Dark Planet

We need a cat around here.



Er... maybe another cat...

I ................I mean, what on earth............or not,,,,,,,,,,,,I am going to bed. Where is the herbal pain killer jar? Such a headache. I am determined to come back though and try again.

Orwell wrote:I know, I know - if it's any consolation, no one wants to talk to me. Deadish Forums and they don't even want to tell me off for my thinly veiled advertising efforts! Don't they realise that any posting is still posting. They might even form a posse and attack me (not that I'm being inflammatory or anything, though a hint or two has crept in here and there about how evil Taz is). Like I said, getting folk posting is the first thing, you can start removing unsavoury Forumshire sorts later, if it comes to that.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:I don't know, there is something disreputable about all these other sites- there's no place like home.

i see.

Tongues often get stuck in cheeks here, leelee. It is a good thing to know!

Unwritten Law: Be careful Not to take things too seriously in Forumshire, not without checking to see if one's funny bone is in working order!

Also, if one has a disagreement or a misunderstanding, one must move on. No one here is perfect. An open heart will always get one through - and a willingness to (silently) forgive if one is troubled is always a good strategy. Not only are we good people here, some of us are actually people, with blood in our veins, and with faults, and positive attributes too.

Orwell wrote:Unwritten Law: Be careful Not to take things too seriously in Forumshire, not without checking to see if one's funny bone is in working order!

Actually, it's a written law, too. Consult our official Rule #4.

That's another trouble we have here, people should not be having so much fun, it's not natural!

Is this Odo or Petty I'm talking to? Here, have a buckie!

We have our answer on Dark Planet. I don't see any reason to disbelieve the explanation from Taz (New Members), but nor do I feel the urge now to return there. The flavour of Taz's post was not really to my liking. It was uncannily like the victim being blamed for his victimisation. We were upset and spoke of that hurt, and in no way in a family unfriendly way, even if our annoyance showed forth amid the jokes, and Taz's response: best delete... delete... delete...never happened... Big Brother? Oh well, I'll breathe the free air instead, and be satisfied.

Yeah, sorry Orwell, but I can't blame Taz for losing patience with you guys publicly and rudely jumping on his case for every little thing, especially after he made an archive for us. Let go of the entitlement issues: you do not have an inalienable right to say anything you want on someone else's privately owned forum. I can't speak for Taz, but it feels to me like you and Pretty think he owes you something.

Just to clarify, I'm not saying that posting on PT asking about where the old threads went was bad, but doing so in such an accusatory and sometimes downright nasty manner on his own forum (and especially going back there again over a single thread that turned out to be a technical error) is excessive. But I've said my piece on that before, so I'll let it rest.

There are subtleties involved in this whole busines, Eldo, that I think you're missing in your efforts as peacemaker, and blesséd are the peacemakers. Taz still does not have a clue about why we were annoyed with what happened, at how his initial thoughtlessness to others in the way he acted brought a certain "tension." Under pressure, he did the right thing, yes, but when the Forumshire thread disappeared, it was quite natural to speculate why, because of what happened earlier and that old "tension."

Now, in regard to the "loss" of the Forumshire thread, there was never any concrete accusation to "motive" just the raised query that it might have been a deliberate removal. After past instances, it was not a ridiculous "speculation," nor unnatural or trivial to speculate.

Eldo, the "subtleties" mentioned at the beginning of this post relate to how one treats others, even when in disagreement. I am not too bothered by all this btw, though you may think I am. I'm a pragmatist. I've made my ideas clear. All are free to agree or disagree - here. No disagreements are apparently allowed on family friendly Dark Planet. I wouldn't want my kids living in a world where they can't raise concerns and doubts or be, whether rightly or wrongly, annoyed about something or other. The world is full of people who suppress the ideas of other people, whether violently or politely; and I don't use "suppress" as a synonym for "disagreeing-with-hobbits-in-fair-and-open-discussion-or-debate", I mean it more in the way of "deleting" other people's views. "Deleting" behaviour often has the taint of Big Brotherliness.

Breathe the free air.

