late entry to this argument

by brooklyn

Posted to Feedback on 2002-09-12 09:15:00

Parent message is 281343
I’m sorry this argument got heated and repititive towards the end, but I would like to add my own response.

I spent yesterday walking around the city, doing the candlelight vigil thing one last time at Washington Square Park (a nice scene around dusk) and then I read a poem at the open mic at the Bowery Poetry Club. So I’m feeling calm and slightly more hopeful about the state of the world today, and I’d like to try to seriously answer what deaf says (and I’d also like to thank buddhabitch, panta, jota, in extremis and others for their responses, which I mainly agree with).

Deaf, I take your words seriously because “censorship” is a serious word. I believe you do misunderstand what LitKicks is, though. It is a private company. Jive does not provide the message boards — Jive is a software package that I use to provide the boards. “Censorship” refers to a government not allowing individuals or groups to publish freely. LitKicks is not a government — LitKicks is a publisher. The government could censor LitKicks, but it does not make sense to say LitKicks is censoring anybody.

If you submit a manuscript to City Lights Books and they choose not to publish it, is that censorship? Lawrence Ferlinghetti runs City Lights Books — are you under some illusion that because Ferlinghetti is “beat” that he will publish any novel that is sent to him?

Maybe you think it is easy keeping a site like this alive, but I promise you it takes a lot of time and dedication. It doesn’t cost that much in $$$, but it costs a hell of a lot in terms of the work I and others have put into it. We care about the site, and, yes, we need to have some rules to make sure it remains as good as it can be.

I hate deleting anybody here, and in fact it hardly ever happens. When it does happen, there is a lot of talk about it, and maybe this makes people think it happens a lot. To get deleted here, you have to be really seriously inconsiderate to your neighbors, to an extreme degree. There is nothing else that will get you deleted. If you do not act like a complete asshole, you are welcome to be a part of LitKicks. I think this is a good policy and we’re sticking with it.

I hope this helps explain.

— Levi