Another Person Leaves Webringnews

Time has come for me to say goodbye to WebRingNews. I do that with sadness. WebRingNews has been important to me. I thought it was an open forum, and before and around D-Day, September 5, 2000, I had the clear impression it WAS an open forum. I got to know The Bob, not always with positive energy, but always with some kind of strong moral overtones, and a clear set of ethics. Bob was vocal about his posting rules. Sometimes I even agreed with Bob. Rudeness, accusations, profanities, and attacks on persons were deleted. I have no problem with that.

I have been banned once. Bob assured me that he didn't do that. That it was a Yahoo! glitch. I believe him.

As of lately, the amount of deleted posts have increased. The reason for deletions have shifted away from that initial set of moral overtones to another reason. I'm not exactly sure what this new reason is. It feels to me that the new reason is "speaking out against Yahoo!".

Yesterday many posts by James S. Huggins were deleted. With that action I was deeply offended. If any member of WebRingNews was and is attempting wholly and with great commitment to be posting according to the rules, then it was and is James.

On that same day James claimed that Bob was the Founder of WebRingNews. Yet also on that day he asked where the listing of Bob amongst the Founders had disappeared to.

The approval an deletion of posts seems to slowly have shifted to the same sameness as what I so deeply resent about Yahoo!. I cannot really express this well in words. It is a form of oppression. A gray uniformity, which sucks the life out of your individuality. A grayness which stifles your creativity. A sameness which kills souls. It is that which was behind the indomitable underground resistance of Holland in the Second World War. A grayness - ehhh, of Navbars.

Sugoimog expressed this in her phrase on the Anti-Navbar pages:

Strength is irrelevant. Resistance is futile. Freedom is irrelevant. Self-determination is irrelevant. Negotiation is irrelevant. You will be assimilated. You must comply.

To me, WebRingNews is no longer a safe environment. It oppresses souls. And I need to leave. You will delete this post. But not after having read it. So you know what you are deleting. That is a decision you only carry a responsibility for. May you feel that intensely.

Goodbye.

Jack H. Smit
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