Ali Barber, stop being such a tw@t. And yes, I would tell you to your face if I knew who you were. If you showed an ounce of understanding of what is involved in running this forum, and I mean trying to balance the needs and wants of a such a diversified group then you wouldn't be bleating and whining about 'censorship'.
The thread about the ugly wives was amusing, for about the first 10 or 15 posts but when someone like Northernmonkey, whose repertoir soon shows itself to be of very limited scope, doesn't realise that repeating the same old joke over and over and over and over... soon becomes pettty, infantile and puerile. Thankfully, even NM realised that he was flogging a dead horse and even stated so. Obviously Ali Barber still wants more of this repetitive and 'not so funny anymore' cr@p.
The moderators may have made a mistake in moving it to JetBlast so quickly but at least it was left there and eventually moved back here. It was interesting experiment in group reaction but eventually I found the post to be repetitive and the humour had worn itself out. I decided that editorially it would be better for this thread to slip away. Unfortunately, a few of you obviously have a serious deficiency in some hormone or something if you feel that the Ugly Wives thread should somehow still be up there near the top. It's a bit like going to see the same low ranking comedian, time and again but he never changes his script. Get a life puhleese!
The Mil forum is NOT moderated as such. Except for the requirement to prevent a few mentally deficient individuals who are unable to figure out what might be too sensitive for posting or preventing individuals who are too mentally challenged to realise that something might legally put me or PPRuNe at risk, they do not get involved.
I on the other hand will occasionally make an editorial decision to stop someone taking advantage of the fact that a post will jump back up to the top every time anything, and usually it is something trivial, is posted. I can make a post 'slippery' and I took the decision to do so in this case.
Maybe if a little bit of wit had been introduced to the thread my decision would have been different but sadly it just became a repeat of the same old joke and mores the pity that NM didn't rest on his laurels with his original trawl but just continued to repeat what was by now becoming predictable. For Simpsons fans, I refer them to the "I didn't do it" episode where Bart becomes a celebrity for his one line comment. Unfortunately, NM will now become like all those other instant celebrities whose status is elevated by an audience whose idea of entertainment is watching a bunch dipsticks who crave publicity but don't have the talent to back it up. The C4 'Big Brother' TV series fans may be feeling uncomfortable by now.
Anyway, back to the topic. Dictator of taste? Not necessarily but I still retain editorial control and in an effort to try and cater for the widest possible audience I will continue to impose (occasionally) certain restrictions if I feel something is getting too much prominence based on a minority who are unable to figure out that it is the quality of the replies to a thread that are important and not the quantity.
As for Jackonicko sticking his oar in, he in particular will know the frustration of not getting something he has written published. In fact I would suspect that he has that experience much of the time. At least here on PPRuNe he gets his voice heard to some extent. I wonder how many editors or publishers have knocked back his works? Would he call that censorship? Perhaps it is just quality control?
I would suggest that Ali Barber and Jacko amongst others try and get an article or even just a letter published in a publication that has the same or even greater readership than PPRuNe. Even if it were published I doubt that it wouldn't be edited in some form or another. I wonder if they would be shrieking and stamping their little feet if that were the case? No... of course they wouldn't, the poor little diddums.
There is an extremely wide variety of points of view made available here in this forum and if you extend that to the rest of PPRuNe you should be able to find some niche or another where your tastes are catered for. If you can't then feel free to make suggestions but please don't accuse me or my moderators of "dictating taste". Put it down to editorial control. After all, it is what has allowed this forum and the rest of PPRuNe to become the first stop for rumours, news and 'banter' for many of you.
Finally, Ali Barber, if you think that what you have witnessed is 'censorship' or you are concerned with PPRuNe becoming boring then perhaps you should consider the fact that it is the members who submit the content and all I and my friends do is occasionally make sure we are covered from a legal point of view. If I decide that a thread (read article or story in a newspaper or magazine sense) doesn't deserve to be on the front page but should be somewhere else because the quality and exclusivity doesn't warrant it then I will move it. To call that censorship shows that you need to educate yourself in the ways of the world. As ex-Mil myself, I know what banter is but to claim that someone repeating the same old joke ad nauseum is somehow eligible to be at the forefront of this forum because it is 'banter' just doesn't wash. Any fool can criticise... unfortunately many do!