Mick,
Thanks for your thoughts and for being so understanding of my hasty post. I dared not remove it even though I had second thoughts about it. ;D If I had removed it, I suspect somebody would have been at the hardware store tomorrow shopping for nails and wood to make the cross.
The philosophical difference? I don't think it goes that deeply. It was a gut reaction to seeing a post that just rang of overt commercialism to these jaded eyes. I spent a ton of years as a newspaper editor. I had to watch out for axes being ground, and I developed a super-sensitivity for apparent sub rosa motives.
I made the decision to delete the thread in about 0.378 seconds. I don't want to be combative, but knowing myself the way I do I think I would probably make the same decision again, but geez, folks, look at it from my perspective.
Is this horse dead yet? I hope not. If anybody has more to say, please say it, don't let it fester, and, please, don't hold my action against the other partners. Darrel and Jan have hundreds of hours into making this forum go. I would not be surprised if their hours total into the thousands. All three of us want this to go and we want to keep it free of charge to the Villagers. You people need and deserve a place where you can discuss The Villages freely. And we would like to support it with advertising.
What's my axe to grind? I enjoy moderating here, with the help of Jan and Darrel, but I would like to see my time be rewarded. That is why the post in question banged so loudly on my cynical gong.
Among the partners we have the sense that if we have to much pablum, you will all tire of it and leave. Guess which partner said that. ??? It wasn't me, but I would be happy to take credit for it.