Saturday, August 19, 2006

The Lost Postings

Guess what I found: http://www.moyogo.com/SLCensoring.pdf

..dozens of postings that have been deleted by Sensei's Library's owners!

The interesting thing about these postings is that they contain zero insults and zero slander or libel, they do not violate any of SL's guidelines, yet they have been erased from the public record by unilateral decision of Morten Pahle and Arno Holossi, for no other reason than that they were embarrassing to them.

Because quite a few postings express support for my "case", which was that I found it unfair that Moyo Go Studio's freeware SGF Editor was banned from having a "Community Ad" on Sensei's Library. It became clear that Sensei's Library's admins' claim of "illegalness" didn't stand, and that their subsequent claim of "unethicalness" did not get much support either.

Still, they were unrelenting in granting me a Community Ad for my Go Freeware, as we can read below because I was not polite enough in private emails to Arno & Morten.

After deleting the thread, Morten Pahle declared that "Advertizing on SL is a service we grant to our friends only, and Frank is certainly not a friend of ours".

Which means that SL, just like GoBase, is less an open forum for the benefit of the Go playing community as would be desirable. Without a platform from which I can distribute my Go Freeware, it's useless to spend effort on it at all. Why would I work for hours on free software for the Go community, when the largest open forum of that same community - Sensei's Library - boycots it because of personal dislike? None of SL's patrons ever informed me of any formal protests lodged at the admins either - something I consider pretty outrageous - it shows how deep we have collectively sunk when we accept this kind of thing.

I am glad to say - Things are going to change. I know of another Go Wiki in the making - one that will be administered by a person who is, IMHO, able to prevent his personal dislikes of people from harming the Go community at large.

More, later :-)