Last week someone directed me to a post on Tony Isabella's chat board at comicscommunity.com that was entitled Just Trying My Best. In it he eluded to a recent incident and told posters who felt they had been unfairly judged should contact him about it and he would open a dialog. I took the opportunity and wrote him to asked why I had been banned in April after I had left and without notice of the rules I had broken. I still have no intention of returning to that biased board but I feel I deserve an explanation of why. This is particularly important to me because he took advantage of my leaving to sully my reputation. By leaving, I am a disgruntled poster but being banned makes me a troublemaker. The actual owner of the site refuses to push the issue but supports my banning from three of the boards on the site (one of which I never posted on and the other I only posted my same farewell post as it was deleted from the board.)
I deserve an explanation Tony. Period. Not just of the banning but of your attempt to have me silenced on another board. Banning from the boards has done nothing to silence me. Instead I have learned what kind of person you really are and who my real friends were there. I have as much right to talk about my experience on the board as you do to threaten a mutual friend to keep me from discussing it on his. Just because you would stoop to such nefarious tactics doesn't mean I would. I resent the implication. You were pissed about something else and took it out on me. Most likely the comparison of your actions to a certain politician you loathe is what pissed you off. Well, you are a chat board tyrant and I pity posters that come there to talk to a has been writer only to find that he takes his inadaquecies out on his public.
Well with no further ado here is the letter I sent to him. I have received no response.
Someone pointed your post out to me of Just Trying Your Best. I left the board so there's no reason for you to ban me unless you're afraid of me, but I never received the obligatory email stating what I did wrong to get booted.
Additionally, a third party informed me you wanted me bounced from his boards as well (or at least reined in so I wouldn't turn his boards into a Tony-bashing party.) Because that is something you might do, doesn't mean it is something I stoop to. I keep it on my blog and my boards and that's it. I already exorcised that demon and moved on to better things. I held on posting it as a favor to a friend to let things die down.
But the only thing that bothers me is that you banned me, didn't tell me but told a mutual friend, and attempted to control things on another board. WTF? You don't have to tell me why you bounced me after I left the boards. That's your perogative.
But, if you are the believer in free speech you say you are, why attempt to censor me on someone else's boards? I'm banned from pop culture and the general forum (and I never posted on pop culture) in comics community. Why not go the whole nine and keep me off Ostrander's, Cho's, Duursema's, and Mandrake's as well? At least that would make more sense. But picking on a friend of mine and threatening him, that is very, very low.
I know I picked a poor subject to joke about. I do not apologize as others on your board have done the same and haven't had to justify their existence. I will not be returning to your boards as I still harbor harsh feelings and have a place to discuss politics to my heart's content and keep it separate from comics and fun stuff.
I will, however, extend an invitation to you to join our Exiles board (www.randomquoteproductions.com/exiles). We allow freedom of speech and no topic or poster is unwelcome. All we ask is that if a conversation degrades to flame wars, take it to PM, no one else wants to read the clutter. We would prefer you give an email address as well for the purposes of updating site and you need it to register. But you can use any name and don't have to show your email. There are five moderators so, should a problem arise, the squad will put it to a vote. It takes a lot to get bounced. We've had no trouble so far.
I wish you and your family well.