I thought Taz's reply was over the top and completely devoid of a sense of humour. Tellingly Pretty made a comment about a lack of sense of humour and got a reply from one of the Dark Planets older members who said "(Sigh) I have to agree, it was different in the past before the Family Friendly policy" -that's from her memory, sadly she cannot quote the poster as the entire New Members thread it was on seems to have been removed (no doubt for more technical reasons!).
As to making public comments on his board- i can see how that might have upset Taz, however it was a position of his own making as Pretty made several attempts to contact him privately to resolve the outstanding issues and she never got a single reply or even acknowlegment the requests had been received, in the end there was no choice but to ask publicly and had it not been done we would not now have our old threads back.
That things have reached such a sour note is a deep shame. And that Taz felt he had to resort to name calling particularly disappointing. It didn't have to be this way, he could have replied to the private messages. Our members who have been visiting there have made posts on purely Tolkien matters as well, I could understand his postition more if all people had done was go there to post about Forumshire, but they they were also contributing to other areas of his site, you would think he would be grateful given the slowness of new posts appearing there.

You are a hobbit of outstanding wisdom (for a Scotshobbit) Petty. I did myself as you know begin posting there in an effort to support Dark Planet, this in a willingness to let bygones be bygones, and in respect to Taz for returning our property. I too think the problem is a lack of humour. On our side, even when we rightfully chagrined we still put in an element of humour amid our complaints. I feel sad that Taz took us the way he did. Oh well... I'm home again for good; and perhaps I'm now a cophobbit who is that little bit wiser about the cruel world of forums.

Well, the deletions that Taz mentioned seemed to have gone through. I prefer more laid-back and humorous forums, such as ours (which is part of the reason I'm here ), but I'm not going to give other people a hard time for liking a more serious forum environment, no matter how stuffy that might seem to me. To each his own: Taz has just as much right to run his forum the way he sees fit as we have the right to carry on our forum in our own way.

I do share Petty's regret that things ended this way and I agree that Taz could have been more diplomatic, but as I've said before I think the same sentiment applies to both sides. In any event, I hope that we can still see exchange between the two forums (though that seems less likely now), but I'm still grateful to Taz for returning our posts and hosting them on his site.

Are you accusing Pretty of lacking tact Eldo? Brave man if you are.

I wasn't terribly diplomatic in all of my posts on and about the DP either, I can admit that. I think it's a shame that the two forums seem to be at odds again and I really do hope that we can continue to have connections between our members and members of Planet-Tolkien, but maybe that's just me being a sappy pacifist, or whatever the NotP likes to call me.

Maybe he came here and read the NotP, some members of the DP seem to have trouble spotting its not a 'real' newspaper. Pure Publications are so concerned theyve hired a team of laywers (goblins obviously) in case they get sued for defamation of character and slander. At the moment they are arguing over whether being drunk in charge of a newspaper can constitute an offence (its a hard concept for a Scotshobbit to get their drunken head around).

Let's just hope there aren't any Palantir hacking revelations.

Now, now, Pure Publications would make like to make a staement on this;

"It is perfectly clear we do not hack anyones palantir's. Accidental 'crossed lines' can of course occur due to the nature of palantir viewing but that of course is never delibrate and we would never use information found in such a way. No, we hire people who may accidently use palantirs in such a way and then those people may present the information through legitimate channles without the prior knowledge of Pure Publications, thus absolving us of all blame and legal ramifications. Nor is there anything at all supicious about any buckie paid to the Sherriffs office of Forumshire, those are merely charitable donations to individual Sherriffs for outstanding contributions to the Community."

Murdoch and Dark Planet ---- mmm ....? The more power you have the more evil you can get away with...

Mmm... Taz? I can offer this thought. Of the many ways one can deal with criticism three particularly come to mind:

(1) Put forth clear logical arguments and provide evidence refuting your guilt (or partial guilt).
(2) Apologise unreservedly - if you decide you're guilty as charged.
(3) Delete the past.

What would my namesake Georgie Orwell say about Taz's approach? Something wicked (however seemingly miniscule) this way comes, Eldo; I make no bones about it.

Let's hope that we don't see Forumshire's oldest and largest newspaper be shut down over this! Of course, that would suggest it might have been bought out by Ozhobbits decades ago, and surely the Scotshobbits wouldn't have let that happen? Unless an Ozhobbit buckie tycoon made them an offer they couldn't refuse ... I could see that happening, actually.

Um your half right Eldo. What with one thing and another over the years, and the cost of keeping a team of thirsty journalists the paper was sold to a foreign owner long ago, but this being Forumshire he is not an Oz human, rather a Down Under Troll, mysteriousy called Bear Muirdock.

I don't like the sound of him at all.

Dark Planet is a very noxious place. I tried to log in and congratulate leelee on her appointment to their council, and I was taken straight to this thread. Taz has control over Forumshire too? Nasssty business. Proves my point. Really disgusting behavior. Why not just say I'm banned there?

Oooh... look what I found...