Absent Friends & Missing Persons

[LMcD]

Good to hear Pulcinella that you are OK - stay safe

Pleased to say Pulcinella has been posting in the last few minutes!

[Petrushka]

Have we now lost Joseph K?
I hope not.

Not sure. It's hard to keep track lately of who's walked off in high dudgeon, who's said they're leaving but then comes back, who's left and come back under a different name, who's quietly left without saying a word and so on, and so on.

[cloughie]

Not sure. It's hard to keep track lately of who's walked off in high dudgeon, who's said they're leaving but then comes back, who's left and come back under a different name, who's quietly left without saying a word and so on, and so on.

Then there are others of us hanging around waiting to be ignored, offended or have their threads deleted, and maybe occasionally make an interesting contribution. however in varying steepnesses the learning curve travels on.

[Pulcinella]

Pleased to say Pulcinella has been posting in the last few minutes!

Oh: I 'returned' on 27 June.
I've not adopted the Ignore route yet, but I'm certainly avoiding threads (such as the Coronavirus one) that were making me more anxious.
I hope to be able to continue making useful (and occasionally witty) contributions.

[Richard Barrett]

I just heard from Joseph K that he's been banned from posting here or sending PMs. Whoever is responsible for this: shame on you for giving this treatment to one of the most intelligent and articulate members of this forum. What were you thinking of?

[Bryn]

I just heard from Joseph K that he's been banned from posting here or sending PMs. Whoever is responsible for this: shame on you for giving this treatment to one of the most intelligent and articulate members of this forum. What were you thinking of?

There does seem to be something very wrong with moderation decisions here of late. I think the Host(s) concerned should feel obliged to come clean with their reasons for those decisions.

[richardfinegold]

I just heard from Joseph K that he's been banned from posting here or sending PMs. Whoever is responsible for this: shame on you for giving this treatment to one of the most intelligent and articulate members of this forum. What were you thinking of?

There is a certain irony here. Isn’t Joseph K. the name of the Kafka protagonist in The Trial? The “sentence “ Passed here has a Kafkaesque quality. Was he informed of the Charge? Allowed to have representation? Life imitates Art

[french frank]

A word of explanation. The only banning was of the account JK which was opened by Joseph K in contravention of the rules. Joseph K was placed in temporary premoderation (which triggers an exclusion of PMs). The reason given to me was that it was felt he was deliberately (if jokingly) stirring a particularly troubled situation.

I don't - from my point of view which is biased - see the moderation as having become more authoritarian, merely the demands being made by some members as less acceptable.

Some of you, perhaps many of you, will disagree. When the convulsions on the BBC messageboards took place in about 2007, about 200 members decided to leave and join the new forum - r3ok - which an unknown person had set up and offered them as an alternative. For those who feel that the rules here are too harsh and intolerant, the option to leave is similarly open to them.

Please note that since GDPR we no longer close accounts, we delete them with all the data attached. If you wish to delete your posts, you need to do this before tendering resignation as once your account is deleted your posts cannot be located.

[Dave2002]

I just heard from Joseph K that he's been banned from posting here or sending PMs. Whoever is responsible for this: shame on you for giving this treatment to one of the most intelligent and articulate members of this forum. What were you thinking of?

Oh dear - that presumably means I can't get in touch with him.

I hope this is only a temporary ban - a suspension. I don't know whether that is justified, because I don't know the reasons - but unless they were very serious, I hope he will be back - if he wants to come. At least I'd like to remain in touch with him.

It seems to me that ff's description - indicates opening two accounts - which is indeed against the rules as I understand it. I may have done that a long while ago, or at least changed my identity for a short while - in the days of Ron Dough - who sometimes used very amusing techniques to get out some humorous messages.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Oh dear - that presumably means I can't get in touch with him.

I hope this is only a temporary ban - a suspension. I don't know whether that is justified, because I don't know the reasons - but unless they were very serious, I hope he will be back - if he wants to come. At least I'd like to remain in touch with him.

There's no ban. Just the removal of a second account by the same person. See #1988.

[Serial_Apologist]

For my friends I will do my usual weekly blurbs for the Hear & Now and Jazz threads, but otherwise postpone further contributions to the forum, pending Joseph K's return.

[Barbirollians]

For my friends I will do my usual weekly blurbs for the Hear & Now and Jazz threads, but otherwise postpone further contributions to the forum, pending Joseph K's return.

Why did Joseph K have two accounts ? Surely he can still post from his first account SA .

Welcome back French frank by the way

[gurnemanz]

All this is a bit bemusing for anyone like me who missed all the offending posts. A massive disappointment for us all if we will no longer have Jayne's inspiring contributions. It seems she was censored for quoting Joni Mitchell. A favourite singer whose lyrics I know rather well. It's hard to blame Jayne for being upset.

Being a friend of Radio 3 is my only concession to social media - apart from using WhatsApp for family chat and arranging tennis games - so I won't be leaving. It would be my loss.

PS The Kafka character was a different person, spelling his name Josef.

[Flay]

A massive disappointment for us all if we will no longer have Jayne's inspiring contributions.

Indeed. I do hope she comes back, and that we can all be friends again.

[Barbirollians]

Last month marked the 10th Anniversary of my joining the BBC Messageboards. I joined at a time after my partner had spent a year undergoing treatment for Cancer, which was pronounced "sorted" - the relief had an unusual effect on me ... I found that I couldn't read novels for a long time (Eco and then Proust got me back in the habit), and sharing ideas with people on the Messageboards was a great form of therapy.

Tomorrow I hit 60 - or it hits me - a mere Spring Chicken, I know (well, perhaps "Autumn" would be more accurate, but that ruins a joke about "well-sprung" that I was going to make) but an age when a reassessment of one's priorities seems appropriate. As some of you know, my partner died six years ago - and the Forum has been an invaluable source of life for me in that time: you all helped me keep in contact with myself (even - who knows, perhaps especially - those of you who have raised my ire and passionate fury with ideas and opinions directly contradictory to my own). It has been a pleasure and a very real privilege being a Host for the past five years, and to have had the chance to steer the Forum over the past three-and-a-bit years.

But such a prvilege brings with it responsibilities which make great demands on one's time - those phishing posts advertising "Hot Sex" sites don't delete themselves. And, at this age, I need to devote more time - a lot more time - to the activities that are most important to me. I do not wish to face the end of my life (which I don't intend to occur for many decades yet!) having failed to at least attempt the compositions and writing projects that have been tickling the back of my mind for some years now. My partner was always delighted to see me working on my creative projects, and I feel I owe it to her memory as well as to myself, to devote all my spare time on this work.

And so, this is my last post as a member of the Forum. I hand the keys of the Executive Washroom over to my good friend Eine Alpensinfonie, knowing that the future of this wonderful Forum, which has been so important to me this past decade, is in the very best of hands, and I leave knowing that it can only go on to further heights of social, cultural, and educational benefit to its members, to all of whom I wish all the very best of health, wealth, and happiness, and to whom I send my very deepest gratitude for the help you've given me over the years - none more so than when most of you didn't know you were doing this.

Bestio!

I wish fhlg would come back - hope he is well and musically productive .