I'm considering shutting down the <WCC Editing Project> forum, at least for a hiatus of some undetermined length.

At the moment, I have little or no confidence in <Daniel Freeman's> willingness or ability to administer his website in a fair and rational fashion, so I'm reluctant to put in any more of my time in on a volunteer project for him and his website.

Given the way he just "handled" the recent fray on the admin forum with his egregiously mixed messages, I am currently not confident that he would reliably enact our editing work.

It might take a year to finish all of that work, and since we have no power whatsoever over a final edit, I feel it risky for me, at least, to continue working for him on this project.

If I close the forum, the data and all the work we have done so far is not lost- far from it. Once the forum is reopened all the work appears again, and of course Daniel has the password to the forum and all of the data anyways. If he wished, he has the power unilaterally to reopen the forum and give the password to another member to lead the work, if that's what he wanted to do.

Finally, I have all of the work we've done saved externally in a file on my computer.

At any rate, this is my inclination at the present moment.

The reason I'm saying this here, and not in another place, is that it's your advice, observations, and counsel that I prize most highly with regard to this issue.

I'd like to know what you think about this, and what advice you might offer?

Say it ain't so Jessie Joe!

There are many reasons why you should continue working as the Ayatollah. But the one that really counts is you love this work. Nothing else matters.

I can fully understand your sentiment as he dealt a huge blow to my confidence in him also.

And this is such a huge load of voluntary (!) work that you were ready to do for him, for the greatest benefit of <chessgames.com>!

I also have my doubts about <chessgames.com> being the right place for this whole work. You showed your good will through deeds, others just pass by and post something like <Allow me to add, the chess world appreciates what you are doing here.>

I'll just randomly toss out thoughts. I'll support you in your decision. I can't speak for everyone else, though. You did, after all, take on a position of leadership and authority on the matter and a lot of people did, after all, invest a lot of time into the project. I wouldn't find it unreasonable for them to not support the decision.

<At the moment, I have little or no confidence in <Daniel Freeman's> willingness or ability to administer his website in a fair and rational fashion, so I'm reluctant to put in any more of my time in on a volunteer project for him and his website.>

And you should continue to reference him by his correct name. The references to Neville Chamberlain came off as juvenile. I agree on the fair part. Some of the unrepentant insults tossed out by AJ are disgraceful and have no place here. They are not going to stop. They are not going to stop. They are not going to stop. And I don't think the site is going to stop them. There's my take on the matter. The rational bit, meh. Any website admin knows they'll have to deal with cranks. I absolutely don't agree with how he's been dealt with. But I'm not running the show and there you go.

As for the relative standing on the site of the people involved, you can forget that. I understand that you think you should carry a bit of weight in your protestations, based on your contributions to the site and buying many memberships for many people. 6 years or so ago, I found out that CG.C simply doesn't care. I had been giving 10 memberships a year at Christmas and some freeloader who couldn't pay for a membership of his own complained about some of my posts, and they took his side.* I didn't post here for a year in protest. CG.C didn't care. I quite giving memberships every Christmas. CG.C didn't care. In the current case, someone too cheap to pay for membership is getting special treatment and your reasonable pleas are being ignored. That is how it is and how it is going to be.

More random thoughts.....it's 6:30, I didn't sleep well, I don't care if this doesn't come off as polished and edited. Your appeal on the CG.C forum, though sincere, was misguided. "Witch hunt" was a bit strong, but it did come off rather poorly, I thought. Even though some statements were factual, eg, referencing how previous appeals there seemed to work when the whistle function did not, it just wasn't the right place.

AJ can't help it. I am convinced of that. He can't and won't change unless something happens off site, which won't happen.

Okay, I have more to say, I think, but I'm too tired to continue. ===

*<chessgames.com: <OhioChessFan> We received a complaint from somebody who believed it was disrespectful to Pierluigi Piscopo, and we concurred. If I understood what was going on correctly, several people were using the page to relay jokes told by comedian Joe Piscopo. Of course that's off topic, but the complaintant rightfully pointed out an obvious aggravating factor: Joe Piscopo's humor derives largely from poking fun at Italian stereotypes, and perhaps Pierluigi, being Italian, finds that humor in especially poor taste. There are many player pages where harmless off-topic fun is tolerated (T Music, Beer, etc.) but these are exceptional cases and not a general rule. Unlike "T Music", Pierluigi Piscopo is a relatively strong and well known player.

Please understand, we're not upset with anybody, and no harm was done, but in this case we had to side with the Whistle-blower.>

Here's a link to the "well known player" and you can see how much interest he's drawn in kibitzing in the last 6 years.

With regard to those of us who have done the work so far- it's not actually that big a group. Why don't we make a group decision on it?

<Me>, <Karpova>, <crawfb5>, <Ohio>, <TheFocus>, and <Boomie>.

<whiteshark> and <thomastonk> have been grand, but mainly as "called in experts." That said, their opinion, if they choose to offer it, would be welcome.

Who else?

Let's consider these folks a quorum= <<Me>, <Karpova>, <crawfb5>, <<<Ohio>>>, <TheFocus>, and <Boomie>>= and then decide together if we want to continue.

Just one thing- if we all do decide to continue, we should vow to each other and ourselves that we will indeed finish the project, no matter what else happens between now an then eh?

If the quorum decides it wants to finish this project I will stay on to manage the forum until we finish, as a point of honor to the quorum.

I'd still like to hear from <TheFocus> and <crawfb5> on this topic.

LOL!!

My dear <Ohio> I was mystified by "SH" until just this second-

"Shrieking Harridan."

Fascinating.

Sugar House

Short Hippo

Stunned Hamster

The mind reels.

Well ok then since you put it that way.

I pestered <Daniel> to let us make these edits, I bought that forum and <Daniel> made it a forum for life.

Though I'm angry with him at the moment, I doubt he'd let anything concerned with the issue of site moderation interfere with making a coherent decision on our edit.

When we are finished we can send him that letter you drafted for us and put it at the top of the file.

I am really enjoying this project for a wide variety of reasons and I want to finish it.

So I will work on it until it is done. This isn't my "thought of the minute" either. I will continue till completion no matter what else happens at this site.

Happily too. Not 24 hours ago I typed "Anyone who doesn't like editing is crazy," so I'll let that be the last word on it.

Who knows what really goes on in the hearts of men?

I'm listening to it right now for the second time in two nights- <Tbone> played it for me in an extended music session that cost me the next day, going to work on two hour's sleep.

Although I want to help, ultimately you are going to have to make this decision on your own. Give us time to voice our opinions and then make your decision.

My concern is for your happiness. Nothing else about this matters to me. If you feel that continuing the project will be too stressful then stop by all means.

<AJ> ain't going anywhere. Best thing to do is put him on Ignore, or at least don't read his posts.

I'll be moving to a new school this coming week so I might be scarce around the editing homestead.

I've cleared up current bidness there, but please don't hesitate to keep on putting new material up in the forum.

Nice.

I'm assuming you get some of the royalties on this latest hot reality tv show?

<So you think you can be Ukraine Chessmaster?!>

Cleveland, Lake Erie: http://o.aolcdn.com/dims-global/dim...

My next excursion into "So You Want to be a Russian Grandmaster" will feature up and coming superstar Evgeny "Careful With That Axe" Tomahawk.