN: Saturday,April 21
WHERE: Laser Quest
WHEN: 3PM

Followed by Dinner at Calhoun’s in West Knoxville at 6PM

I guess Rich has a sense of humor with the Laser Quest part. Hatfields and the McCoys? The purged and the unpurged?

Total ideological purge.

Your vintage post above, which breaks most of the rules of the KnoxViews User Agreement; shows the elitism and hypocrisy of a once noble forum of blogs. In order to defend you, Steve, and gttim Randy Neal had to purge those who argued with you. In doing so he even took out Rich Hailey and many others who were completely innocent. Rather a Stalinist course of action wouldn’t you say?

Isn’t it ironic that both you and gttim who were instrumental in the last blowup at SKB are once again instrumental in this purge? You both must be very proud.

If you could stand up for yourself you wouldn’t need Mr. Neal to protect you.

It is only a matter of time before the “Thanks for the fish” farewell is posted. I’m thinking November 5th 2008.

I know this is way over your head Oddman, but the idea of there being a “your kind” was brought up by SayUncle. “My kind aren’t welcome there,” or whatever. Take up your beef with him.

I tolerated elitist hypocrisy for a long time so I could blog on local issues on KnoxViews. If I had never blogged on Global Warming, Al Gore, or John Edwards I would still be at KnoxViews and the User Agreement would not have been changed. But don’t try and lay this at my doorstep.

You can play that whiny victim fiddle all you want, but your ideology is the least of my concern with you.

Maybe you can explain it Andy, you responded to my posts more than most. What were you doing, keeping the World safe from #9? Afraid I might “infect” some of the herd with ideas foreign to your doctrine?

Har. De. Har.

Why did I respond to you? Good question. I shouldn’t have, probably. I could say, “You bug the sh*t out of me,” but that doesn’t say why. “You’re an inveterate liar and the worst kind of intellectual fraud,” I guess is as close as I can come. I know you can’t help it, bless your heart, but you have a real problem with mistaking your imagination for TRVTH.

Too bad you lost your conduit into KV, though. You’re just gonna have to work harder to drive traffic to your infringing works on YouTube.

This is the problem with far left liberals. They can’t play by the rules so they have to change the rules.

Try telling my investment portfolio that. Oh, wait. We librulz aren’t supposed to have money or use electricity or own big houses or nuttin’. It’s “teh hypocrisy.”

The whole “Trusted User” deal is the biggest bullshit in local blog history.

If we concede that’s the TRVTH, there’ll be a bigger bullshit in local Knoxville blog history, and I am certain that you’ll be involved. To hear you tell it, there was an unprecedented big bullshit at k2k and an even bigger bullshit at metroblab and an even worse bigger bullshit at knoxblab.

That’s too bad.

Rich Hailey writes:

Well, this is a fine howdy do! As near as I can tell, based on the fact that I can no longer create content, I was not given trusted user status. I checked my posting history, and the majority of my posts here were related to getting Knoxville Bloggers of all political stripes together for good food and fun times.

For this I am banned from creating content?

Alrighty then.

If you have to put on some Chap-Stick and kiss someones ass to be a “Trusted User” then it is time to move on. Randy Neal shot KnoxViews in the knee. For the second time he has destroyed something great. The only difference is he didn’t put up a post “Thanks for the fish” like last time.

The whole “Trusted User” deal is the biggest bullshit in local blog history. It is far left elitism carried out to its illogical conclusion.

This is the problem with far left liberals. They can’t play by the rules so they have to change the rules. Why else would Mr. Neal change the User Agreement three times? Welcome to the mindset of Clinton, Gore, and Edwards. The common theme is “We’re better than you”. Are those the people you want in charge to make the rules?

Reminds me, Mike, how’s that Farragut secession thing working out?

I know this is way over your head Andy, but the “your kind” meme is a big part of the problem. That’s why KnoxViews is no longer relevant.

