Unhappier Developments

At this moment, I'm looking for a new location for the ring homepage, and fully expect to have to reapply to the rings my rings are already on, because my host has, without sending us any notification of this, vanished. This is why you see a copy of the ring homepage incorporated into the blog for the ring - free homepage providers aren't very reliable, as a group, except maybe for Webring Webspace, and the rings aren't hosted on Webring, ruling out that option. Blogger, however, is highly reliable and unlikely to vanish in the near future. I needed an update blog, anyway, and Blogger also supports the ssnb javascript that Webring wants us to use, so this seems like a workable choice, one that doesn't require me to periodically pester the ring managers asking to be let back into the ring, after yet another free homepage hosting service vanishes.

Yes, I'd be happy to get paid webspace for this. I'd also be happy to have seen the work I did in college and graduate school lead to something other than long term underemployment. I can only spend the money I have, and there seems to be less of that to go around, every day, Math tutoring not offering the lucrative, glamorous lifestyle that one might imagine it would.

How to Join

Yes, I use Googlegroups. What you're going to need to do is apply to join the ring management group, and introduce your site. I'll open the ring for you, if I feel that your site would make a reasonable addition to the ring, ask you to add your code to the site and to send me an e-mail when you've done so. I'll check, see that everything is right, and admit your site to the ring.

I will expect you to maintain a clear and easily traveled path back to the ring from all points on your site, always. Yes, this procedure requires a little work from you, but it's the only way to keep the spam off of the ring queue.

I'm a bit displeased with Ringsurf for reasons which I'll explain later. For now, please join the World of Webring version of the ring, instead of the Ringsurf version, just to be safe.

The Purpose of This Blog

I have a pair of rings, named in honor of a homophobe still known to many on the Internet, but has a broader purpose than that of keeping his memory alive, and his posthumous rumor mongering squashed. It is for stories that hold homophobia up to the ridicule it deserves, by showing the absurdity behind it.

When new sites join the rings, I'll write about them on this blog.

Fred Cherry and Friends: The Untold Story

"Why is This Ring Necessary? Haven't there been reports of Fred's untimely demise? What more is to be gained by talking about him?" Reasonable questions, demanding reasonable answers. The most obvious answer is that, once one is able to separate oneself from the aggravating realities of the experience, it's a funny story, if in a very sad way. But, aside from that, the story isn't really over, even if Fred has passed away - and false reports of things like that are not unknown on the Internet. The story isn't over, because even if Fred is gone, his words live on, and the rumor mill is still going. Consider the experiences of one Susan Cohen who, even if she is being a very good sport about the whole thing, is still being harassed. Consider this post from November 2004, well over a year after Cherry's reported death.

Date: 25 Nov 2004 03:38:27 -0000 Message-ID: <ARIYZQNS38316.4850347222@reece.net.au> From: Ken LewisNAMBLA <thras...@reece.net.au> Subject: Call/Visit Me-Susan Cohen;Discuss NAMBLA Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa, soc.culture.america, soc.culture.american, alt.revisionism,soc.culture.palestine From: john.poindex...@wowmail.com (John Poindexter) Subject: Re: NAMBLA-A Conduit for Pedophiles;Visit Me Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa, soc.motss, soc.culture.palestine, alt.homosexual, us.taxes Date: 20 Sep 2003 12:22:08 -0700 Isn't this the same Susan Cohen who supports the convict, and child molester Ken McVay running the Bnai Brith funded BUSINESS where he cheats JEWS called NIZKOR? Sounds like 2 of a kind to me.... > From: Fred Cherry (j...@world.std.com) > Subject: Re: NAMBLA: A conduit for Pedophiles > Newsgroups: soc.motss, soc.bi, can.motss, > sdnet.motss, ba.motss > Date: 2002-10-04 11:49:43 PST > > In Message-ID: > <9f2e0168.0209261203.34563...@posting.google.com> > Subject: Re: NAMBLA: A conduit for Pedophiles > Newsgroups: rec.arts.poems > Date: 26 Sep 2002 13:03:20 -0700 > c_lysa...@bikerider.com (Chuck Lysaght) wrote: > > > It's no surprise that no one in this newsgroup > > can offer any intelligent comments about the > > url I posted. Just nonsense, and personal attacks > > Predictable, but unfortunate for others. > > Chuck, if you think YOU have been the victim of personal > attacks, you should try to post something directly in > opposition to something that Susan Cohen posts. Then > you will REALLY see personal attacks from the > number-one liar and the number-one supporter of > NAMBLA on Usenet. Here is an excerpt from a recent > 221 line diatribe against me, posted in the newsgroup > alt.politics.homosexuality, Susan Cohen's favorite > newsgroup. Because of my opposition to NAMBLA, > Susan Cohen's favorite organization, I have had to > put up with this sort of thing for about five years. [ complete text of the post ]

