Some of them have the experience. Some of them have experiences I don't have.
Craigslist has a forum. Unmoderated, and much like usenet. That's as I understand it.
I never participated, so I may be incorrect.
Also? There are other writing forums. Some started before Mary, some after. It's
funny. The more things change the more ...you know? It's said that the only thing you
need to start an A.A. meeting is a coffee pot and a resentment.
Some writing forums are completely hidden. If you want to play, you sign up, there is an approval process -- most of which amounts to:
"Are you now, or have you ever been, a LiteraryMary sympathizer?"
And part 2:
"Is this Father Luke?"
LiteraryMary, Jenifer's baby from the beginning (I just sort of work here. See the
staff page:
http://literarymary.com/forum/index.php?action=Staff ) is unique in that
regard. Jenifer dislikes censorship, and she wanted a place where writers could come
to participate in a place where they could feel free to write, and play.
That is not to say she allows bullies. Usenet is the result of unmoderated bullies.
From the beginning, usenet was the domain of anarchists, lunatics, and terrorists.
Only recently -- last three years? five years? -- has usenet become the playground
for kooks. No one else really uses usenet anymore. Facebook, MySpace, forums, they've
done a good job of replacing the free-for-all usenet. That's open to debate, I suppose.
So why would anyone be "censored" at Mary? Well, my belief is that only governments
can censor. Everything else is pretty much free trade. If someone has something they
feel is valuable in today's market, they bring it to the table to trade. If no one
buys it? You go hungry, or find something else to trade.
Mary is not a government. No one is censored. It may be, however, that no one likes
what you have to trade in an open market. Even my estranged employer kicked ass in
the temple with the money changers.
So. We have appropriateness. Is this "appropriateness" enforced?
Yes and no.
Jenifer understands that the internet is not what it used to be. Netnannies aside,
the interwebs are a wide open space still. After all the tweaks, modifications, and
html advancements, the intertubes are still something you invite into your lives.
Lives which have children, employers, and federal agents with court systems.
Mary has places on her where things may be work-shopped in private, and away from the
ever present big sister Google, and her hungry cousins: Ask, Bing, Yahoo, ad naseum,
et. infiniti. So Mary allows for privacy -- a place where unpublished work may remain
unpublished. But everything else is open book. There is even a board where you may
poast even if you are not signed up. So, Mary endorses freedom of expression. She
endorses freedom of expression by allowing for it.
She also doesn't stand for thugs. Not long.
So, what does all this have to do with ignore? And the bravado chicken shits declaring:
PLONK! You are now KillFiled?
Not a whole lot, really. Some will see this entire poast as the pinnacle of hypocrisy.
Others will be confused, skim it a bit, them move onto some pome to read, or
perhaps on to poast a youtube video of the song they currently have stitching the
holes in their heart. Others will have other reactions to this poast. It really
doesn't matter. As with all < small kof> good writing, it's spoken from the heart. At
least as close as possible. Carl Rogers is attributed with saying that the things
closest the the heart are the most general. I've liked that quote ever since I heard
it because I knew that the closer to the heart I wrote the more universal it would be.
Mary has become among those places on the internet where Jenifer and I may feel free
to invite our families to come join us to play with words, secure they may do so
without fear.
So, it's like that, too.
