has anyone heard of John Bass? based on this recent message, in which he melodramatically tries to stir the shit on a RMIUG list (rocky mountain internet user group) I wonder if L.D. is in fact a John Bass tentacle, or vice versa... From: jbass@dmsd.com (John L. Bass) To: rmiug-discuss@xor.com Subject: The legacy of Ted Smith's, Gary Anderson's, and Mary Newell's actions. The legacy of Ted Smith's, Gary Anderson's, Mary Newell's, and possibly Scott Crawford's (since it was difficult to figure out which side he was on) un-ethical postings combined with inaction of the elected and natural leaders of RMIUG will reflect poorly on the group and it's leaders for years to come. This legacy includes the inaction of the entire readership of rmiug-discuss as well (with the exception of Gabe who is a guest reader from the east coast). Leadership has a number of grave responsibilities and difficult choices - the foremost of which is the preservation of ethical and moral behavior in the group - to protect the reputation of the BOTH group and it's elected and natural leadership. In some instances, none of the available options may be popular - but in-action is by far a greater failing. I deeply regret the events which have unfolded over the last two weeks. Making 10 of 31 posts in a group of 11 posters regarding the MS topic of 6/29 should not be a capital offense. Nor should questioning a board members assertions about the use of the list in the face of historical usage. Nor should questioning the tollarance of highly unethical private and public attacks upon posters. On the 29th I heeded Aleks request after reading it, and made a single additional post. As Gabe noted, we were already winding the debate down. Unfortunately, the several 1-2 hour delivery time of rmiug-discuss delayed Alek's comments. I'm am deeply disappointed that the lessons learned from the last two weeks have come at a great cost to all. I am more concerned the examples set here by Ted Smith, Gary Anderson, and Mary Newell may greatly limit discussion and participation in RMIUG. Each of you *IS* RMIUG. As a group your ethical, intellectual, and moral guidance and leadership can not be ignored in difficult or unpopular times. Many have choosen in the last 3 days to vote with their feet out of disgust. While they can distance themselves from the unpleasant events this way, it is just another form of failing to take more positive steps - maybe out of fear of being targeted themselves. I have many questions about why rmiug at nearly 700 people was unable to maintain a higher level of content (and traffic) as a tool to augment the learning curve of the many new comers to the internet, expand the horizons of all, and form the dialog to bind the readership into a effective functioning group. A highly sucessful topic in a large diverse group this size will only have the interest of 10-30% of the readership, just as the meetings do not benefit and attract the entire group each month. A topic that produces content from 7 posters over 26 messages should not create a fire. A good highly successful topic which really involves the readership, might draw comment from 1% of the readership, some 60-70 people, and include maybe a hundred or two posts. And several at the same time, even more. Expecting the ACCEPTABLE volume of the list to remain under 3-4 per day is a great burden on the usefulness of this list. One difficultly has been that some readers use ISP's and BBS's with extremely small quota's and read their mailbox's infrequently. They have been extremely frustrated at their mbox/quota overflowing from traffic around 50-100KB/wk. For others it has been the relatively poor user interface of some mail readers which limits their ability to select the articles they wish to read. It is hard sometimes to understand the small quota's in the face of disk space costing less than $.30-.50/MB. Maybe one project of this group should be to help find/provide entry level members better access and tools at a nominal or free cost. Dispite Ted Smith's slander and assertions to the contrary, I bring some objectiveness and experience to issues many would prefer to ignore. I loathe the current PC vogue to avoid conflict at all costs - - often with thick sarcasm and an unwillingness to listen to conflicting view points. I am direct, up front, listen well, accept "constructive criticism", and enjoy reasoned civil debate. I have the highest respect for someone who can present/defend their views with a reasoned arguement based upon fact and experience, and in the face of equally reasoned arguements also based upon fact and experience, augment/change their position or possibly agree to disagree when no common ground exists. I've been active some dozen times as the leading exec member of both professional and civic orgs. I last ran a SF Bay area unix users group known as UNIOPS/Silicon Valley Net(SVNet) for over 3 years almost single handledly - including printing and addressing as much as 2000-4000 meeting announcements for bulk mail each month. With current and early breaking topics and speakers I was often capacity limited by the 800 seat room ... often standing room only. When I moved it took me a year, and going dark twice, before I could find a team willing to take over the burden and continue what I had started. Before that I ran two different groups with semi-annual international Unix conferences with between 300 and 1000 attendees as "West Coast Unix Users Group" at SRI International (formerly Standford Research Institute) and as UNIOPS (before helping found /USR/GROUP now known as UNIFORM). I also spent two years on the /usr/group UNIX standards committe as the "Extentions Sub-committe Chairman". Both concurrent and prior to that I did my duty as board member of several Square Dance Clubs and Campus orgs. My public life has been second to my family for the last 7 years. I suspect in part, the hostility here results from a previous unpopular dispute where I called for the resignation of Guy Cook after having CSN drop all the mail for dmsd.com on the floor for many weeks, and then publicly deny that CSN had done so (as well as a number of other management failings at CSN). Guy and CSN have come a long way in the year and a half since, to become probably the best ISP in the state. The road was rocky, but all have learned from the experience, and I hope moved forward, including I. John L. Bass FYI: rmiug-discuss volume by day from 5/18 to present. 30 |-------+---------+---------+---------+----#----+------ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 25 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 20 |-------+---------+---------+---------+---------+#----- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 15 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | # | | | | | | 10 |-------+---------+---------+---------+---------+------ | # | | | | # | | | | | | | | | | | # | # | | | # # | | 5 | | | | | # | #|# # | |# | | | # # | ## | # | | | # | | # |# ## | # | # #| |# ## | | # | # # | # # | # 0 +----#--+-#--##--##-----####+-##-#---###-#----#-+------ 112222222222330000000001111111111222222222230000000001 890123456789011234567890123456789012345678901234567890 May June July 0000 0000 00 00 00 00 0 000 0 0300 00210000 Group `#' 1211 3494 42 33 21322 64 1 621 1 2071 25029713 Volume *** You received this message because you are on an RMIUG email list *** *** Send email to rmiug@rmiug.org for RMIUG & subscription information *** ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi. If you reply to this message, your message WILL be *automatically* anonymized and you are allocated an anon id. Read the help file to prevent this. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi.