RTR

One of the positive changes I’ve made in my life has been to distance myself from people whose behaviour I disapprove of. 

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Yeah, stuff like that.  Bob just brought the hammer down on a thread called “Unofficial Mens RTR”, citing trademark rights.  The thread was directly inspired by the existance of a Women’s RTR thread.

My disapproval is two-fold:

1. as of this writing there are still Women’s RTR and  Disabled RTR threads

2. Bob doesn’t just restrict the thread’s use of the term but claims he will NOT (his emphasis) give permission to use it.

intent

In the complete absence of explanatory context it is difficult to understand his intent.  Let’s consider some possibilities:

• no motivation, just arbitrary decision -  This is the most disturbing possibility, IMO.

• money, future or present - I don’t think that’s it.  I have defended Bob many times on this in YT comments, forum posts, etc.

• control issues - possibly.  It’s certainly red meat to those who see Bob as a budding cult leader

• hippie do-gooderism  - probably. Men bad!  Women and other oppressed groups good!  This lines up with the story of how he came to start the forum and the RTR in the first place.

fallout

It seems to me if he wants to start claiming trademark rights for RTR, he's going to have to start forcing everyone to _write_ RTR in the forums.  If he doesn't aggressively defend the trademark he could lose it. If he does defend it the tenor of the forums will have changed forever.  The damage may have already been done.