On Friday I attended my friend Scooter’s wedding. To some of you, the name might ring a bell. I first met Scooter on the Man Without Ties Message Board and then I met him in the flesh at Liquor Lyle’s before the first Paul Westerberg Pantages show back in, hrm, 2004?

I wasn’t the only Westernerd to represent at Scooter’s wedding, there was a fistful of weirdos there. Which is kind of what got me to thinking. All those weirdos at that wedding, I first met them on that MWT Board. I loved posting and playing on MWT, it was a lot of fun and I bet I still hold the posting record at something ridiculous like 5,000 posts.

Being at Scooter’s wedding made me all message board nostalgic. And for a bit I contemplated just starting to post at MWT again. But then I got that pit in my stomach and I knew that I couldn’t go back there because to do so would be supporting censorship and other behaviors I don’t agree with.

So, instead, I added a forum right here to this Web site. Hell yes, your eyes do not deceive. Do I expect to recapture the magic of the old MWT days? Nah. I expect to have a message board that’s better and more fun.

Like I said, I am completely opposed to censorship. I believe in the whole marketplace of free ideas. I will not delete posts that I don’t agree with (however, I will freely delete spam with an abandon you have not yet witnessed). We’re grownups here and we should conduct ourselves as such. If you’re acting like a jackass, I will have no problem calling you out on your jackassery. I hope that you feel comfortable enough to do the same to me, or to any of the other weirdos who decide to post in the forum.

The forum will only be as fun, useful, entertaining as you make it. If you’ve never posted in a forum before, give it a try — who knows maybe next summer you’ll get to go to someone’s kickass wedding and get drunk with a bunch of friends while listening to a rockabilly band.