I tolerated elitist hypocrisy for a long time so I could blog on local issues on KnoxViews. If I had never blogged on Global Warming, Al Gore, or John Edwards I would still be at KnoxViews and the User Agreement would not have been changed. But don’t try and lay this at my doorstep. This is Mr. Neal’s decision.

Mr. Neal was repeatedly upset that more comments were posted on my KnoxViews blog than his. He even commented on this once or twice. He saw his posts as “serious” work and didn’t like the competition. Not my fault. Maybe you can explain it Andy, you responded to my posts more than most. What were you doing, keeping the World safe from #9? Afraid I might “infect” some of the herd with ideas foreign to your doctrine?

The original KnoxViews was a breakthrough forum. Now it is just another Daily KOS-lite imitator. In the end the only way “your kind” could win was to build a fence. The sad part is while you keep “our kind” out, you keep “your kind” in. Welcome to the sound of one hand clapping. The echos of suppression.

The KnoxViews team did not refer to you. Mrs. Neal is the other part of the team.

I wrote that once, in response to you saying something for the 27th time after folks had pointed out to you that you were factually incorrect.

Seems you are stretching the truth over here as much as you did on KnoxViews. Those kind of bad manners are what got you banned.

Maybe it’s easier when people can address you as a human being rather than as an Odd Integer. Just a theory.

Randy’s got my phone number. We have had dinner. His company is delightful and his wife is a lovely person as well.

For what it’s worth, I’ve had a number of posts plonked by Randy but I didn’t make a federal case of it. But thanks for amping the drama and turning this into an internecine blogwar. I don’t expect any different from you, but you’ve had an axe to grind with Randy and with bloggers like me from Day One of the reconstituted SKB. In all fairness, that should be posted as a big disclaimer to your rant.

A decision has been made by Randy Neal and the KnoxViews team to change the site rules so only “Trusted Users” can post to the KnoxViews site.

I’m well aware that the truth has never stopped you from your gasbaggery, so I don’t expect you to start now. But. In the interest of full disclosure, I am a superuser at that site, however, I was never consulted about this or any other change made at KV. So far as I know, this decision and its execution was Randy Neal’s and Randy Neal’s alone. The KV “team” is a figment of your imagination, Oddman.

Did KnoxViews lose its openness today? Only the readers can make that decision. Without a level playing ground will KnoxViews become an echo chamber of only far left thinking?

Hey, Uncle, Les, CBT — how many of your posts or comments, prior to the Superhero Incident, ever got killfiled?

FWIW, no posts or comments, if removed, ever get permanently deleted. I can go back and revive them from the unpublished queue. I see 4 pages of comments in that, and never ever ever ever one by SayUncle, Les Jones, or by CBT. Ever. Not one. Not once. I see some by Kyle Bubp and a bunch of anonymous comments and stuff from that Egalia Stanberry troll and some by Serr8d. A few by the digit. But overall, it’s been a free flow for “your kind.”
_______

No libertarian ideals were harmed in the writing of this post.

My point is that you made a point about traffic.

I did? I thought I made it pretty clear that I thought it was irrelevant. Again, insert les jones’ knoxviews signature.

metulj, I CANNOT comment as I cannot login. Ask your Master. You won the only way you could win. By taking your ball and going home.

Congratulations.”

Yea! Really? I didn’t know. I guess I am outside of the cabal! Whee. Come on over to the Blab and play anytime you want! By the way, I personally protected your anonymity on Knoxviews 3 times during my tenure as a moderator. No need to thank me. And, yes, they were completely accurate as to who you are.

“Mostly. But comparing known to an unknown does what exactly? Aren’t you like an academic or something? And it is irrelevant to the point, which is that I’m not upset about the size of the knoxviews blog dick.

[insert les jones’ knoxviews signature here]”

My point is that you made a point about traffic. Who cares? I thought this was to just entertain you? As for Les, no more appropriately named person exists. As for being an academic, blogging isn’t. I just do it to entertain myself. Whee!

[insert les jones' knoxviews signature here]

metulj, I CANNOT comment as I cannot login. Ask your Master. You won the only way you could win. By taking your ball and going home.

