It's the original poster's excellent work, deserving of praise for its composition, satirical bite and parody. With it spirited away into the ether its somewhat difficult now to share it more widely.
I'm sure the decision taken to remove the post was based on what was believed to be pragmatism. Sometimes though, when one wears many hats, such judgements of pragmatism can be swayed by the hat one wears at different times. And, even if such a decision is made after consulting the team, said team is no doubt fully aware of the boss's various titfers.
Now, that's my perception in this instance. It does leaves me with one nagging thought. Where does this forum's mod and admin team stand on the more robust, serious (that is, said without humourous intent) criticism of the person satired in the removed post? Much of that could be seen as a personal attack too. Do we refrain from calling to account the person with whom the buck stops?
The whys and wherefores of how the post came to be removed are now moot. Even if explained on another day. Although, hearing an explanation from the person with whom the buck stops
here would at least be going one better than the subject in the original post.
In summary, I guess the question I'm asking is can this excellent forum be truly independent of the lead operator in the area it covers if the forum owner is inextricably linked to said operator when wearing another hat? I don't know, I could be in a majority of one. It's a thought that has occurred to me from time to time though.
The buck stopped and the decision behind the removal of the post has been explained.
The question of my personal view of various
GWR▸ managers is something I can choose to address or not as I wish.
The question of forum independence is a good one for discussion and something that I have given great thought to over recent years. In fact I'm so concerned that I raised it at the forum meeting on 7th January. We have had a couple of forum votes since (the one on the
ACoRP▸ issue comes to mind) which have confirmed member's confidence in our team in a secret vote. As well as asking "is this right", can I ask you to make some suggestions as to what would be better, then we could take a constructive look. Perhaps I should step aside and hand my shoes over to you to take over?
I would be very surprised if the original poster hadn't kept a copy of the poem. Failing that there will be a copy in our incremental backups for up to a week and at the original poster's request I can supply him a copy.