"I would like to bring to your attention an incident that occurred a few days ago in the Classic Trilogy forum. In the discussion thread “**Official Thread** The unaltered Original Trilogy to be released on DVD,” forum moderator TwilekJedi made a number of bans, including myself LordHelmet1 and Harlock. Not only were these completely unwarranted and unnecessary, they reflected a person bias of said moderator.
At various points in the discussion, the conversation naturally turned to how the originals films were and are perceived by the general public, a perception which is changing and is often forgotten. It was this that first revealed the personal prejudice of TwilekJedi, who aggressively called my observation “ridiculous,” among other things, and had previously made statements such as “you people are getting what you deserve,” etc. in regards to OOT fans who have been understandably disappointed with the lacklustre treatment in the upcoming release. As more and more anti-OOT posters spoke their minds, the website originaltrilogy.com and its poster was inevitably ridiculed, calling them “crazy” and “ungrateful.” These remarks were allowed by TwilekJedi, who shared their sentiment. When I then explained that much of the site represents a slanted view of the OOT since a lot of the older fans have left, I was banned, as was like-minded fans such as Harlock.
The full text of my post was as follows:
“I agree.
And i also think that TF.N represents a severely slanted view of Star Wars fandom. That may be hard to realise or fathom if this is the only place you view or post, but the dissatisfaction of the SE and PT is very strong just about everywhere else--and this is ignoring the fact that to the majority of the world Star Wars is simply the first film, or at most the OOT. They saw it, they loved, they moved on--95% of the people who plunked down a combined $307 million in 1977 don't post here, or on the internet at all. The fact that all dissenters here have been basically squashed and forced out is very disheartening--they were marginalised to the point where the only place they could post their voice was the insultingly-named "Bashers" Sanctuary and now that is gone. I myself never made one post there but i am pointing all this out so that people realise that the OOT is far, far, far more important than the majority of posters here realise.”
I messaged Twilek to find out what the basis was for such harsh treatment, and his reply was as follows:
“This ban is for completely derailing the OOT-DVD thread by discussing fans not
too long after a mod-warning, coupled with the fact that you were edited (at
least twice) for that sort of thing before.
Ban is for 24 hours. –TLJ”
But this is completely false, misleading and inappropriate. Not only was I NOT steering the conversation, I had never once been addressed by Twilek, either privately or publicly, and NONE of my posts had been edited and/or deleted (after I replied to his message, of course some were). My actual post on how “the OOT is more important to the rest of society” itself was a response to OTHERS who were de-railing the conversation by saying how unimportant it was (personally, I think this issue is completely relevant in the first place but I digress). I have also been the most constructive and informative poster in that thread, since I have been making custom screen-captures to compare various versions of the saga, digging out 1977 screener photographs and dissecting the release process of 35mm film, since I work in the cinematography department of the motion picture industry. My comments have never been personal, inflammatory, irresponsible or unreasonable, and I have always prided myself as one of the more constructive contributors to this site.
But this is ridiculous. In my seven years on these forums I have never once been banned, nor have any of my posts ever been edited or deleted by moderators. Twilekjedi, I later found out, was also the one who closed down the Bashers Sanctuary, and has also banned many OOT fans since then. There is a personal prejudice at work here, and not only is it pushing away many intelligent posters, it will soon turn these forums into “happy,” ignorant Lucas-lands, which many dissenters I have encountered elsewhere already feel—prejudice like this is ruining TFN’s reputation.
And I consider this a case of personal harassment.
What’s worse, I am not even some OOT anti-Lucas “fanatic”—I actually PREFER the SE for the most part, and I am a PT fan. But now even moderates like myself are being pushed around and festering grudges.
This has to stop. There is a reason why the Classic Trilogy forum is filled with people who think A New Hope is “meh,” and it is because all of those that have disagreed have been forced out. I think its great that we have fans that have both viewpoints on the situation and that we can argue about silly stuff like this, but unfortunately the fascistic abuse certain higher-ups are wielding is turning this place into something I no longer feel like I want to be a part of.
I didn’t know who I could turn this complaint to, and seeing as you are labelled “administrator” it seems you would be most appropriate. I would like this behaviour brought up with other mods, and perhaps even some disciplinary action involved because it really has gotten ridiculous as of late. I have been here for seven years (eight actually) and never had a single problem with the otherwise-great people who maintain this place, and have always received a great deal of respect for my insight, but I have been personally harassed and insulted and I feel that this should issue should not just fade away. This is a major problem.
Thanks for listening to my lengthy complaint.
Sincerely,
Mike Kaminski"
Hopefully something will come of it.