Posted by Peter Hyland on December 13, 2000 at 21:16:56 from 62.7.85.55:
In Reply to: Re: TARS Business posted by David Shelton on December 13, 2000 at 12:01:04:
First, hear hear to David Shelton. The whole point of a 'threaded' site is that people can choose to avoid a thread of messages if they know it will not interest them. I completely ignored the 'Eskimo language' discussion recently because it had nothing to do with Ransome and it did not interest me. That does not mean that I am justified in complaining about it - it is other people exercising their right to free speech.
As to judging TARS by Tarboard - that would be totally mistaken. Please remember that only a small fraction of TARS members read Tarboard, let alone post messages on it. Just about all of the members you will meet at Regional (and National) events are enthusiastic and friendly. They do not want to turn TARS upside down in the interests of making some 'political' point. Quite honestly, if anyone is put off by messages on a website (often posted by non-members anyway) they must be a bit wet. The sub is only £15 for heaven's sake.
Finally, as to Peter R. He is not a member of TARS because his membership was terminated two years ago, after 8 years active work for the Society. Despite this, he is keen to regain membership. However, he has adopted a somewhat obsessive strategy, as some recent messages have noted. The matter was also raised at the Northern Region AGM last month. Some of us have repeatedly, in public and in private, advised him to discontinue the campaign and let time take its course. Bombarding a website with repeated points only antagonises the 'regulars' and has no effect at all on the people who actually run TARS, i.e. the Board of Trustees, who mostly do not read Tarboard. Peter apparently disagrees. On the 'Voltaire' principle, I would say that although he can be a pain in the neck at times, he has as much right as anyone else to post on Tarboard. We just have to put up with it (subject only to the jurisdiction of the Webmaster).
Having said all which, can I yet again plead with Peter to put a sock in it for a while?