I shan’t be making any statement to that effect.
There are also things I can’t divulge, and other things that in light of current events, I reckon I can. First off, Cherts has the option to come back. He’s elected not to. That’s public knowledge.
What’s less well known is that back in August, Cherts asked me to delete his account. Bletch is aware, and some may recall me posting a thread saying that we would no longer allow account deletions. That was down to Cherts’ request; we’d already lost ExTrader and poor Stephen.
When I spoke with Cherts then, he made it clear that his only problem was Barry. I explained that I’m never going to ship anyone at another poster’s request, and we try not to ban people anyway. If the situation has been reversed, Barry would have received the same rebuke, as would you all unless there was serious evidence that the poster was harming the site.
Cherts never outright asked me to remove Barry, but the inference was pretty clear. “It’s me or him”.
This has been building for months. It reached a pretty nasty climax and I find it ironic that after months of trying to prove another poster was preaching hate, he makes a hateful remark like that just to prove it. He would have been banned anywhere else for that remark alone, and for others too. He’s not banned.
bletch has spent the day attempting to convince him to return, with our collective blessing. He’s not coming back. We expressed our views, but zero demands were made.
“It’s me or him”, all over again. I’m sorry, but whatever you think of me, or my relationship with Cherts, that is a precedent I could never have set. Could you imagine Cherts keeping quiet if I had banned Barry at his request? The site would have died. I would have been inundated with people mocking me or asking the same.
Just what the fuck were his expectations?
“Me or him” just isn’t a rational position we can deal with, so it’s perhaps for the best that he’s made the call himself. Enjoy the me time, Cherts.