Ricard 2,245 Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 On 22/03/2024 at 10:01 AM, JTN said: What I don’t understand is why you and others speak for @TownerFan ? When people feel that a forum rule has been broken, they frequently report it to the admins or voice their concerns publicly. Quote Can’t he speak for himself if he feels like he’s attacked? He actually did. Quote I too am polite, asking politely to please stop accusing me of attacking @TownerFan You were attacking him and therefore breaking the forum rules. Also: Quote 1 - The following types of posts are not allowed: Questioning a moderator's actions -- All moderator decisions are final and deleted content will not be restored. Quote is he protected by others for no particular reason other than to attack that member who expresses his thoughts on fan obsession? All members are protected by the forum rules. You're not the one being attacked. Manakin Skywalker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTN 2,169 Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 Will you ban me if I respond? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurassic Shark 12,179 Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 JTN 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTN 2,169 Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 5 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said: Jurassic Shark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post JTN 2,169 Posted April 24 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 24 Dear @Ricard, @Jay and all members of JWFan, I would like to hereby apologize for my past behaviour that may have offended some of the members. I would like to specifically apologize to @TownerFan for attacking and offending him. If I have hurt his feelings in any way and have made him feel disrespected or attacked on this site, I am sincerely sorry, and I assure him and everyone that this will never happen again in the future. A special thanks to Ricard and Jay for accepting my apology a month ago and changing my one-year-ban to a one-month-ban, giving me one last chance to be a part of this great community. I'm very grateful to both of them. I promise that from now on I will respect all forum rules. JTW Naïve Old Fart, Mr. Hooper, Andy and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post TownerFan 4,991 Posted April 29 Popular Post Share Posted April 29 On 22/03/2024 at 10:01 AM, JTN said: I did not say in my previous post that @TownerFanhas a mental illness. I was talking about being obsessed for another person IN GENERAL. There is a saying: if the cap fits… What I don’t understand is why you and others speak for @TownerFan ? Can’t he speak for himself if he feels like he’s attacked? Because I wrote to him long ago a Private Message saying what I thought about him, to him, DIRECTLY, not behind his back. And now in this thread I was talking about fan obsession in general, yet I’m being accused again for attacking @TownerFan I too am polite, asking politely to please stop accusing me of attacking @TownerFan. He doesn’t need protection, because he is a grown man who can defend himself if he feels like it or if he’s attacked, which I did not do. I expressed my personal opinion about how toxic and unhealthy being obsessed about a film composer can be, in general. I’m sorry if what I wrote, is true for @TownerFan, again, if the cap fits. But is he capable of defending himself if he feels like being attacked, or is he protected by others for no particular reason other than to attack that member who expresses his thoughts on fan obsession? Here I am. Hello everyone, Maurizio aka TownerFan here, I got a notice about this drama related to me by one of the admins, who reached out to me a few days ago privately. As all of you might have noticed, I didn’t log in on JWFan for more than a year now and I didn’t even visit the place for a long time. I only lurked for a while when Indiana Jones was released because I was curious to read some of the commentary, but after that I didn’t come back, so I was completely unaware of what happened. First of all, I didn’t ask any of the moderators to speak on my behalf. I didn't ask them to ban you @JTN because of your vicious private message you sent me on December 2022. It was a message full of useless vitriol and insults. For reasons I still cannot understand, I rub your feelings very badly. I cannot help if you don’t like me or what I do (and honestly I don’t care, I cannot please everyone), but I don’t accept being called “pathetic little wheedler” (or other unpleasant adjectives you used) by someone who I don’t know nor I never interacted with before. I could’ve simply ignored you and move on, but the level of hate in your message was frankly too much so it was my duty to report what happened. I was told that you were then banned for a month because of that, but as I said I didn’t ask Jay or Ricard to do so on my behalf or to “protect me”. This is their place and it was completely their own decision. I decided to step away from JWFan nonetheless after that because I felt uncomfortable being around here, so for me it was case closed. I was befuddled to discover this was still going on and after reading all the trash you kept posting about me in this and other threads, I think a response is due. I hope this clarifies everything for you—and also for anyone else who think I am shit. Enough is enough. All the stuff I did so far with my project (The Legacy of John Williams) always had one single aim: celebrating the music of John Williams. It’s certainly a project where flattery is very strong (and perhaps even a tad too much), but believe it or not, I do not worship Mr. Williams. I admire his music profoundly and sincerely, and I always felt deeply grateful for the joy he brought to my life, but he is not my hero or my idol. The project is my own very little and very modest way to pay the debt of gratitude I feel toward Mr. Williams