No, it's a "most people miss when they shoot" kind of thing to say.
If you mean they aren't insult-laden rants, thank you. It's an approach meant to foster a friendly environment, rather than one where people fly off the handle at every perceived insult, which just creates a toxic atmosphere that's widely available elsewhere. Being different is cool, ask your young relatives, or some kids at a bus stop.
As for the transcripts, they aren't really meant for you, they're meant for Google, since Google doesn't parse audio for search purposes. Yet. That may change when they incorporate podcasts into Google Play, which they're working on right now.
I know some people read the transcripts, though I'm not sure why. It's a podcast, after all. For ear listening. The program I use to make the transcripts is called TextPad.
It is a friendly environment here...and you do a mostly remarkable job at keeping cool...but in fact, I returned here (after about 8 years away) because I was researching Sun Dog Press and came across some Google results which featured some posts/threads here related to Danny Valdez...and he received a pretty good beating for being excited about being touted as the next great poet to carry Bukowski's torch into the future...
Talk about a Cinderella story...The dude mailed some poetry to Sun Dog---the first publisher he ever approached---and they not only accepted his poetry for publication but praised it to the hilt...and John Martin offered a blurb for the front cover...Dan Fante, too...And I guess he figured he would receive a warm reception here at Bukowskiforum but instead received frostbite...And I don't blame anyone for frosting over at this dude's "luck".. My guess is most of the writers here, like myself, have spent years---even decades---doing their best to get an agent and publisher with no good results, and here comes this young whippersnapper crowing about being the next Bukowski...and having an actual book for sale with blurbs on it by the "great" Martin & Fante...
So the atmosphere
is friendly---but on a conditional basis...You guys reacted like...well, like the jealous chicks in Cinderella who just found out their step sister is going to the ball with the prince...Yes, you did...And just because some people don't cuss or appear blatantly insulting, that doesn't mean your
tone goes unnoticed...There was a tone of passive/aggressive jealousy and hostility...No support. No congratulations. Just a total piss-rain on his parade...
But, as for his "luck", Sun Dog left him to twist in the wind with next to nothing in the way of advertising & marketing...And whilst we all know that this is fairly standard behavior for a small independent publisher, he didn't know that...So, as a consequence, he may as well have published the book POD...Just another needle in the haystack...
Also, he had nothing to do with the blurbs. He didn't solicit them. And the Fonzie cover photo was chosen by the publisher. I know these things because I wrote the dude. I felt sorry for him and the excoriation he received here.
You covered a subject in your latest podcast about the nail that sticks up and gets noticed and thus pounded down...Who was the hammer here and who was the nail? And which would you rather be?
I guess I find it easier to be the hammer---but obviously the hammer, if too blunt & forceful, becomes the nail that sticks up when in a crowd of passive/aggressive individuals who somehow think just because they don't cuss or behave ferociously that they have retained some sort of dignity or class and have thus escaped being insulting & hurtful. You haven't. You don't. There is no such thing as a soft insult, no such thing as a soft bullet or blade. No such thing as a soft rejection. No means no means no. No entry. No welcome. No embrace.
Let's hypothesize some irony here, eh? Let's wonder if this was called the Phillipsforum and some loudmouthed, drunken jerk named Bukowski came on here in the middle of the nights and posted his drunken poetry, would MJP bristle at the man's vulgarity? Would MJP take offense towards any hammering done by Bukowski? Would MJP think of himself as more intelligent & refined & a better class of person & poet than that drunken lout Bukowski? Do you really think Bukowski would have refrained from hammering anyone's posts?
You offer a forum here for not only the appreciation of Bukowski's poetry, but also for other subjects such as All Things NOT Bukowski and Small Presses and etc, etc. And do you expect every participant to behave & write like you do? Do you actually WANT everyone to mimic you? Do you want all participants to be nailed and unobtrusive? Do you resent the presence of loudmouthed hammers? Would you prefer we all gather around and sit upright in our chairs and politely sip our cups of tea?
You often seem tired & exasperated with any post that disappoints you or any post you wouldn't deign to write. You don't seem exactly keen on any individualism or displays of fury or frivolity. You seem like quite a serious dude who is quickly wearied by any post that breaks the rules or protocols and you come across as just barely tolerant of what you don't like or appreciate or approve of.
This is the only forum, in my 21 years on the internet, that I have not been banned from, and I always feel like I am on thin ice with you, Michael. It is most certainly your forum and the result of dedicated hard work & pride and so I don't blame you for being protective. I don't blame you for NOT suffering fools gladly. But you are indeed the most passive/aggressive person I have ever come across. I sense a toxic volcanic rage in you and I sense that you consider it beneath you to admit it and just outright explode.
If my posts and my voice on the page truly turns your stomach, Michael, then just do what you're itching to do. I am too fucken old to become anyone's pussycat. I am too fucken old to mince words or change my evil, loudmouthed ways. I write loud, LONG obnoxious posts & threads and enjoy being insulting. I enjoy using cuss words. I don't enjoy walking on eggshells. I don't enjoy modifying my natural inclinations and I don't have any intention of toning things down. Do it, Michael. You'll feel a great sense of relief. And, true to form, I will definitely not ask to be let back in nor will I create a new account and pretend to be someone else. If you don't, Michael, then I will carry on the same as usual. I will be me, the hammer
and the nail.
By the way, no---no there aren't any forums that foster a toxic atmosphere nor condone dissent nor allow a peon to stand up to an admin or mod without being suspended or banned or fucked with via the editing of their posts and the locking down of their threads. You'd think there would be---but fuck no. Not a cunting admin or mod on this planet who doesn't take themselves and their "power" very seriously. It's about the closest they'll ever get to being a boss or king or "star". That power to BAN---it's just too good to resist. Much too fucken good to resist.
Ragging me for reading the transcript instead of listening to the podcast....Acting all shitty-toned because I chose an option you made available. If you don't want us to read the transcripts, then don't offer the cunting option!!
Holy fuck! 
