Brian

Thanks for the response. I wasn't expecting it. It Your post had some inquiries. I'll try to give you my POV in as few words as possible.

Regarding Tony...
I did like him and thought he was fun. Back in 2021 when he sent the post to me, I didn't think much of it. Just Tony cutting up. But, I don't conspire to gang up on people for the purpose of harassment, so I declined him. But later on, he declared himself a "racist" here and when I saw that, I left the site and planned to stay gone until you pm'd me and asked me where I had been. I returned and my discourse with Tony got worse after that. I think that his post just above this one gives an indication of the unrepentent and oblivious vitriol and un-balance, that he brings to your song site.

Regarding Dominick Dunne...
Any belief that he is the victim of people ganging up on him and causing him to react in self defense is non-reality. It is fiction. For years now, he introjects himself into threads that he did not originate, and badgers people who say things that he wants to beat down, and resorts to base name calling and insults. Not just me, but Tony, Rob, Steve, Tim, Gavin, Mike Z for just a few. Dom is pathetically thin skinned and when you give a fact based critique of his songs, he erupts with "idiot" "ugly" and so forth. Dominick is the biggest disrupter on the site, and his assaults and vitriolic episodes have probably made a lot of people join up, take a look and take a pass. As well as leave.

The reasons that I have not pm'd you about these things...
is primarily because, given a choice, I prefer returning the insults to tattling. And because I think that I have correctly assumed that all of this is in full view of your moderator, John Schick, and he does nothing at all about it. Therefore, I assumed that bringing any attention to it via PMs was pointless.

Summary...
Of the vitriolic episodes here where middle school level name calling erupts, I spend 99-9/10s of those episodes entangled with Tony or Dom. Other people will disagree about something and usually state their position and move on. But not those two. If they were gone, your site would be civil.

My personal opinion and hunch...
This site has become a ball and chain for you with very little return on the energy expended to keep it going. I personally believe that it has no chance to last much longer as a songwriter-site characterized by vitriol where most of the clicks are spectators to the vitriol. You have a lot of competition. Anyone can turn a FB page into a songwriter forum for free. I personally believe that the only chance the site has is to tamp down the arguments and expel people who insist on creating them, so that an atmosphere fostering songwriting and music can be allowed to grow. If it doesn't, that will be a sad thing, but a songwriter site characterized by arguments is a dead-man-walking. Article 1 is about criticizing tyrants, not arguing on songwriter sites.

I appreciate you willingness to take steps. I'll follow through on my $300 pledge. I will endeavor to be a peaceful and encouraging contributor.

If there are parties who continue badgering and name calling and attacks, I will start a thread in GEN DISC section titled "TROLL PATROL" and will post what I see of the badgering and name calling. That way I can pm you to take a look every now and then.


Thank you for attending to this,
Martin

https://soundcloud.com/sunset-poet-of-texas