[theforum] Donation Wall - last chance to comment

[Judah McAuley]

Isaac Forman wrote:
> To be honest, I'm quite embarrassed by the way that everyone here has
> responded.

I didn't respond at all because I felt that the bulk of Russell's 
assertions were based on perceived and/or real grudges dating from the 
earliest days of the creation of Evolt.  I was not there for many of the 
events discussed so I have no vested interest in the arguments and I 
feel that dredging them up again now serves no useful purpose.  The 
discussion is moving *forward* and the ideas that have been put forth 
about financial stability for the Evolt community have been critiqued 
(sometimes a bit heatedly), but they have been critiqued on their own 
merits.  Russell's message was essentially useless in any terms of 
moving the discussion forward.

It was a troll.  It was aloof, demeaning, and quite frankly, rude.  I 
would have preferred it if everyone had simply said "troll", ignored it 
and moved on, but the people involved in this discussion care a great 
deal and that can cause people to get more heated than they otherwise would.

Look at the first paragraph of his message:

"progress...or lack thereof..."  Completely snarky.

"do not see any particular claim of virtue"  Evolt isn't doing something 
virtuous?  Where is all the self interest in the community?  Who is 
rolling in the big bucks here?

"stated reasons have not been held in high esteem by many of the 
posters"  I'm not sure which messages he reads, but I find that most of 
the people on thelist are very greatful to have a forum to ask questions 
and are completely amazed at how many answers they get and how quickly. 
  The see a real community trying to help each other.  It seems to be 
held in high esteem to me.

"the trail of badly used benefactors"  That is certainly a troll. 
Dredging up old grudges that have many people on both sides of the 
debate.  No useful purpose, just hurtful.

"Seb, I would like to see a verified list of your contributions."  What 
the Fuck????  This is unspeakably rude.  Where do we get off challenging 
anyone like this?  It's not like Seb claimed to have donated more 
time/money/code/etc. than anyone in the history of Evolt and then 
claimed that he owned the trademark or something.  Russell was either in 
a really bad mood and should apologize, or he has a completely different 
idea of what Evolt is than I do.

People were being rude back because Russell attacked them.  He may or 
may not have had a kernel of a worthy idea in the post, but I really 
don't care.  You write something as ugly as that message and I'm going 
to ignore it because its completely vile rubbish.

If Russell wants to write something useful and polite, I'll gladly read 
it and consider it.  Otherwise I'll ignore his messages.  Easy.

Now, can we get back to substantative discussion now?

Judah