Oh I get it now, since I'm the moderator of this forum, I'm not allowed to speculate on the band's future, much as has been many times in the past, without complaint, mind you.
I'm not spreading any rumours. Where do you get this from? Is there an invisible footnote on my initial post that I'm unaware of? This thread is mere conjecture, and it's a topic that's been worrying me more and more as of late.
The racism thread was a valid discussion towards the end. It's a given that associating Opeth with racism is ludicrous, and I honestly feel sorry for the folk that wanted the thread closed because they felt it offended someone. It sort of reminds me of those Christian Fundamentalists who want new movie releases banned for superfluous reasons.
Dorian made a point before. Mike actually did come on here and say something along the lines of 'bring it on' because he felt it was humorous to see the sort of bullshit people make up about Opeth. It was a discussion for fans... it hardly hurts Opeth's market for potential new labels, and I really *really* doubt it's making Mike and the guys cry themselves to sleep at night.
About 'trolling'... dude. Have you read through any internet slang dictionaries? How long have you been surfing forums? I'm speculating... based on bands before Opeth who have broken up under similar circumstances, or at the very least lost significant members. Who are you to try and discredit what I'm saying simply because there are no 'official' pointers?
Speaking of pointers, here's one to you. Band's don't release official statements saying 'oh yeah guys, we might be breaking up in 2 months... stay tuned'. Dysfunction happens privately and more often than not you'll hear about a band's break up on the day they do, or days after. They are hardly going to advertise the fact that they may openly.
I only found out here that you went over my head about the racism thread. But that's fine, if you feel you needed to, that's all the justification required. I will however *NOT* stand for this sort of slander. You seem to be trying to bring me and my position into disrepute, yet you have no idea of how long I've been here, how well entrenched I am with this community nor why I was elected moderator here in the first place.
@dorian: About the inconsistencies. I'm really sorry if you and many other people feel that way. But I really have to stress again that it's really hard to moderate a forum when not working under any concrete guidelines.
It's always possible to go back to how things were and I'll solidly delete anything unrelated to Opeth. You'll find it's alot more consistent when working under those sort of solid ground rules. But do any of us really want that?
Trialing this new system where we allow loosely off-topic material isn't very easy. Because who is to say what's 'loosely' off-topic and what's 'very' off-topic. But my policy right now is that I try not to touch any threads, as much as possible, giving people as much freedom as possible provided that their threads aren't directly slandering/trolling etc. etc.
If you guys want me to work under a concrete set of guidelines, like the ones stickied at the top of this forum, please I implore you to message MetalAges or Opeth.com and tell them to provide me with them. Right now I'm working off my own discretion, and judging by how much more brightened up the board has become since shedding the 'strictly off-topic' rule, I'd say I'm not doing as bad a job as some of you would make out.
For God's sake though, please don't slander me off to Opeth and Deron and try to discredit me because you have some sort of personal dilemma. I honestly can't stand that as a person, because it lacks integrity.
By the way, thanks for derailing the thread.