Congratulations.

But you know what your traffic is, don’t you?

#9: you can still comment. You can’t blog. It isn’t your site. Too bad. So sorry.

There is a User Agreement at KnoxViews and for reasons only Mr. Neal knows it was not applied to some special people.

Well, my offense was for daring to post something at roughly the same time as randy. I haven’t been banned but I’ll no longer participate. I’ll read posts from my reader to keep up with what the local lefty community is talking about.

It’s best to ignore gttim. I don’t read anything he writes ever since he made fun of me over my false alarm heart attack. He has some severe emotional problems. But his comments are OK at knoxviews!

Funny you should say that. KnoxViews commenter Rachel used to write that line “La la la I can’t hear you” and then finish with a cryptic insult.

The original format of KnoxViews was a brilliant creation. But the free speech idea was more than some could tolerate. Predictable but sad.

My problem with Mr. Neal is simple. There is a User Agreement at KnoxViews and for reasons only Mr. Neal knows it was not applied to some special people. I dared to point this out and I am gone.

I got tired of people like Steve (aka Whitescreek), gttim, Andy Axel and Eleanor constantly flaunting the fact that they could ignore the User Agreement when others were not only held to the agreement but were held to a much higher standard. Somewhere between the elitism and hypocrisy I got tired of the game.

Far left democrats have a form of kryptonite that they cannot tolerate. It is hypocrisy. They believe hypocrisy is only for wingnuts. When you call them out as hypocrites they go into a frenzy. One of the leaders of the far left liberal pack at KnoxViews has a signature line that reads, “True happiness in knowing you are a hypocrite”. Of course this commenter is one of the great hypocrites at KnoxViews.

My beef was simple. I was encouraged to post local commentary and harassed when I posted national commentary. I pointed out that the User Agreement was changed at least three times and my feelings about those changes. KnoxViews did not start out as Randy Neal’s “blog”. It started out as a forum of blogs moderated by Randy Neal. As time went on myself and a few others objected to the constant “rule changes”, doctrine, and censorship.

Two things tore it for me. First when Say Uncles Poll on Superheroes was plucked off the front page and the reason given by Randy Neal was that he had just finished an important post and he wanted EVERYONE to see it. Of course he could have but that post at the top but that wasn’t good enough. This had happened to me several times and it was a departure from the original User Agreement.

The second thing that tore it was when commenter gttim crossed way over the line and used a BDSM (bondage sadomasochism) term to taunt commenter CBT. Then Mr. Neal told gttim to take it easy on CBT the “token Republican”. The double standard got to the point where KnoxViews lost its relevance. Now KnoxViews is KOS-lite. Will it go full blown Daily KOS? Time will tell. But for the best in Bush-Hitler, you know where to go.

It’s O’Sullivan’s Law: any organization that is not explicitly right wing eventually becomes implictly left wing.

Again with the false alternatives, Les. As for my votes, that’s between me, the ballot box and the FBI.

He voted for a commie. McReynolds, IIRC. He’s said so.

I do appreciate everyone’s lesson on capitalism and Mr. Neal’s property rights. No one is disputing that.

My issue is that when he first started it, he asked me to participate. So, I did. Now, my kind ain’t wanted there no more.

But now that my posting privileges are gone, I have no interest in participating in any other capacity.

He changed to rules because some folks were abusing everyone’s opportunity to enjoy the blog by a) posting stuff on the front page that didn’t merit that much attention, or b) posting borderline libelous and mean-spirited stuff in the comments.

I can imagine Randy refusing to grant “trusted user” status to someone because of their politics. I can see him refusing to grant it to anyone, liberal or conservative, who can’t behave themselves.

“I am neither a liberal nor a Democrat.”

So you’re a conservative Republican? I knew it!

Of course not. And you make fun of libertarians, so that’s out.

So spill the beans. Who did you vote for in the last few elections, o indeterminate, complicated one?

I’ll go first: Bush, Nader, Clinton, Clinton, (bearded dude in the sky help me) Dukakis.