i think that the person from the save delongpre campaign got a decent welcome... it was really mjp going up against her, while multiple people were defending her. shit, if she's dealing with the LA CITY COUNCIL, you'd think her skin would be thick enough to withstand FORUM POSTERS. the bukowski board isn't this whole purists-only, we-will-safeguard-his-works-in-the-crypt operation that you are making it out to be. i'm going to start another sentence with "shit" in just a moment. shit, just look at the number of people posting here. it's not like we got together in a back-door webgreement at some point, anointed ourselves the keepers of the buk, and made this forum specifically to exclude those who were working tooth and nail to popularize buk around town. i found this place and was welcomed. i post here all the time. so did many MANY others. just look at some of the threads on the all things bukowski board, and you'll see that many of them are created by new posters who are getting honest, intelligent responses to their questions or positions.
here's the circularity of this argument... you have been asked (at least by me) before - nicely, and friendlyly - to post more and join discussions. your response is that we're shits and why would you want to? so why the F are you continuing to post what is essentially spam? and yes, i'm sorry kim, but it is spam when you cut and paste the description of the bukbird print (which i will recognize as an original representation of a stock character TM draws all the time, and which i kind of like to boot) directly into this forum. seriously, i mean, you could just put a link to your site in your signature or something.
i realize the position you're coming from that you want to popularize something that would be of interest to people here, and i'm sympathetic to that. but when that is coupled with your implicit disdain for everyone here (when MJP is really the only one who has openly attacked you, and although he's the man in charge, he's just one guy among many)-- and be honest that it really is implicit disdain, given that you so much as said that the reason you don't post here more is that you don't like us-- it is a stretch to get people to take your commercial endeavors seriously.
also, let it be noted that i have defended your company in the past, as well as your motives. i have no problem with what you're doing, and i don't necessarily think that the bus tour would be a boring thing. however, you have to realize that you are selling a fairly esoteric product (OH YEAH, three points for me on the pun), and one that is going to get ripped on a lot. it's fantastic that you have linda b's blessing, that john dullaghan is involved, and that you are getting positive write ups. but i think the point here is that, even if your tours were the best things in the history of human experience, it's the way you sell them while pretty much utterly refusing to participate in the FORUM aspect of this FORUM that really cheeses a lot of people off, ESPECIALLY the guy who has spent a lot of time and money to make this place for all of us.
it's really no different than the people that show up to sell bukowski t-shirts or whatever. hundreds of spammers are kicked out every day, and your posts have all been allowed onto the board, which means that, as annoying as it has been for the moderator (i'll speak for him, since he's made that abundantly clear), he's let it go, probably (i'm assuming) BECAUSE it may be of interest to people here. now, if criticism by forum members is too much for you, then so be it. but as the central information resource on the net for bukowski, maybe you could stand to benefit a little bit from what is offered here, rather than using it as a marketing resource? maybe???