Author: Steven Schwartz
Date: 19:04:14 09/08/04
First of all, my apologies to Peter Berger for discussing his contribution publicly. I would never have done it if I had thought it was an issue. Second of all, Steve B. did not hesitate to give a very generous contribution to CCC regardless of his feelings about CTF. Thirdly, it is time to bury this issue about CCC and CTF. I will make some comments and then ask the moderators to cut off discussions after a day or two when they feel the issue has been beaten to death for a fifth time here. At that point, I welcome it to be moved over to CTF where the discussion would be welcomed with open arms, I am sure... I asked for contributions because it was apparent that the software industry was no longer capable of creating the profit necessary to pay for expenses like CCC. The generosity of many members has been extraordinary, and I thank those of you who have felt a need to donate to make CCC self-sufficient. I am absolutely convinced that CCC will be better administered here than anywhere else on the Internet. You may or may not agree. I decided upon donations because I felt it was not right to burden those who could not afford a mandatory fee, and I also felt that insisting upon payment would eventually lose a percentage of members and that is not what anyone wants. So, basically, I was depending upon the generosity of those who visit and love CCC. I promised to keep CCC running until at least February no matter what monies came in and give the CCC plenty of notice so that it could find another home should ICD no longer absorb its expenses. It never occurred to me that CTF would be an issue because CTF expenses are minimal. Why? Well, it does not use up the remaining bandwidth on the server so the per month cost for hosting stayed the same, and Tim volunteered to support CTF for very little additional monies over and above what I contracted for with CCC. So, the monies received by CTF members for the support of CTF paid for its own being and there is no drain, whatsoever, on CCC. But there seems to be another, underlying, issue, and that is the perception that CCC is somehow linked to CTF, and CTF demeans CCC by being a "cesspool" of gay bashers and racists. Frankly, I do not see what CTF has to do with CCC. The ONLY connection is that it, too, is hosted by us, the password works on both, and there is a link from one forum to the other for easy access. Those who wish to visit there, can and those who do not, won't. The request for contributions was just that, a request. If you do not want to help support this forum, that is your decision, but to somehow punish me because you think I am supporting anti-gay or racist behavior, is an incorrect assumption. If I am guilty of anything, it is that I feel strongly about allowing people to speak their minds. Just because we do not allow some bigot to express his opinions does not mean that he stops being a bigot. And if he has a soap box to spout his nonsense does not mean that he will convince someone else to be a bigot. In fact, sound arguments (and there are plenty on CTF) often serve to beat down such deviant behavior. Given the choice of someone hating me because I happen to be Jewish and saying nothing or telling me to my face, I will take the latter any day of the week. The people at CCC and CTF are much smarter than the average person in this world. We are smart enough to listen to all sorts of opinions and know which are right and which are wrong. If you feel that my wanting to have a place where people with one thing in common- chess, can talk about anything on their minds is somehow hurting society or corrupting people's minds, then punish me, but I will not close down CTF. Come February, we can see if the donations have helped pay for CCC to support itself. If it has, then we can continue. If not, the members can vote to move anywhere they wish. I will help the move in any way I can and will not be sad that it is hosted elsewhere (it will allow me to focus on other projects that interest me), but I think that CTF will remain here as long as its members want to and pay the way. For those who think I am a racist or gay basher or war monger or peace monger or pervert or sicko etc., it is obvious that you do not know me at all. Yell at me if you wish. Donate if you wish. Post here on CCC in response, but let's cut this debate off by the end of the week and let CCC get back to discussing computer chess. Okay? Steve
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