Hi all, I just wanted to share with you BJ's letter and my response. I do appreciate him taking the time to personally write me. First is his letter and then mine:
----- BJ: ----- Hi Will, I don't want to argue this or upset you further, just apologize sincerely that the Landoverbaptist site upset you so much. In my defense I'd like to say I didn't write it, don't approve of all of its content, and I can't help it that that site and much much worse is out there on the Web. I think their parody page of the Amazon site was a valid example of its type to mention in the context of what Joseph was doing, as it really is a very complete and accurate parody of their books page, but maybe instead of saying the "easily offended" shouldn't look at the rest of the site I should have said "even the hard to offend" because as you point out, it does contain all kinds of dreadful, insulting and possibly illegal attacks on black people, Jews, Arabs, Roman Catholics and in fact anyone not a paid up member of their imaginary church, and must be very offensive to any real Southern Baptist who is trying hard to simply be a good Churchgoer. Satire can sometimes be very cruel and the Landover site probably goes way too far in that direction and takes a few too many liberties to make a point. So as I said I am not going to argue the case for them, and you can be assured that I would not post a link to a site like that on WDVL just to encourage people to go and visit it to be amused or shocked by the content. But we discuss Web design on WDVL, not issues of personal belief, and it is a valid example (in the context I raised it) of actually very good Web design and construction. It's also relevant to note that that particular page has been online for many weeks to my knowledge and has not yet been pulled, and since I am sure Amazon must be aware of it, this might be an indication Joseph is OK with his own parody. Hope you can get past your displeasure with the content of the Landover site, maybe take it out on them not me? Sincerely Bj ----- My reply: ----- BJ, I appreciate your apology. I understand that when you gave it as an example, you were not giving blanket approval of all its content or even the content of the page. You were only presenting its design before the list and even that was with objectivity. So, I do understand. To clarify, the greatest offense of that site is its blatant racial slurs. I can handle the anti-Christian jokes, I'm used to that. However the content is particularly cruel with both religious and social/racial jokes. My mom used to say, "It takes both parties to laugh to make it funny." Even though the only attraction to the site was design, not content, I feel promoting the site design is synonymous with promoting a porn site or something else along that line that would most likely cause great offense to some. I hope I am able to bring some illumination to my feelings. I hope this does not affect our working relationship. This is nothing against you personally. In fact, I appreciate the asset you are to this list. This was a learning experience for both of us, I feel. Thank you, Will Stewart ____ � The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM � ____ To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Send Your Posts To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change subscription settings to the wdvltalk digest version: http://wdvl.internet.com/WDVL/Forum/#sub ________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
