Thanks for the new information, Haley. I had no idea that you were on the receiving end of Mason's vitriol regarding NWP back in March '08.

Funny how many things I've learned over the past day about that situation, despite it occurring 13 1/2 years ago.

You're right that NWP was frequently vulgar, and some users there would push the envelope as far as they could. While I was (and still am) a big proponent of free speech forums, I felt the site needed a few more rules than it had, but Micon wouldn't hear of it.

However, when Pokernews got rid of NWP in late 2009, and allowed us to move all of the forum content over to Donkdown, I was able to convince Micon that we should tone down some of the super-offensive content. I told him that we should make a rule against vulgarity for the sake of vulgarity, and he semi-agreed to this. That's why Donkdown was never nearly as vulgar as NWP, and why Donkdown was able to get a media pass at WSOP, after NWP had been denied the previous year. We basically sold it as a similar but somewhat cleaner version of NWP. I had more power on Donkdown than I did on NWP, because I was an actual owner at that point, rather than just a moderator. I have tightened the rules even further on PFA while trying to still maintain a free speech atmosphere.

Glad to see you here again, even if it's just a brief cameo.

I do hope that David and Mason finally have to stand up and answer for what happened back then, as both skated away from the situation far too lightly.