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Date: 06 Dec 2008 07:00:55
From: samsloan
Subject: The Problem with Tim Sawmiller as Moderator of the USCF Issues Forum
The Problem with Tim Sawmiller as Moderator of the USCF Issues Forum

Bill Goichberg says that we must be tolerant of the antics of Tim
Sawmiller as moderator, because nobody else wants the job.

This issue has come up again, because it took 24 hours before my news
that the USCF has been sued again, this time by Hanon Russell, was
allowed by Mr. Sawmiller to be posted to the USCF Issues Forum. By the
time my posting was allowed to appear, the members of the forum had
learned about the new lawsuit from other posters.

Although Goichberg claims that only Sawmiller and Vaughn are willing
to be moderators, the evidence shows that the real reason that
Sawmiller and Vaughn want to be moderators is so that they can censor
me. There are others who are willing to serve as moderators. It is
just that those others are not hostile to Sloan. At least two
moderators have resigned citing overbearing directives from the higher-
ups telling them whom to moderate (namely me).

One moderator who quit for that reason is Mike Aigner, who had been
and continues to be moderator on the Internet Chess Club for the last
several years. Mr. Aigner has not been invited back to be moderator of
the USCF Issues Forum, after he resigned complaining of interference
from above.

The problem with having Tim Sawmiller as moderator is that he was
appointed as moderator AFTER he had posted that Sam Sloan should be
banned from posting. Similarly, Herbert Rodney Vaughn a/k/a Tanstaasfl
was appointed as moderator after he was allowed to use the USCF Office
Facilities in Crossville, Tennessee for a week so that he could
compile his ridiculous 400 page Ethics Complaint in color against Sam
Sloan.

Here is an example: I posted the following on the USCF Issues Forum in
response to an attack on me by Joel Channing:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.chess.politics/msg/da289ced9a3da169

There is nothing wrong with this posting. Yet, within minutes it was
deleted by the, at that time, secret moderators. Fortunately, I had
also posted it to rec.games.chess.politics which is the reason you can
still read it.

This resulted in a debate in which both Sawmiller and Vaughn said that
I should be banned from posting:

http://main.uschess.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=31695#p31695

This happened on February 27, 2007, while the USCF Election Campaign
was going. Almost immediately thereafter, both Sawmiller and Vaughn
were appointed as moderators and predictably they suspended me from
posting.

Since I was both on the board and running for re-election at that
time, the USCF voters who were on the USCF Issues Forum were
prohibited from reading my views, thereby contributing to my election
defeat.

Here is what one poster wrote about the actions of Vaughn and
Sawmiller of removing from the forums almost everything I posted while
allowing other posters to attack me:

http://main.uschess.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=69230#p69230

"Rodney is entitled to his opinion on all these matters. Other people,
including Sam Sloan, are entitled to their opinions. What seems
extremely dubious to me is for Rodney to insist that his view
represents the indisputable facts and that any other view is so
absolutely false and scurrilous that it must be suppressed as an
unsubstantiated personal attack, using his powers as a moderator."

Looking through the postings during the election campaign period, one
finds innumerable vicious personal attacks on me by Vaughn and
Sawmiller. These were the two persons most hostile to my election
campaign.

It is evident that the Executive Director, Bill Hall, and the
President, Bill Goichberg, wanted to stop Sam Sloan from being re-
elected to the board and for that reason rewarded Vaughn and Sawmiller
for attacking me by appointing them as moderators to the USCF Issues
Forum, thereby giving them the power to decide which political views
the membership would be allowed or not allowed to read.

Sam Sloan




 
Date: 08 Dec 2008 09:06:44
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: The Problem with Tim Sawmiller as Moderator of the USCF Issues
[quote="fpawn"]I actually recall much of the spring and summer of 2007
as being a time when very few posts were actually pulled. Two of the
four original Moderators spent much time waiting for legal guidance
from "above" that never came. The other two served only a shorter
time, although one earned a reputation for being far more active. I
estimate that I pulled less than 20 threads over the course of the 20
weeks that I served.

The real reason Mr. Sloan lost the election is because he lost a
certain blitz match by 2:0. The Damiano and From gambits are both
unsound! Of course, if he had actually beaten me, then I would have
had to endorse him and the election would have been almost over.

Michael Aigner[/quote]

Exactly the point. Mike Aigner only pulled 20 postings during the
entire time he was moderator. However, more than one thousand postings
were pulled by other moderators during the election period. This was
the reason why the higher-ups were deeply dis-satisfied with your
performance: You failed to censor the undesirables, including me,
anybody who supported me and anybody who even agreed with me on some
minor point. That is why you have not been invited back, in spite of
your letter stating that you would be willing to come back when the
interference stops.

Now, about that From's Gambit in Stillwater: I admit that is was very
stupid of me to play From's Gambit against anyone with a moniker like
fpawn.

For the benefit of Harry Payne, From's Gambit involves a move by the f-
pawn.

On the other hand, you chickened out by not playing into my f-pawn
Killer Damiano's Defense, which goes 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f6 3. Nxe5 fxe5
4. Qh5+ Ke7 5. Qxe5+ Kf7 6. Bc4+ d5 7. Bxd5 Kg6 and now Black has an
easy win due to being a knight ahead.

So, you were scared to play into it and instead moved your f-pawn.

Next time I play you, I will try to play better, especially since I
now know that the entire USCF election will be at stake.

Sam


 
Date: 06 Dec 2008 15:47:13
From:
Subject: Re: The Problem with Tim Sawmiller as Moderator of the USCF Issues


samsloan wrote:

> Looking through the postings during the election campaign period, one
> finds innumerable vicious personal attacks on me by Vaughn and
> Sawmiller. These were the two persons most hostile to my election
> campaign.


I take umbrage at that. I think I was at least as hostile to your
election campaign as those two.


>
> It is evident that the Executive Director, Bill Hall, and the
> President, Bill Goichberg, wanted to stop Sam Sloan from being re-
> elected to the board and for that reason rewarded Vaughn and Sawmiller
> for attacking me by appointing them as moderators to the USCF Issues
> Forum, thereby giving them the power to decide which political views
> the membership would be allowed or not allowed to read.
>
> Sam Sloan


And that would be why they appointed your supporter (I'm not sure you
had more than one), David Quinn, to the FOC?

I hate to break this to you, Sam, but the world doesn't revolve around
you. You're really not that important.


 
Date: 06 Dec 2008 07:10:55
From: Offramp
Subject: Re: The Problem with Tim Sawmiller as Moderator of the USCF Issues
He should stick to running that stupid mental sawmill.