Freedom of Speech

[gavin]

Yes, I thought that you had some provocative aim in mind with that post.

Your post does not require 'reinstatement', it is still there for all to see. All your posts will remain in the public domain, no matter how unreasonable or illogical. If people wish to post beekeeping-relevant posts they will be respected and left open for discussion, as long as they are not abusive or otherwise unsuitable.

Your post above simply reveals that your thinking is still driven by conspiracy theories, in this case that Monsanto are likely to control everything we eat. That is daft.

I have argued within the Executive that there needs to be a proper, informed debate on this topic and I would welcome some action on that prior to the Council meeting in 2011 debating and deciding SBA policy on this topic. Until now, the members have been poorly informed - to a large extent by one-sided distorted stuff from you and Salt.

I have moved this post from the main area at the top - where your confused diatribes have been detracting from the good things this forum does - to this area where, until some revision of the site takes place, it belongs.

Comments on your post and on your attitude and now very welcome here. This thread will remain open as you are raising the topic of SBA policy which, I should remind you, is the business of the autumn Council meeting and not the March AGM.

Any comments anyone?

Gavin

[Eric McArthur]

Gavin wrote;

In your time as Scottish Beekeeper editor you had free reign to publish any kind of smear you could get your hands on. This place is different. Keep your posts relevant to beekeeping please.

This thread is now closed.
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Gavin
You are on thin ice here! I printed truth, which seems to be unpalatable to you! The tabling of a few examples of these smears is now in order!
I would also be obliged to you to have the offending thread re-opened! I would say if you go down the censorship road the Forum is in deep trouble.
Also as I understand, as Administrator, you “administer”; you do not participate in “starting threads” - especially not as you state - “I suspect that I may be starting more threads than most”. I’ve read “Animal Farm” a couple of times and I begin to see parallels here!
Gavin wrote
Thread initiation to be *moderated* so that only the best topics go up for discussion.
Moderated (censored?) by whom?
Eric

[gavin]

It is not my intention to go back and debate the many, many anti-GM press clippings and articles published in that time, but instead to look forward to a new debate to come.

As I have said, you are not now and have never been censored on this forum. You have had your say whenever you wanted to say something. The two closed threads needed closing. The BBKA pesticide one had run its course and some were advising me to make it disappear. I am not minded to do that, but the discussion there was interfering with the normal flow on the forum. Your anti-Monsanto one was just that, anti-Monsanto. Nothing directly to do with beekeeping, but of course as you think that we are on the verge of turning over the food supply to their control you may see things differently. Tough.

As you know, I'm Administrator because I pushed for this forum in the first place, I organised it and I set this thing up. I don't need to be Administrator forever, but at the moment there seems to be no alternative. Most such fora have the administrator also acting as a moderator and a participant too, and this is no different. I have welcomed additional moderators. To be a moderator requires a number of things, commonsense, plenty of time, an inability to get riled and fly off the handle when provoked, a desire to keep things open for all and not appear too heavy-handed. More than anything perhaps it also requires a thick skin. So I'm very grateful to those who are there to help keep this thing stable and useful.

I'm sorry that you don't understand the reasons for trying to set up an area where discussions on the interface between science and beekeeping can run without the hyperbole and wooly thinking that sometimes (often?) overtakes such discussions. The idea was to control the topic and give it some structure, but not censor the content.

If anyone want to pick up on this last point, please add it to the thread up top, not here.

cheers

Gavin