Dear VLDB Associate Editors. Some months ago I was denied a review at VLDB. My paper (on joins/GPUs/time series, perennial topics at VLDB) was deemed to be out of topic. I was offered no explanation or avenue for appeal, so I wrote a respectful dissent at [a]. I then moved on. Today, I got an email from Volker Markl (on behalf of the VLDB Executive), that said “In light of your openly disrespectful comments on VLDB 2019 PC Co-Chair the VLDB Executive has made a decision to withdraw the invitation to you to serve on the VLDB Demo PC”. I have asked Dr. Markl to point to the disrespectful language, but he has so far declined to do so (I just cannot actually see any, can you??). However, dissent is not disrespect. Moreover, denial of the right to dissent is fascism [b]. By now “blackballing” me, the VLDB Executive is hurting my career. Why? What have I done that requires I be punished like this? The “disrespectful” logic (apart from not being true in my case) seems to open a can of worms… A) I saw Joe yawn during a VLDB keynote, that was disrespectful, lets ban him from being a reviewer. B) In her SIGMOD paper, Sue said that an idea that was published in VLDB was wrong, so disrespectful of her, lets ban her from being a reviewer. C) And so on… Is it really the VLDB Executive’s desire to create an atmosphere where no dissent is allowed? Where young researchers are afraid to tell their friend in an elevator that they got a bad review, in case a spy from the Executive committee is listening in, and will give them a “disrespectful” checkmark? It seems that science progresses by open dialogue, not by trying to harass someone for their (calmly and respectfully stated) opinion. I respectfully appeal to you as a committee, to overrule this wrong decision. I respectfully appeal to you as a committee, to ensure that VLDB does not have a culture of suppression of ideas. eamonn [a ] https://www.reddit.com/r/datamining/comments/9egby9/i_was_denied_a_review_at_vldb/ [b] I do not use the word “fascism” lightly. But five minutes with a dictionary convinces me it is the right word. “The totalitarian states, whether of the FASCIST or the communist persuasion, are more than superficially alike as dictatorships, in the SUPPRESSION OF DISSENT, and in operating planned and directed economies. They are profoundly alike.” Walter Lippmann, The Good Society (1937); Transaction Publications edition (2005), p. 89