[pct-l] PCT-L now in forum format/unauthorized taking

[Ken Murray]

When I first saw the notice of this, I did not carefully read 
what was happening, but I now realize that there has been an
unauthorized taking of people's property from this PCT_l list.
I say property, as anything we write is our property, protected
by copyright law.  We allow the use of it when we post it here, 
but we do not give it away.

Normally, this would not be a big deal.  I don't actually believe
that there is a lot of commercial value to our writing here, although
it potentially could drive some traffic.  What I do object to, is 
taking something that belongs to someone else, without asking.  That is
just rude, unethical, and crude.  We have no idea what motive is 
behind this, because none has been stated.

I do have concerns about someone who has actually demonstrated 
a willingness to suppress other points of view, not in theory, 
but in actual practice.  You will note 
in this "Brave New World" of the PCT_L Board, there will be the 
ability of the moderator to remove a persons post if the moderator
disagrees with that point of view.  No appeal, no review.  
On the PCT_L   that does NOT
exist, because once an email has been sent, it cannot be recalled.
Brick has generally used a "light" hand in moderating, stepping
in to talk about blocking posting moving forward, but this would
be different, eliminating the historical record, and there
would be NO appeal.  His website talks about "the collective
wisdom of the hiker community", but he runs his website as
an absolute dictatorship, absolutely.  The PCT_L functions
as a collective community, the Postholer does not.

This doesn't feel like a service to the PCT community the way
this was done, if feels like a takeover of the content of this
site, to enhance the value of Scott Parks' exclusively owned website,
and it doesn't pass the smell test to me.