No word from BookCrossing.com as to what I did to get suspended, despite me asking a few times. So far as I can see, I’ve done nothing wrong and behaved with more restraint in difficult circumstances than I have in the past, and played far nicer than some in the forums.
On reviewing my contributions, I can see two possibilities:
1. A thread about cooking here, in which I serve up rice paper wraps, stir fry, lamb and cider:
Or cider, or a bit of leftover wine. The alcohol evaporates off, the liquid reduces, the taste remains. And sometimes there’s a slug or two for the cook before pouring it in.
2. A comment I made about an Australian politician, in response to the vote for Prime Minister:
…the Craig Thompson affair. As leader of a union whose members are low-paid hospital workers – cooks, orderlies, cleaners and so on – he misused union funds for his own pleasure. Paying for prostitutes on his union credit card. He is now in Parliament and because the Gillard government would fall if he were to resign or be forced out, he has Julia Gillard’s complete public support. That gets right up people’s noses.
While the second comment might appear actionable, there is a freedom of political speech in Australia, guaranteed by the Constitution. Limited and conditional, to be sure, but it is there and my opinion is covered. As well as that, Thompson is such an embarrassment to the government that he is kept under 24 hour guard in case he says or does anything at all. The chances of him now launching a suit for defamation against anyone are zero. Any court proceedings would be the subject of intense media interest and consequent pressure on the Prime Minister who is forced to express her public support for such a unfit representative of the voters.
I’m guessing that somebody with not enough legal knowledge might have complained about my post, misrepresenting it as a serious danger to BookCrossing.com.
My comments about cooking are completely innocent and any complaint would have been made out of malice aimed at me. Sad, but true.
Right. After wasting a good deal of time and stress on trying to understand what the hell happened, I’ll get back to presenting more of the good news stories I love to write about BookCrossing.com.
— Skyring
