Capt. Mooron wrote:

Wally.... with all due respect ... I must take this assumption to
task. Rules are set as guidelines... although enforceable to the
letter... this does not justify nor mitigate abuse of those
enforceable guidelines as a shield to prevent engagement with an
opponent on a "verbal" matter.

Agreed.


I would state that once precedence is set.... once parameters of
engagement have been mutually established.... it is plainly wrong to
resort to evoking such action.

Absolutely.


To explain .... and I'm certain you are aware... I have taken
Jonathan to task.

I had noticed the dulling of your tone recently, but the reason for this
hasn't sunk in until now.


During that encounter a certain established
exchange of insults was undertaken. The difference being that
Jonathan elected to report me for defamation to my ISP... despite an
ongoing interchange of established insults between us. Jonathan had
the option of not responding .. or kill filing me. I made no attempt
throughout this altercation... to mask my identity nor alter my
header. I provided everyone with "if subject contains" keywords to
facilitate kill filing.

Despite my efforts... Jonathan took advantage of my TOS to report me.
I know I was in violation to a degree... but this benchmark was
established within the protocol of the group and until Jonathan began
filing abuse complaints ... I had been in verbal quarrels to a much
greater degree of dissention than what had taken place with Ganz. I
even on occasion had come to his aid. Having the these boundaries
established within the group... I felt that I was not in violation
of the "spirit of intent" of my TOS.

It seems to me that this is a rather different state of affairs than the one
I have been commenting on.


I have refused to follow the recommendations of my ISP and file
counter complaints.... since I have accepted the terms of engagement
on this group.

I don't know if counter-claims would work. While I would weigh them up as a
tactical option, I would be tempted to avoid using them on principle. For
me, the arena is here, and not some nefarious back-stabbing crap conducted
in email between self and opponent's service provider. That BBS network I
talked about in my post to Neal - it was heavily moderated and completely
unlike usenet, but a good thing about it was that all moderation, hearing of
complaints, and bootings/reconcilliations were done in public for the entire
network to see.


I firmly believe that to blindly state that I am guilty of violations
of my TOS is a rather narrow minded and short sighted accusation....
based on the letter of the law rather than the intent.

I haven't been making statements about you, but about Neal's declared
deliberate stepping outside his provider's TOS (now softened to 'almost'
stepping outside it and being booted due to weight of complaint numbers). As
I say, I haven't been aware of what your telling me here (kinda saw the
posts but wasn't really following what was going on).


To quote my ISP... "although we agree with your position, our hands
are tied by the regulations"... sums up what they think of the
complaints forwarded to them from Jonathan.

I wonder if Jonathan would care to comment on this? In my view, this
situation has gone beyond the "I can neither confirm nor deny" line. If it's
true, he's completely out of order.


I stand righteous in my indignation..... so don't paint this canvas
in black and white... and do not talk down to me from a precarious
perch of pretensions.

I can assure that there is no intention for my opinions to come across as
pretentious. I understand your predicament, but I do still see it as black
and white. Hard as it may be, your circumstances have changed, and the basic
choice that I've outlined several times still stands. For you, some of the
ledge has fallen away, and the edge now closer than it was - and that's a
damn shame. If they've changed because someone has messed around with a
real-world resource that you use, than that's plain wrong.


I have only one provider in my area..... I knew this when I entered
into the diatribe... and Jonathan was the only one to report me in
the years I've posted here. He has established himself as such......
without a doubt... beneath my contempt!

Jonathan? What say you?


--
Wally
www.artbywally.com/FiatPandaRally/index.htm
www.wally.myby.co.uk