It is with some sadness that I am severing my links with OoL Internal differences of opinion about the direction the site has been taking make my position untenable. I still wish the site well and have been pleased at how well it took off. But it ain’t for me anymore. Pity.
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Oh dear! I must have missed something – I’ve been ill over Christmas & so not been logging in. I’m sorry to see you go 🙁
You were included in the email exchange. In short, I really don’t like the religious proselytizing and the snide attacks on those of us who do not share that belief. I very nearly went about six months or so back when we were getting all that conspiracy stuff being posted.
I do hope you’ve recovered now.
Ah, I had a feeling it was the religion that did it – I’ve been avoiding my email (mainly through the thought of all the spam I’ll have ) but I better steel myself to do it later.
As for better, no, not quite, but I can face the thought of a bit of browsing now so I must be on the mend.
Yup, that was the final straw. That and being persistently misrepresented.
Having similarly abandoned commenting at OoL, I hope I may nose around here for a while. Good wishes. Andrew (aka Don QuiScottie)
We both lost patience over the same thing.
Very much agreed LR and I support you in your secession – you’re absolutely spot on about the religious aspect and it really grated with me as well.
It’s a shame you feel it’s you who should leave. As a daily visitor what I’ve witnessed is a seemingly relentless takeover by James Higham who has turned it into an extension of his own blog and whose posts are rarely anything to do with what I understood to be the guiding principles of the shared blog, a project I thought was thoroughly worthwhile. Was he part of the original team? I can imagine that he is somewhat difficult to work with, given how obdurate he tends to be when anyone disagrees with him in a comment…
You will also have noticed me becoming more quiet as the months went by.
James and I set it up originally. At the time we took a very open approach to content. In hindsight, I feel that we made a mistake. When we started getting the conspiracy stuff coming out, I nearly walked then as I could see that outsiders looking in would not be taking us seriously and would undermine our core message.
On religion, I am happy to champion religious freedom as it’s one of the basic civil liberties. I am deeply unhappy to be a part of something that indulges in blatant proselytizing. The idea that religion is necessary for liberty is absurd at best and downright incorrect. At worst, it makes us look foolish and somewhat wild-eyed. And, no, not publishing this stuff is not censorship.
When my fellow admin indulges in the strawman fallacy to twist my words into something they never were, I feel that walking away is my best option.
I tried something different and it worked for a while. Maybe I will try again one day.
A shame LR.
I enjoy reading OOL partly because of the wide differences of opinion and outlook. A conversation where everyone shares the same view, or a blog where you can predict what the next post will be abou, soon becomes boring. It does sometimes stray into odd areas that aren’t exactly my cup of tea, but we can all choose whether to continue reading! That’s freedom isn’t it?
Thanks for the comment. See my comment above in response to PT Barnum. I think the ensemble idea was a good one and I did enjoy it for the most part. But I just cannot continue given recent events. And, of course, my decision to move on is also a freedom.
Yes, it was the variety of styles and opinions that attracted me to OoL in the first place.
With regards the religion thing, if I choose not to be proselitysed to (which as an atheist is anathema to me), then I am under no compulsion to read what is written. Indeed, I have always had a pick’n’choose approach to OoL. As Woodsy points out, it is the differences of opinion which provides a lot of the interest.
So I’m sorry to see you depart from there LR. No matter, you still have this excellent blog here for our delectation.
The situation was slightly different for me as one of the founding admins. So while I tended to keep out of discussions that I didn’t particularly like, the increasing trend for religious preaching made me increasingly uncomfortable as this was not what we had set it up for (same with the conspiracy stuff). I would rather we hadn’t published such material. But that went against the ethos we had set up. Given the conflict between the two positions, something had to give. In the end, it was me.
P T Barnum
Entirely correct.
The slightest crticism of religion, especailly the wonderful, perfect christian one, is interpreted as a desire to suppress religion.
I wonder if JH has been infected with catholocism? It tcertainly seems that way.
A shame.
Sorry to hear, but glad you will still be around.
Thanks for the efforts.
A great pity. You write really well and the internal conflicts at OoL come across as healthy to me, but I’m very much on the periphery.
To be fair, they were not a huge issue for most of the time. The recent religious preaching combined with blatant misrepresentations in the comments simply brought my unease to a head.
I’m just surprised you lasted as long as you did, given the contents of comments at times. But as many have said it’s good you have your own blog which is always entertaining and doesn’t try to beat us over the head.
I remember the Nameless Libertarian making a similar remark when we had the internal disagreements over publication of the 9/11 conspiracy nonsense. I stuck with it because it was partly my baby and I wanted it to succeed. I still do. I am just not happy with the direction it has taken. My decision, therefore is not to follow where it goes.
I have but one comment on all of this. Longrider is a fine blogger for freedom and I support him on that. The day he stops doing this is a sad day for the sphere and for freedom. Even now I shall continue to support him as his common sense and refusal to knuckle under shines like a beacon in the political blogging world. Sure we had some words via email and it was pretty willing but to me, they are so unimportant compared to the main thing – and that is to keep blogging on liberty.