For the record, I have never seen anybody ever offer so much as a single quote of something that Susan Cohen wrote that any sane individual could take to be support for NAMBLA (the North American Man - Boy Love Association, a group dedicated to legalizing sexual relationships between grown men and young, pre-pubescent boys, a position which I have condemned in the past). But even in the absence of evidence, some have tried to offer an alleged absence as evidence, as we see in the case of yet another person fighting to keep Cherry's libel alive:

From: "mhlife" Newsgroups: alt.gossip.royalty Subject: Re: Not just Immaturity, but Outright Lies Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 00:22:36 -0000 Lines: 61 Message-ID: <2uvvf8F2fpbs0U1@uni-berlin.de> References: <hArid.780$oa1.577@trnddc03> <BDAFBBF2.279CA%jeansue@bookschlepper.com> "Jean Sue" <jean...@bookschlepper.com> wrote in message news:BDAFBBF2.279CA%jeansue@bookschlepper.com... > in article hArid.780$oa1.577@trnddc03, Susan Cohen > at flav...@verizon.net > wrote on 11/4/04 10:06 AM: > > > Even tho' I have told the supposed anti-monarchist > > filth to stay out of my inbox, I see that not only can > > they not follow directons, or even obey actual laws - > > but that "phil" is must be getting *really* desperate. > > Not only are these lies whoppers, but > > half of them have been corrected *to his face* > > (as it were). > > > > SusanC > > > > > > He posts the "same-old, same-old" and > we all know it's tripe. Well, Jean-Sue, I do tend to post tripe - good quality tripe with an extremely high nutritional value, but still tripe. Usually. However, the original post was not an example of my usual menu - and, you might care to note, that Ms 'Cohen' has yet again failed to condemn NAMBLA. It was Fred Cherry who first drew attention to Susan's alleged enthusiasm for the North American Man Boy Love Association (which is the full title of this most disgusting group of paedophiles) and, as I've already said, I could scarcely believe that Cherry could be correct. So I searched Google for the exchanges between them - and, sure enough, whenever she was pressed to express abhorrence at the activities of an organisation that actively seeks the legal 'right' to conduct homosexual relationships with children aged from birth onwards, Susan wriggled and jiggled, and evaded giving a straightforward answer. ... [ full text of original post ]

... and might very well have had excellent reasons to do so, given that crowd's historical fondness for mailbombing and otherwise harassing its critics, as mentioned in the Fred Cherry Story. One need not have any ill motives at all to take a look at the bad experiences others have had when speaking out, and decide that one would rather not be put through that oneself, especially online, given the practice seen out of some ISPs to reward campaigns of online harassment by silencing the people harassed. Assuming, that is, that one can even trust that part of the story that we are being told. Sad to say, many will do just that, without thinking.

Nor is Ms.Cohen the only person that this has been done to, though in her case, the efforts would seem to be unusually blatant exercises in cyberstalking and general abuse.

All of this, as I've said, took place after Fred's alleged demise, and why wouldn't it? Usenet always has more than its share of people who are looking for a little mud to sling, in the hope that it will stick, and Fred's false accusations are preserved in the Googlegroups / Dejanews archives, in large numbers, ready to be dredged up by anybody. In real life, death stills the voice of the neighborhood gossip, but online, one's "voice" lives on in print, or its electronic counterpart, very often. That being the case, the seemingly sensible query "why now" can be seen for what it is - the failure of the complaintant to recognize that the experiences which gave rise to his earlier notions of common sense are no longer a reasonably good guide to the new circumstance which he finds himself in.

If it sounds like I'm suggesting that the introduction of the Dejanews (now Googlegroups) archives was a change for the worse - no, not at all, at least not entirely. In the bad old days, when somebody would play the kind of game Fred and his friends made a name for themselves playing, there was little that one could do to prove that they were lying. Now, with the introduction of a (one hopes) neutral third party keeping the records, documentation and defense of one's reputation, or reputation of another, becomes a real possibility. But Usenet, having become something of a cesspool during those old days, didn't suddenly become a decent place just because a few new tools were introduced, and there will be those who want to misuse those tools. It's up to the rest of us to make a reasonable effort to see to it that they do not succeed in their attempts to do so.

At this point, would you rather go to the ring hubpage on World of Webring or Ringsurf? Or would you rather go to the main page and see if I have anything else on this blog, now that you know what is in store for you? This page ... I mean, post is being mirrored on Jabry.com, on the ring homepage.