The interview continues where we had left off!
Jeff Koinange: So have things always been this way between you and the KBW Administration?
Acolyte: No! One of them was who sees me as a tool of destruction was among the first people to comment on my blog and the founder too has commented on my blog before.
Jeff Koinange: So when did things begin to sour?
Acolyte: Well as a person I have always enjoyed debate and intellectual conversation, so what I did was set up a blog persona ( Instigator ) who would go around and ask hard biting questions about issues so as to instigate discussion, I also began to use the corresponding blog for social satire on many issues but focussing on gender issues in the Western world.
Jeff Koinange: Was this identity a secret?
Acolyte: No it wasn't, I told several bloggers about it and even had the persona guest blog on my own blog for a while. Other bloggers have even openly linked me with that persona.Another example here. So this was an open secret!
Jeff Koinange: So you did not use the persona to make personal attacks.
Acolyte: Oh no not at all! I set it up for fun. Besides which people knew who I was so it wouldnt make sense at all!
Jeff Koinange: So what went wrong.
Acolyte: Well there was this post on the Administrator's blog ( Mshairi ) where I felt that she had over-reacted about an issue and I made a comment using that persona. Here is the comment in it's entirety and her answer.
Feb 25th, 2006 at 5:56 pm
Jeff Koinange: What happened after that?
Acolyte: As you can see here; she blew up and lashed at me. After saying she wouldn't communicate with me unless I came out for real, I did only to find that she had blocked my I.P from her blog. A fact that I hinted at in a past post.
Jeff Koinange: So what did you do?
Acolyte: It is a well known fact that I do not take attacks lying down so I addressed her issues about my so called misogyny and tore her a new one while I was at it; as you can see here. Not a wise move in retrospect because I should have been more sensitive to her feminist sentiments.
Jeff Koinange: So do you hate women?
Acolyte: Not at all! A bulk of my readers are women and much as I may poke fun at them now and again. I respect them.
Jeff Koinange: How is your relationship with the rest of the Administrators?
Acolyte: Well I have a cordial relationship with Afromusing, as you can see here. As for Maitha I honestly haven't been to his blog often and commented there. I don't read MJY's blog and my close relationship with Nick is an open fact.
Jeff Koinange: What about the founder, Mental?
Acolyte: To be honest, sometime after my run in with Mshairi; my comments would be deleted from that blog as fast as they would go up. And no they were not demeaning comments but general magnanimous ones. A look into the earlier archives will show some of my comments and the answers. In fact in the early days he actually visited my blog.
Jeff Koinange: Do you have anything against Mental?
Acolyte: No, not at all! I admire his hard work and I do not want to bring KBW down at all!
Jeff Koinange: So what is this all about?
Acolyte: Accountability and standards. It is okay for Mshairi to hate my guts as a person but to use her power to influence my being kicked out of KBW is wrong on so many levels.
Jeff Koinange: Are you sure that it is Mshairi?
Acolyte: Well the fact that I am getting conflicting e-mails as regarding the whole issue of my membership status means there are two different parties in the Administration. I would like to think that Mental is very level headed and was not behind my expulsion that came with a flimsy explanation. So that leaves only Mshairi who has a motive as I have not had a run in with any other member of the Administration. If it was someone else then my apologies to her but at the moment I am not convinced at that it wasn't her.
Jeff Koinange: So what do you make of the latest post on the Admin blog?
Acolyte: To be honest I think people are not reading from the same script at all. It is time that matters were clarified. My expulsion had nothing to do with the code on my blog! And it couldn't be because I removed the code after I received the email telling me that my blog had been taken off the aggregator and was no longer on the list of KBW member blogs. So the code isn't an issue at all and shouldn't be talked about!
Let it be known this isn't an attack on the Mental and the rest of the Administrators! It is about transparency, accountability, misuse of powers, censorship and other issues I am going to touch on. I am not out to destroy KBW but I think there are some important issues here we have to deal with! This is also an open acceptance to Mental's offer to dialogue.
Part 3: The way forward..................
Why don’t you start your own blogosphere then where all the posts can meet your standards?The fact is that there is freedom of expression on the net and as a result people will say what they feel, it doesnt make it right but it will happen.As for that blogger who called a woman a bitch here is the definition:
The word bitch — originally used for the female members of the canid species, specially dogs — is more often employed in a figurative sense as an insult for a promiscuous woman, or a malicious, spiteful, domineering, intrusive, and/or mean person
If the coat fits then put it on the person who should wear it as the terminology did suit the situation.
I have read many blogs by women with men being described as dogs,snakes,slime and no-one says anything.People should not dish it out if they can’t take it!
As for the comments about lesbians, like I said this isnt utopia.There are some people who do not like lesbians and think they have some sort of mental disorder that can be fixed by a “dick whipping”.It doesn’t make it right but that blog is the author’s venting ground and even if they don’t write it; they are thinking it.Free speech can be a bitch!(ooops I mean a bother!)
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I find it interesting that you do not dare show your identity while posting this comment. Are you scared/ashamed or so lacking in self-esteem? In any case, I know who you are. I know your blog where you write derogatory posts on women. I will only ever engage with you when you dare show your identity. In the meantime, go hide under a rock.