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The John Byrne Guild?
I've always found the phrase "off topic" to be a strange creature in the cyberworld jargon. Imagine if a few people were having a beer at a bar, talking about Batman Begins and one them comments about Sin City, leading the conversation away from its first topic. Well, for someone to forbid a discussion of any other subject within such a group at a bar, would look like a Monty Python satire and not something as widely accepted as its counterpart in the internet forums. But that's not exactly what happened to me on the John Byrne Forums yesterday.Yesterday, I posted the press release there for our new site and titled it with a focus on the formation of The Comic Book Creators' Guild. In the post, I asked John to consider joining the effort to form the guild. When I returned there several hours later, I saw that the post had been removed. I thought about this long and hard and considered posting a query as to why - but decided instead not to waste my time over there anymore. I'm not always good at sticking by all my decisions, however, and I visited there again today with the intention of posting the query. I couldn't bring myself to do it in the end and I'll tell you why further ahead. What I did do is check the forum rules to see if I'd disobeyed something there with that post. Sure enough, it seems I might have. Here's what I believe to have been the problem: Do not start self-promotional threads. This forum exists for the discussion and promotion of the work of John Byrne, not yours. Putting a link to your website in your signature is fine, but making a thread about your latest product or service is not. It's his forum. John can do anything he wants there. If he only wants to talk about himself, it's his right. Who's the one losing out here, after all? Who's the one disengaging themselves from the comics community by doing so? I could allow this incident to pass by were it not for another such previous encounter I had at John's forum. In the first few days after Will Eisner's passing, I posted a topic there which can be seen at our headquarters here, For Truth, Justice and the American Way. As a heated discussion of its content ensued, the post was suddenly locked by the moderators and then removed. Some members apparently felt that it was untimely and were bothered by my invoking Will Eisner's name in a political essay at that time, although I'd tried to explain that I wrote it with only the highest regard for the memory of Will's life and works. My explanations fell on deaf ears, however, and I received no good explanation for the abrupt action of the moderators. So, I went and posted the same piece at Steven Grant's forum at Comic Book Resources, told Steven the story, without specifying whose forum it happened on, and asked his opinion. The thread can be seen here. Steven's response was: They removed it? Idiots. An invigorating and good discussion then followed Steven's response. So I went on to post it at Millarworld and sure enough it was shut down there also after Kurt Busiek objected to it, much on the same grounds as some Byrne forum members did. I persisted, however, and asked the moderators for an explanation. After an amusing fiasco, covered by Graeme at Fanboy Rampage, the thread was re-opened. The Millarworld moderators showed much grace and goodwill in reversing that decision and I have nothing but good memories of every visit I've made there since. For a while, they even honored me by adding my name to the title of that forum section and I went on to spend several great weeks there, producing the sketchbooks promoted on this site, in their company. Not so with the John Byrne forum. The John Byrne forum is only intended for discussing John Byrne. It's not intended for having general discussions with John Byrne, which might include discussing anyone else other than John Byrne. John Byrne doesn't like guests dropping in and discussing anything else other than John Byrne. His moderators are rude to guests who disobey their John Byrne rules. It's not a nice place to be, unless you just want to go there to worship John Byrne. So be it, John. I understand this means you're not likely to want to help us in forming The Comic Book Creator's Guild? Unless, perhaps, we change the name to The John Byrne Guild.
Permalink Posted: 11:19 AM EST
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