and his art. I did it the only way I knew I could do: creating something where I could invite people to talk about Mr. Williams’ musicianship and celebrate his art. It was never about myself or my own story. I always tried to do my best to avoid putting the spotlight on me and I also felt uncomfortable whenever I had to show up on camera for podcasts or in person; during the event in London last year, I blabbered something at the beginning, but I felt so awkward because I am bad at public speaking so I immediately left the word to Tim Burden, Mike Matessino and the other guests, who were the eloquent guys there, I was just the useful idiot. I also never used the project to obtain a privileged access to Mr. Williams, or any other people in his inner circle, just to make myself look cooler than anyone else. I felt honoured and privileged of being given the chance to meet him backstage a couple of times for a few minutes, first in Vienna in 2020 and then in Milan in 2022, but in both cases it was an invite I received from his personal assistant after I asked for a reception to present formally the project, which he was happy to be informed about. In both cases, I simply said thank you and tried to express him my gratitude. I am well aware that it was truly a rare privilege, as access to the Maestro backstage is usually restricted to a very few people he knows and who he’s glad to greet, so I was really the exception to the rule and I am very thankful to his manager that they granted me the access. I know this is something that fuels a lot (and I mean a lot) of envy from many fans. Sadly, this is hardly the first time another fan manifested resentful feelings to me directly. I don't know what to do with it. Ask yourself why such a thing generates so much hate in you. That being said, I never considered Mr. Williams a friend or a personal acquaintance. I don’t call him “John” like other people do. I always refer to him as “Mr. Williams” or “Maestro”, because he’s not my buddy and I don't know him personally. Again, I am sorry if this rubbed JTN the wrong way and made him think that I bribed someone to meet him or snook my way in using some shady subterfuge. What happened is exactly what I wrote above. Everything I did for this project was always done without expecting something back and whatever came was just an act of generosity from truly nice people. Back to your point here, I do not consider myself an obsessed fan. I never wanted to look, speak, or behave like Mr. Williams. I think I have a healthy relationship with my love for his music. I certainly spend an awful lot of time listening to it, but also thinking, writing, pondering, doing something about it because it’s something that just gives me joy. I take my love for the music seriously, but I'm not a priest with the mission of evangelizing people to the gospel of John Williams. I just like his music. That's it. Since my personal life was also put in question, let me just say that I am a happily married man, I have a good job and I am blessed with other great fortunes in life such as a wonderful family and many friends, including several with whom I share the same love for John Williams’ music. Perhaps I wear turtlenecks too much, but my wife says I look good in it, so that’s what she said Anyway, work and family obligations always have precedence and I never put anything about John Williams or any other of my hobbies before those. However, I concede one argument to you @JTN: you’re correct when you say that perhaps too much time is spent in talking, thinking and analyzing music, when the principal activity should be just listening to it and enjoying it. By talking with musicians who played for him, I learned a lot about Mr. Williams’ music, and also a little about his personality, and nowadays I have possibly an even greater and fuller appreciation for it. That was perhaps the most wonderful outcome of this project, in addition to make the acquaintance of some truly lovely and generous people. That’s why I think what I did so far is more than enough. I will keep running the website, but it will be mostly written articles and the (slow) ongoing building of a well-researched database of information about filmography, discography and other pieces of material that I hope will be useful for scholars, historians and researchers. The podcast has been a great fun, but also time-consuming and a lot of work completely on my shoulders. I will do the occasional episode once in a while (I have a couple almost ready to go which I hope to post soon), but it won’t be the main activity anymore. What I contributed to the studies of Mr. Williams’ music is already enough, I think. I have other obligations going on at the moment that have precedence so I won’t be able to give much time to this side project of mine. On top of that, there are much better people out there equipped with incredible scholar knowledge about John Williams, and some of them (Mike Matessino, Tim Greiving, Frank Lehman, Emilio Audissino) are also writing books and working on great projects devoted to his oeuvre. I cannot achieve that level of scholarship in my whole life and, like Mike once said, I feel happy enough to be just a student of his work. I hope this clarifies everything once and for all. I don’t want to be the subject of any discussion anymore and I hope people will respect that. I will go back in the shadows and won’t return again. I’m not interested in arguing anymore and justify about who I am or what I do. I won’t come back to defend myself nor I will ask moderators to act on my behalf. We’re all grown men here and I hope we know what a good behaviour is. Just be respectful of the people around you. This is certainly a long goodbye. Thanks goodness it doesn't happen every day Peace out. Maurizio Jurassic Shark, Brando, Manakin Skywalker and 6 others 1 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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