Hello, David.
I've been scouring the internet for Morrissey related information ever since "Satan rejected my soul" emerged as a possible song title for Maladjusted in 1996 (my first show was at the Bren Events Center in Irvine for the aforementioned tour). With that said, I've been visiting your site in its various forms for almost twenty years now. And it's essential. Where else would anyone go to get the amount of information that you provide? Certainly not an official site or Julia's trash bin. But to see your site reach the point where a security guard takes a cash bribe from TMZ to create an imaginary story based on your history of troubles with Morrissey (and let's be realistic here, that's exactly what this is, as there will never be a real lawsuit filed in court--don't forget, they went after KY for a story too), goes against everything you strived to do when you started Morrissey-Solo.
But this happened a long time ago. You, UncleSkinny, and a number of others enjoy sticking it to the man as often as possible. This is painfully evident with the title of the site quoting his "hateful online creche" line. You want to annoy him. You want him to see it every single day when he checks to see what is being said about him. It's a tit-for-tat battle that's been going on for far too long and the lot of you are no better than him in terms of behavior and pettiness.
I'm sure you feel that your years running the site have at the very least earned you his respect. Where else would people have gone during his "wilderness years", etc. But he never asked you for anything, and of course, he doesn't owe you anything. You have made some poor decisions in terms of articles that you have advanced to the front page. You replied to a thread just the other day saying that aren't you allowed to make some mistakes, and yes, you are. But when have you ever apologized for it? When have you ever posted an open letter to the man directly saying that you made a mistake? I mean, you directly advertised the leaking of three of his songs to his forthcoming album in 2006. As an artist myself, if someone leaked my art before I was ready for it to be released, well, I wouldn't put out a hit on you, but I'm sure my imagination could figure out ways to prevent someone from ever doing it again.
My point is this: it's time for you to take some responsibility for your site. When things went bad between you and the man, you took the mentality that everything is fair game and that it's a free-for-all. You did this for a variety of reasons, but the most important of them is to remove yourself of any responsibility. And you do have a responsibility, even if you justify it otherwise. My personal advice: No more snide comments added on to your headlines. No more rumors posted in the personal realm (the AIDs rumor--seriously, come on). No more UncleSkinny running around posting in defense of David because where would Moz be without you(!). No more headlines of albums leaking (I noticed you didn't with WPINOYB). No more personal warfare with the man (creche comment, etc). Just run a straight site and reign it in.
Additionally, clean up your board. I get the mentality behind anonymous posters because SOME information has come out of it, but they can register in two minutes just like anyone else and no one is going to discover who they actually are (gmails are free, y'know). I want info, demo recordings, unreleased songs just like you and everyone else, but running a tighter ship isn't going to prevent access to any of that.
And that's it. Hope this message finds you well as we have mutual friends here in LA and I've been told that you're a solid guy--now just let your site reflect that.
