An Essay by Red Quacker, Suitable for Posting and Linking:

All Essays Readily Available in Readable Format at http://www.geocities.com/iamredquacker , as I am Not Without Compassion:

To the Administrators and Moderators of the TrekBBS:

To the Ever-Valiant Knights of the Most Noble Troll Kingdom:

To my fellow Exiled (see above) and to the World at Large:

I am Red Quacker.

As many of you know, since February of 2001 I have dedicated my entire life to the TrekBBS. As many of you also know, since that same February I have been permanently banned from the TrekBBS. There are many of you, however, who are new to the TrekBBS--I have even seen new Moderators at TrekBBS who first registered over a year after that fateful day. For the benefit of those individuals, as well as for the benefit of History itself, I will briefly detail what occurred during that fateful month, so many moons ago.

According to the surviving records, I first posted at TrekBBS on February 14th, 2001. Seven days later, I was given a permanent ban--known henceforth by its now infamous title, the Permaban. You must understand that those were very different times. The Permaban virtually did not exist at TrekBBS. Even 24 hour bans were extremely infrequent. The Warning and Ban system was in place, but it rarely needed to be used. In fact, the Warning/Ban system did not even include Permabans. One had to work through the system for several weeks before even being given a one month ban. For a user to be given a Permaban in just over a week, it was unheard of!

The uninformed and naive probably now mutter amongst themselves, "That Red Quacker must have been a royal pain to get a Permaban under such conditions! I wonder what he did?" I now relate to you the most dreadful part of the story. Do you know how many warnings I received in order to get that Permaban? Zero. In spite of the hatred that burned against me, the Moderators and Administrators could find no fault in me, and no reason to give me a warning. Yet they desired so desperately to destroy me! What could they do? Christian himself, in a rare appearance, personally gave me a Permaban. What reason did he give? It is still in the Announcements forum, under the apt title "Illegal Ban". You can read it for yourself: Christian says he violated his own policy because of a personal bias against me.

And so it was that Red Quacker was banished from the TrekBBS, as he remains today. But even though I was banned, I could not go without posting. Why? Because I made a promise to that BBS and its people. I promised that I would not abandon them, that I would always be with them. I would always post amongst them, and although never allowed to post under my own name, those who were dearest to me would always be able to recognize my voice--eventually.

I was true to that promise. Although I never kept extensive records, I estimate that I made between fifteen and sixteen thousand posts on the TrekBBS. About two hundred and fifty of those posts were made while I was not banned. The remaining were made under other circumstances. When I feel moved to do so, I may recount in greater detail the exploits of those aliases, each a champion in his (or her) own right.

For the past few months, I have been rather quiet. I have attempted to remain silent, because each time Christian and Lisa lash out against the TrekBBS it burdens me greatly. For the most part, I would rather sleep soundly, dreaming dreams of my one week of freedom, of the time when I was so blissfully ignorant of the blackness in Christian and Lisa's hearts.

But every so often an event occurs when I cannot sleep, when I am compelled to speak. This is one of those times.

Everyone who has open eyes is aware of the Troll Kingdom. To me, the Troll Kingdom represents everything that I have ever stood for. I am sure Christian and Lisa feel the same way. This is why they have always maligned, slandered, and wagged their tongues at Troll Kingdom, yet never to destroy it. At first, Christian and Lisa did not choose to treat the Troll Kingdom as a serious threat to their authority. Unable to banish TK from existence, they decided to ignore it instead. They were unable to do so, of course, but since when has inability ever been a reason for C&L not to continually attempt it?

And then, on a fine September day which will forever be marked by happiness for this reason, Troll Kingdom re-opened. It shone in glory far brighter than anyone could ever have imagined it. From that moment forward, C&L have been determined to exterminate all traces of TK from the TrekBBS. C&L knew the danger such a bastion of freedom posed to their regime. For how can a society based on terror long survive when the burning light of the Troll Kingdom shines so brightly?

It has been supposed that C&L renewed their hatred of TK because of TK's ideals. If this is so, why didn't C&L try to banish discussion of TK all along? It has also been supposed that C&L became threatened when they saw of TK's beautiful new design, and "all of the bells and whistles Christian has been promising" the TrekBBS for ages. This, however, is not so. Christian and Lisa cannot tell the difference between good and bad board designs. They're also completely oblivious to the bells and whistles. They have no idea what those are, which is one of the reasons why Christian can't update the board.

No, Christian and Lisa, you must understand, are incredibly superficial people. They can't understand the world on the level that you and I can. C&L became enraged quite simply because Troll Kingdom has its own domain name, www.trollkingdom.com . It sounds quite ridiculous, but in C&L's minds, this is terribly serious. It should be noted that TerranBBS was also once freely discussed in the Miscellaneous forum. Discussion of TerranBBS was later effectively outlawed when it was banished to the graveyard of the Web Sites forum. I believe this new policy took effect around when TerranBBS got a domain name of its own.

Unfortunately for C&L, persecuting Troll Kingdom will not bring about its destruction. People can quite easily find their way to Troll Kingdom now, all they need is the desire. Ironically, that very desire will be provided by Christian and Lisa themselves. Only consider that the closer a person gets to C&L, no matter how ambitious, the more they are repulsed by them. Eventually, this repulsion manifests itself in various ways that are detected by C&L. Then C&L find a reason to try to destroy their heretofore trusted ally. Finally, they develop a keen hatred of C&L and voice their views on the only place they know still allows the voicing of views: the Troll Kingdom.

This process is actually a bit more nuanced, and will be discussed at greater length some other time. Needless to say, C&L alienate their own staff, while simultaneously alienating everyone else on the BBS who voices his or her own opinion. Troll Kingdom has never and will never need to recruit people. Christian and Lisa do that job already.

Why was Troll Kingdom created? How did this all come about? Despite what suck-ups and propagandists say, it has something to do with freedom of speech. Once I, Red Quacker, was Permabanned because of Christian's personal "preferences", it was only a matter of time before he would again find the desire to enforce his preferences upon the TrekBBS. And again, and again. It all started with that one Permaban.

"With the first link, a chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."

This is why I speak today. This is why Troll Kingdom was created. But you see, Christian will never have enough chain. He may spend his entire life forging new chains with which to bind and silence, but I will spend my entire life breaking those very bonds. And I am not alone. Christian will never have the ability to silence us all forever. He may lock our threads, he may delete our posts, he may ban our accounts, but he'll never take...our freedom.

Quack.