I normally avoid controversy in these forums, but I feel the need to weigh in to support Jim Martin's stand as webmaster. I appreciate the order he maintains and the strict fairness he employs to keep this forum scholarly and orderly. I used to assist two other Missouri Civil War forums in years past, and one has been gone completely for several years, and the Rootsweb MO-CW forum falters and hardly anybody uses it any more. The simple reason the Rootsweb MO-CW forum withered on the vine from what it used to be is that several determined and highly opinionated contributors a few years ago ganged up and ran roughshod over anybody whose opinion differed from their own. The efforts of these people caused a number of scholarly researchers to abandon that forum and look elsewhere, and thank goodness there was another place to go! By the way, the moderator made a few half-hearted attempts to bring that forum back to order, but gave up in the end, and the usurpers had it all to themselves. It wasn't long before hardly anybody would use that forum and it was soon abandoned.
Being a moderator of an active site such as this one is a thankless job that strikes some folks as limiting our First Amendment rights, but this is not so. There are other places we can go on the Internet to espouse one side or the other in the Civil War in Missouri, and I assume that is where the people who wrecked the Rootsweb MO-CW site have gone. If Jim Martin allows certain "tone and harshness" into this forum, attacks by such folks as those who destroyed the Rootsweb MO-CW site will be unstoppable and wreck this one, too. Believe me, they will come out of the woodwork if they feel we unjustly accuse one of their favorites. We have to avoid even the appearance of "personal or professional insults," as Jim says, or this forum, too, will be soon gone.
As Jim hinted, I am one of those Missouri Civil War authors, and people commonly talk to me about some error I made in my writings or disagree with me about a stand I chose to make in my writings. I try to cite my sources to back any stand I make, but I don't always get it done as I should. One of my wife's family actually counted the number of spelling and grammar errors he found in one of my books, and this was a distant cousin I hardly know. He didn't say anything else about the book, just this laundry list he made for me of all the errors he found. Sheesh!
Simply put, I cannot make a serious criticism of another author in a public forum, because that lays me open to similar attack from friends or devotees of that author. If we allow that, a dogfight can ensue. I have seen it before, as I have said above, and I don't want to see that happen here. We need to hold to those tough rules, and express such criticism other places in the Internet--not here. Jim Martin has indicated other places to take book reviews and such ideas, and we need to respect that. It will get nuts if we don't.
Bruce Nichols