The Newly Departed thread: announcements (departures)

[robvalue]

I had to make this one last post, to thank everyone for being so kind, and to
apologise for any upset.

I made my position clear in the staff area, I feel everyone deserves to know what it is.

At the very least, I think all private conversations between members of the forum should stay private, whether they occurred by forum PM or elsewhere. This is basic privacy for me. When I realised this loophole in the rules, and pointed it out, it made me feel physically sick that I was opposed on this. I'm allowed to just air dirty laundry, or slander people, as long as I refer to off-forum chat. Why? Why would we protect this behaviour?

It's very simple: if you're discussing a private conversation, you're either breaking the confidentially of another forum member, or you're misquoting them and putting words in their mouth. Either way round is very serious, so if it's anything of a personal/private nature, it doesn't actually matter whether it was said or not. For this reason, being able to confirm it by looking at a forum PM is irrelevant.

I made this position clear, and that I can't compromise it. Yet here we are, the staff do not want private conversations kept private. It's too much for me. It makes no difference where it took place because the staff aren't going to publicly confirm whether a member really did say something highly personal to the forum at large, are they? So from the point of view of every regular member, it's just the same.

I gave the staff plenty of time to be reasonable about this and to work out a new rule. No rule has been forthcoming. If one was made, I could come back. I hope everyone can understand that putting free speech ahead of privacy like this is just too much for me to bear. I can't be a part of a forum with such flawed basic values, it hurts me too much.

I do hope to hear that this position is reconsidered in the future. This will be my goodbye until such a time. I love you guys and I'm sorry.