Thank you Leaky Staff for being so professional and caring for all concerned. The consideration and thoughtfulness you have displayed is what makes your site so well supported. Thanks for the explanation and the time you and the staff have taken to put all the above information together. Keep up the great work. I wish you all well.
Dear Leaky staff,
I’m sure this wasn’t easy, but it was the right thing to do. Being associated with the Lexicon, given their questionable actions throughout this entire sad affair, could have affected this site as well, particularly considering Steve’s ludicrous belief that he is somehow fighting for fandom in his lawsuit rather than his own wallet.
It’s always hard to say goodbye to someone you thought was a friend, but in the long run, this was the best thing for Leaky to do. You guys don’t need the bad karma and misguided views that SVA and RDR have, particularly towards Jo, and you deserve better than to be potentially tainted by their foolishness.
Keep your heads up, and don’t let anyone tell you that you were wrong to do what you did. Severing all ties with Steve and with the Lexicon will be a good thing for the long term health of both the Leaky, and the HP fandom as a whole.
You guys have made the right choice. As Dumbledore said, you choose what is right and not what was the easy way. A partnership can no longer function, when both are so obviously on different sides of the debate. I personally think Steve is wrong in saying, if Jo win’s she’ll crack down on the whole fandom of HP.
It is sad that it had to come to this but I think that Leaky made the right decision. I think everyone at Leaky has conducted themselves in such a great way. I am proud to be a fan and a member of Leaky now, and in the years to come.
Crookshanks144
Steve wasn’t being a friend or colleague to Leaky by dragging fandom at large into the mess he got into by trying to publish the Lexicon site as a book.
He also wasn’t being a friend or colleague to Leaky by inflating the profits he would have gotten for his sales if they came from a link posted on a Floo site, including Leaky. He would have gotten 50% and RDR would have gotten the other 50%. Friends don’t deliberately plan to take advantage of their friends like that, yet Steve did. Just look for his publishing contract in the court documents.
And he was no friend or colleague to fandom by trying to make the wrongheaded, 1984-style argument that a win for him is a win for fandom when the actual legal truth is the other way around. If he wins, we all lose, but he can’t and won’t see that. If he loses, we’ll be fine, but if he wins, fandom will be in danger.
Personally, no matter how hard this was for the Leaky staff, I’m glad they cut their ties with him. They’re even going to give Steve the Lexicon domain, which Leaky still owns, once the suit ends, and they’re going to pay for it until the suit ends. That’s a gift. Leaky doesn’t have to do either of those things, but they are, and people should realize that.
As hard as it might have been to say goodbye, it will be a benefit for fandom in the long run, and it will be good for Leaky.
In comparing the ability to make the right decision it is obvious who the responsible adults are here. Melissa and the entire Leaky staff have shown extraordinary maturity, objectiveness, and careful consideration in covering the whole JKR/WB vs. RDR/SVA suit.
The decision to sever relationships with the Lexicon and Steve must have been heart-wrenching, but I honestly don’t see how it could have been any other way. Steve is going to be the big loser no matter what the outcome of the lawsuit. He has lost a good proportion of the support of the Potter fandom. He has lost his place on PotterCast where I think he held a position of influence and respect and most of all, he has lost his credibility. I don’t expect that we will be seeing him portrayed as a Potter expert on any future movie DVDs.
If the Leaky staff think that this move will further endear themselves to Jo and the fandom, that they will appear the ‘good guys’ then I am not surprised in the least. Ambition on a purely cruel-hearted Slytherin level has been a trademark of so many at this website, and this move further condemns them as nothing more than self-servers, rather than true fans.
Adding my voice to those who have said that this “parting of the ways” was a sad but necessary decision. Thank you, Melissa and the rest of TLC’s staff, for doing the right thing.
The only self-serving, Slytherin level ambition comes from the so-called “fan” that tried to not only publish his website as a book, but who moved to take advantage of the good relationship he had with Leaky by piggybacking on them for more money.
Leaky have been more than professional through all of the nonsense that Steve and RDR have inflicted on this fandom for their own greedy purposes. Why should they be tarred by their association with the Lexicon? It wouldn’t do them any favors, and they disagree anyway.
Agree with Minnie, Steve was no friend or colleague. If he himself had cared so much about “friends and colleagues” he’d never have let this thing stretch to such an extent. And yeah, one more thing, I’m sure Jo is going to be very touched by this, and you guys have proved that you really are “Jo’s Army”...
And Mater Inferorum, tell moe then, does being a “true fan” mean doing what Steve has been doing? If it is so, then sorry, I’d rather not be a true fan at all…
Just adding my voice to the support here. I understand and support TLC’s action, it’s a difficult decision to execute so kudos to you. I also disagree with Steve on his comment that RDR losing would mean a constriction on fandom – as so many of us do, and am surprised that he can’t see the other side.
How typical. Instead of talking about the decision that the entire staff of Leaky made, some would rather attack Melissa directly.
I’m definitly proud of being a Leaky Fan…! It’s hard but those choices matter. After everything he said, it would be very sad otherwise…
“Keep each other safe. Keep faith.”
It seems to me in reading what Steve read that he is “towing the corporate line” or what he’s been lead to believe by RDR Books. If you tell yourself a thing enough times – and it sounds logical – you start to believe it. I never would have thought in a million years that he would say that about Jo. I, too, will miss Steve on Pottercast – I thought he was a great addition to the show on CC – but all of the events recently have made it nearly impossible for me to listen to him on even older Pottercasts I have D/L to my computer – I can’t imagine what it would be like if he were to return [had this decision not been made that is]. I agree with everyone else here – kudos to the Leaky Staff for making a very tough, yet correct, decision…you have the support of the fandom in this one.