Well, Levi Kornelsen has
announced his departure from the site, in (apparent) response to one of Pundit's most recent screeds.
I'm not at all happy with that. Levi's a terrific and useful poster ... and while I can and will keep chatting with him on many other fora, it's sad to see him depart this community.
I'm also not at all happy with some of the responses I've seen to it ... especially Kyle's (a.k.a. JimBob's) immediate "Don't be a cocksmock!" response and consistent pattern of attributing weakness and malice to Levi rather than accepting the decision as a a difference of opinion.
So if Levi wants to tell the online gaming world that he disagrees with RPGPundit, and wants to do so by RPGPundit's guidelines, then he should just say, "I think you are completely wrong" right here on therpgsite. Which he already has, many times.
I'll tell you from experience, though ... that doesn't work.
Within the past few days I have received private messages from people
on this site complaining that I am a Pundit supporter because I don't disagree with him
as much as they think I should, or
on the topics they think I should.
I get the same thing from people who aren't on the site, but I tend to attribute that to ignorance. But when people who just finished watching our Pistols thread are telling me that I'm in Pundy's pocket ... well! I have my doubts about your "Say he's wrong on his site and that'll be the end of it" argument.
Now I
agree with you that I wish Levi had stayed, and I don't think Pundit is important enough that anyone should abandon the site because of him. I just don't understand why you're leaping to attribute Levis decision to weakness or pissiness. He hasn't really struck me as a "wuss" in the past.
I think that you're very comfortable with the idea that Pundit isn't making any impact on people ... because he doesn't make any impact on you, and so you figure everyone else should just choose to feel the same way. It looks an awful lot like you're trying to demonize Levi, rather than question that notion. Even though I agree with your premise, I don't think that's a hugely productive way to frame a discussion.
I'll say that Levi is
not the only poster that theRPGSite has lost in the past few weeks. I know that because, what with my being engaged with Pundit recently, folks have privately emailed me to talk about the site. Several of those have, as part of their talking, expressed their intention never to visit again. Levi's just the first to do so in the public eye.