This post actually isn't about writing, but about JAFF politics and its chilling effect on my muse. So if you're not interested in JAFF politics, skip this post and go to a more interesting one. It's not a fun post, either.

Follow up:

As many people know, Austen Interlude left the Meryton Assembly after a conflict with the current admins and mods of Meryton Literary Society. I accepted it quietly when they voted me off the Board of Directors of the site I’d founded, and I took the original Austen Interlude back to my own server (later removing the printable PDFs, which Carol refused to allow me to keep at AI). I made this proposal to the MLS Board:

Given recent events and the difficulty of getting responses to our questions, Elaine and I have decided to move Austen Interlude to a different server. At the time AHA joined AI, AI had a budget surplus from our last fundraiser totalling over $850, enough to cover AI’s operating expenses for years. This is separate from all the money out of my own pocket that has maintained the site all year. Setting up AHA and the meryton.com server took all of Austen Interlude's cash reserves. AI hasn’t received any funds from the MLS fundraiser, although donors thought they were supporting it, or from the amazon.com link. For the sake of the community, I'm willing to do what I can to spare MLS from excess financial distress, but I need to be reimbursed for these funds so that AI doesn’t have to do an immediate fundraiser.

Here is my proposal: AI would waive its rights to a percentage of money from the recent fundraiser and would reduce the money owed by MLS to AI (separate from the money MLS still owes me) from $850 to $500 in exchange for the following courtesies:

1. I’ve given out business cards with the email address abigail@meryton.com. I’m already destroyed the remaining cards, and I won’t use that address to send email any longer, but I would like to have my mailbox not deleted and the email forwarder left intact, so I can receive emails from people I’ve given the address to. I will then give them a different address to reach me at. Meryton.com has thousands of emails available, so this takes no resources, only requiring that my mailbox and forwarder not be deleted.

2. Many people have meryton.com bookmarked or use links to meryton.com to find AI. Also, AI has been used to drive traffic to meryton.com in the past. Because correct links are slow to filter through the net, I’d like the AI link on the front page to remain where it is for 2 years.

3. For the same reasons, I’d like to have the aihome.html page and the AI author pages left on the server unchanged for 2 years. Those pages are set to automatically redirect to austeninterlude.org. As meryton.com uses less than 2% of its space, this will have no negative impact on the site.

4. The only repayment I have for the huge number of hours I’ve put into meryton.com over the last year is the ability to advertise my books there. Therefore, I would like the right to maintain images of and links to my books in their current size and location on the index page, for a period of 2 years. I will be happy to provide the html code if any changes are necessary. Again, this costs MLS no effort, except that you not delete them.

None of this costs MLS any money or effort, and just involve leaving things as they are. This is a far better financial return for advertising than you could possibly get from anyone else. Given that AI doesn’t need the money immediately, I’m willing to accept it in payments over 3 years to reduce financial strain on MLS. This does not apply to the money owed me personally, only to the AI funds.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I am happy to expound in more detail on any of these items if it would be helpful to you.

This is the response I received by FedEx, signature required:

According to the Bylaws - which you reviewed and signed during the incorporation process and filing of articles - the Meryton Literary Society (MLS) bylaws Article 9, Section 2, paragraph b defines Financial Conflict of Interest. Auricle 9, section 3a and 3d further explain that any financial conflict of interest must be disclosed. No conflict or claim was disclosed. This lack of disclosure caused the corporation to file a 1023 with the IRS declaring that pre-existing assets were not being purchased. This form 1023 was sent to you before filing and was not disputed.

Furthermore, debts incurred prior to the July 2008 incorporate date are not the legal liability of the corporation. Therefore, the Board of MLS feels it is inappropriate for you to now demand the retroactive payment for the assets that were transferred to MLS upon the change of ownership and now belong to the corporation.

In the November 5, 2008 Board of Directors meeting, the proposal titled “AI Proposal” was rejected by a unanimous vote. (See enclosed - MLS Public Minutes - Item #8). However, in the interest of community and good will, MLS agreed to counter Proposal #1 accepted by a unanimous vote and will donate the sum of $848.11 to you for the purpose of operating Austen Interlude with the stipulation that this donation in no way acknowledges any pre-existing debt owed to Abigail [Reynolds], or Austen Interlude.

Now, therefore, MLS agrees to pay to Abigail Young the sum of $848.11. In cashing this check, Abigail Young agrees to accept this sum from MLS in full satisfaction, discharge, and release of any and all claims, real or otherwise, and in release of any further claims thereto.

This hereby dissolves all ties between Meryton Literary Society, Inc., and Austen Interlude or Abigail [Reynolds], and releases us from any further claims, obligation, or appearance of obligation. In consequence of this dissolution, we request Abigail [Reynolds], to remove AHA backup board from the austeninterlude.org domain.

