As part of my quest to find the real Ned Kelly in late 2013 I joined a public internet Forum that claimed to be a place where you could discuss Ned Kelly. I didn’t realise that really all they wanted to discuss was a particular view of Ned Kelly and the Kelly story, what I call the “Pro Kelly” view, and they weren’t receptive to alternative opinions, or challenges to their already made up minds on the subject. They regarded any contrary opinion with hostility and suspicion and I was accused of being an “anti-kelly” plant, was ridiculed and bullied, and generally made to feel unwelcome. I continued to make my case, and to press for proper discussion and acceptance of the validity of alternative viewpoints, but in the end, because I would not be silenced they expelled me from that Forum and my Posts were deleted. Once they had kicked me out activity there ceased almost completely, and not long ago the Forum disappeared completely.
By then, I had started my own Proboards Forum, beginning in January 2014. It was called Nedkellytruth Forum and was an immediate success. Unfortunately the people who had me expelled from their forum weren’t happy that I had my own one and followed me there to harass and do everything they could to undermine me and to try to silence the Kelly Truth Forum. I was under constant attack from these people who called me vile, a slag, evil personified, a liar, feral, and various other offensive labels. They posted doctored images on the forum that were obscene, attacked other members of my forum and generally made huge pests of themselves. Despite this, the Forum prospered and grew and there were many discussions and interesting posts about Kelly history and related topics. However the attacks by this small group of “Pro Kelly” people continued and intensified and when offended people responded to these attacks in like manner the haters pestered the Proboards Moderators who eventually sent me an email asking for certain posts to be removed within 48 hours. I had already deleted dozens of offensive posts myself, trying to keep the forum polite and reasonable, and I immediately removed the few that were complained about as well. However even this wasn’t sufficient for the pro Kelly people who further harassed the Proboards people, who for unexplained reasons gave in to these demands and deleted my entire forum less than a day after they had first notified me of complaints. I felt this was extremely unfair, but the PB moderators refused to explain their behaviour or enter into any discussion about their actions – the Truth Forum had been shut down by the Pro Kelly bullies and Internet Censors.
I have learned some valuable lessons – one of which is to keep a copy of every post! – and have decided to make use of what I have learned and try again – I am going to take another look at Ned Kelly.
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