I’m actually coming to the conclusion that unless there’s a panel or appointed editor up to the task, all poetry should be banned from e2. Anyone who knows me at all knows I hate to say that, but my anguish in the end was not over having something deleted (God knows I have a combined node heaven larger than most), but because Sharq was simply rude. It doesn’t matter whether I’ve been here forever or that was my first post, that’s not how you should tell someone you’re cutting their stuff. Politeness is always in order and so forth. A lesson it is taking me long to learn.
As for the rest of it, I remain certain that Sharq does not understand the piece of writing he nuked, but he nuked it anyway. We’ve been down this road far too often and my suggestion of us both going to some kind of explanation court is, I know, in the end, a waste of time and unrealistic.
I’m not going to laundry-list responses to whatever he’s had to say, which is why I am writing this offline and am just going to post. It is entirely a storm in a teacup, and one of my own making. The fact is that I have to learn that any admin can nuke stuff if they choose to, that’s a part of e2. It’s arbitrary at times, and impolite at times, but that’s up to the management to manage.
The irony of course is that I felt sorry for clarence when I read his original node about the Mazda a few days ago……knowing how as his first post was going to get (rightly) nuked.
Finally, I would to thanks amnesiac for inspiring me and think it only fair that I acknowledge that The Pakistani Kid is based entirely on him. The Mazda is all my own. It was an old red coupe thing that I drove in London in the early eighties. Falling to pieces. I taught YTS kids (look it up) ‘life’ classes. One afternoon, after a session with some junior hairdressers above a pub in Catford, I offered a couple of the girls a lift home as they lived on my way back to Dulwich. Both went off laughing at me stood beside the Mazda, one calling back: Only Pakis drive Mazdas.
For those who missed the spark, see below:
My dear SharQ:
You delete something that you tell me is not good enough, but suggest instead it should go in the daylog. Which upsets me a little. Especially as I spent two hours writing my crap and -my guess is- you spent two minutes writing yours.
Why don't we, for the sake of e2, use this anguish for a poetry exhibition/explanation?
Consider the Mafia.
I will outline a simple explanation of what the thinking behind this poem was/is, as the writer.
You explain why this poem doesn't deserve its own node, as the editor.
We submit both to a third party who does not allow either of us sight of the others argument but posts both in the same node (or whatever) so that readers can easily see what's up.
Let's be fair, folks are not poetry excited hereabouts so you probably have a majority before you start, but it will be a good way to see the thoughts of the writer and the deleter all at once. Let's try to take the high ground and use this as what it might be, rather than what it might be anguished over.
What do you think? Speak up.
Dermot