Sincerely,
The Officers and Directors of Meryton Literary Society, Inc.

Given that they felt it was “inappropriate” for me to ask for the money, I felt uncomfortable taking it, and returned the check to them. Elaine and I funded the new AI out of our own pockets, which is how it remains.

As followup, they removed my meryton.com email address, without putting on an autoresponder to let people know how to reach me, immediately removed the AI link and my books from the splash page, and changed the aihome.html page – the four things I’d requested that they keep in my proposal. There was no negotiation or discussion about this. Without waiting to hear from me, they apparently assumed I’d accepted their deal and posted it on AHA. I made a post stating that the assumption wasn’t correct, and they removed that post without any word to me, before or after, and also took away my PM privileges (both sending and receiving) and my ability to post except as pre-approved by a moderator. Again, they said nothing to me about it, and never made any explanation or discussed it at all. When they didn’t restore my privileges as a regular member after several days, I asked for my membership to be suspended, because I don’t like being gagged.

I accepted all of that quietly, too, because I didn’t want to disrupt the community, which I love. But then came another issue, and I sent them this:

Hi all,

I was glad to hear about your new Reading Room, since it takes the pressure off AI, which is already maxed out on new writers coming in with HG down. I assume this also means you now have time and the know-how for coding work, so I'd like you to remove the AI graphics from the background of your pages. You have my permission to continue to use the Meryton Assembly graphic I made, since it's of no use to me. You may also continue to use the AHA skin I made, and the AHA graphic image which I made originally and Ellenjp improved upon. Even though the image is from my AI author page and the skin is in AI colors, I'm not asking you to change them because I know it would be disruptive to the community. So all I'm asking for is removing the background tiles, though I think it would be nice if you also designed your own page code that isn't based on the AI code or the AI look. Wouldn't it be nice to have a Meryton look?

To remove the background tiles, all you need to do is to remove the line "background-image: url(wp_damask_032_AIblue.jpg);" from the code of each page it's on. If you want to replace it with a background image of your own, you can upload your image and replace the wp_damask_032_AIblue.jpg part with the name of your image file. If you want a pattern of your own, there are lots of free backgrounds available online at sites such as http://www.allfreebackgrounds.com/background_select.html. I'd love to see this get resolved in a manner JA would approve of, without having to resort to legal threats, but if you have questions, feel free to ask, or I'm sure you can look up the appropriate information on intellectual property as applied to web site design. I think two weeks is plenty of time to remove one line of code from the pages it's on, especially since I've been waiting for you to do it for a couple of months already. I know you were very busy learning the ropes at first, but it seems like you're past that now.
[….]
Best,
Abigail

This is the response I received today:

We are touched by your concern that Meryton have its own look, but it
really isn't necessary. Making improvements to the look of the site has
always been on our "To Do" list, but for now we have other priorities.

In the meantime, we have checked with our legal counsel on the copyright
and intellectual property issues of the damask background. We were advised
that to copyright something, it must be an "original work of authorship."
[See "Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music" (92-1292), 510 U.S. 569 (1994) and
"Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co.", 499 U.S. 340
(1991)] Therefore, no party can claim ownership of the pattern except The
Inspiration Gallery, the free graphics website from which it was originally
downloaded. The slight modification of color done by Zuki would not hold up
under a claim of Intellectual Property in a court of law. We see no
ownership issues that need to be addressed by us.

If you dispute The Inspiration Gallery's ownership of the pattern, we
suggest you have your lawyer contact them as that pattern is still on their
website to be colored and used by anyone in whatever manner they wish. We
are currently crediting Inspiration Gallery for the ownership of the
pattern as is stated on their website as a condition of use; however, we
would be happy to remove the pattern from our website if you provide us
with a copy of an agreement between you and Inspiration Gallery stating
that you do own the pattern or a ruling by a court stating the same.

Best,
The Board and Officers of Meryton Literary Society, Inc.

(Incidentally, there are different legal opinions on this, about the ‘look’ of a website; you can find them on www.chillingeffects.com).

This is just a taste of what's been going on. I don't understand why this has to be done in such an unpleasant manner. I just don't have the patience for this kind of nonsense and pettiness anymore. I hope my readers will understand why my muse doesn’t want anything to do with JAFF anymore. I'd really rather be thinking about Elizabeth and Darcy, but it's too muddied by all this unnecessary unpleasantness.

Meantime, I'm going to make changes to AI's appearance because I don't want any confusion about any relationship between the sites. I still think they should be the ones to change since I developed the look, but since they won't, I will. More stuff to do when I'd rather be writing.

I'm hoping that bringing these communications out into the open will lead to greater civility than has been the case so far. It may be Pollyanna of me, but I really don't see why JAFF can't be about fun, escape, and stories.