To clarify the question of timing raised by Kent's false allegation of
having been removed from Poetryetc after Steve forwarded his first statement
to the list: Steve's forwarded message--the heading of which indicates that
he'd received it from Kent almost 24 hours earlier--posted to the list less
than 10 minutes AFTER I'd removed Kent, almost as if they'd been waiting for
that.
In fairness to Alison, I want the list to know that I took that extreme
measure myself (she was offline and Randolph, as you know, was away) in
response to "information received," as they say. It's confidential--and
those of you who keep demanding more information must accept that everyone
on this list is entitled to his/her privacy--so all I can say is that one of
your fellow members of this community was being victimized.
We had hoped that putting Kent's posts on review status to assure that he
wouldn't compromise the list vis-à-vis JISCmail, as he seemed determined to
do, would make it unnecessary to remove him, but it didn't work and the
threat to the list as a whole and to individual listees became my overriding
concern. I did what I thought best for everyone's sake and am perfectly
willing to accept the criticism that's ensued, while wishing that people
would address the actions rather than questioning the motives and integrity
of Alison and myself. Those who don't know us yet have no reason to question
our integrity, and those who do know us have no excuse for questioning it.
It should be rather obvious by now that Alison and I both bent over
backwards to treat Kent fairly even as he flooded our back-channels with
abusive e-mail and we were receiving numerous complaints from other listees
about him. This list is for everyone on it, and everyone benefits from our
(unremunerated) efforts to keep it going as a safe, comfortable place for
the discussion of poetry. We are under no obligation to offer a venue for
the discussion of Kent Johnson. Those listees who would prefer that to
Poetryetc are welcome to find a server and start such a list. This one is
for poetry.
Candice Ward
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