Andrew,
If this is over the line please feel free to delete it, I won't take offense.
I just, for some inexplicable reason, read that entire "This used to be Deen's interview" thread on the other site. I'm appalled at the way Andrew is treated in that thread. I guess I'm not surprised, but I am appalled. I wouldn't be replying here if I could do so there, but since MR, Andrew and several of us are mentioned in that thread I don't think replying here is too far out of line.
The post that really sent my feelings about the thread beyond disgust and into direct insult was the one about Andrew allowing some of us to help him get the feature on line. Supposedly it was unprofessional of Andrew to do so because we aren't paid employees. Of course the underlying jealousy behind the complaint came out in the comment about him allowing some people to see it before it was Officially allowed to be published.
I transcribed the interviews. No one else on earth besides Andrew and I knew I'd heard them or typed them until Andrew had the class and consideration to thank me on here AFTER they were published. I had no conversation with anyone, including Dean or even my best friend Perryfaithful about them before they were released on this site. I typed everything word for word as it was spoken by Andrew and the band members. Nothing was altered in any way. The interviews that Andrew posted on here after they were proofread by Dean and TNC were comprised of those exact words. The format was all that was changed from the originals. There was no editing of anything that was said "On The Record".
Some comments were made in that thread to the effect that maybe some things should have been edited out for the sake of diplomacy. What do you want, the truth as the band sees it or a fantasy of your design? I can understand why, as fans of Augeri, that you wouldn't like some of the things that were said, but would you really rather Andrew edit them out to preserve your illusions? On the one hand he's accused of writing a fluff piece as a promotional tool for Jeff, and on the other he's accused of allowing too much that was offensive to Augeri to be said. What is it, too fluffy or too heavy hitting? He did his job plain and simple, and a damned good job of it.
As for the ethics of Andrew's enlisting help from us, there was a reason why I transcribed them. Andrew was hoping to be able to get these interviews up during the week after they were done. He had to go to the UK for another tour and wouldn't have been able to get them up without help. I offered and he allowed me the privilege of helping him out with them. He was sending them to me from airports and airplanes on his way to the UK so that we could get them to the fans in a timely manner. I didn't ask for or expect payment, and neither Dean nor TNC, anymore than the mods at BT do.
If Andrew had been allowed to post these interviews when he expected to I feel confident that they would have been received from a slightly different perspective than they were after the wait. Too much time, speculation and angst over the obvious outcome for Augeri occurred during the month that Augeri was holding up the official announcement. The interviews lost some of their intent and impact over that time. They were received with anger and bitterness on the parts of a lot of Augeri fans, not because of the actual content of the interviews, but because they were primed and ready to fire before they ever read them.
I've been in the position those people are in now, and it's not fun. They crossed the line though by accusing Andrew, Dean and myself of some sort of unethical conspiracy to make Jeff and MR look better than Augeri and BT(yeah, that was acctually implied
) is just absurd.
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).