[theforum] The light at the end of the tunnel

William Anderson neuro at well.com
Mon Sep 18 07:13:50 CDT 2006


Alan,

David has summed up my feelings pretty succinctly I think, so I will not
rehash them here, however I will add the following personal points.

I for one was happy to see someone mixing it up and getting everyone active,
and your initial steps were good.  But when you decided to wait without
consensus to perform actions - something I was explicitly warning against -
you got people's heckles raised.

Even if you are not willing to return to the evolt community, I hope you
will take on board the comments that I and David have made, and perhaps
further comments that others will make after us.

Alan Lloyd wrote:
> Hello
> 
> First I am sorry I have not been around for you to shout at me. However
> my partner gave birth to our second child two weeks early so I have been
> a bit busy.

Congratulations to you and your partner!

> Then when I found out some c*nt had unsubscribed me anyway I thought
> 'what the heck'.

It is rare anyone is unsubscribed from an evolt list without us being asked
to do so, or some malicious event taking place, such as spam.  To my
knowledge, no-one unsubscribed you from any list, and unsub glitches have
been occurring in the last few weeks, as I'm sure you were aware.  No cunt
has unsubscribed you, please understand this.

> PLEASE don't waste the opportunity I tried to give you. I did not want
> to change the way evolt works. Just point out that it doesn't.

But *you did* change the way evolt works by taking unilateral actions
without appropriate consultation with content and sysadmin teams, teams who
are still active.  Again I'll point out you made changes to the evolt.org
front page very late on a Friday night without waiting to see if anyone
objected.  That kind of action simply isn't warranted or professional.

> I got you all talking again. THAT IS WHAT I WAS AIMING FOR. Shocking you
> into action. I am disgusted at what it took (and so should you all be).

I am disgusted that you felt you had to shock anyone.  evolt operates on
consensus; it should have been clear from major discussions past, which I'm
sure you read in the archives before considering taking any action at all.

> Don't let some fools decide what happens to evolt just because they have
> been around for a long time. NO ONE HAS THAT RIGHT!

Please remember that membership of evolt is a privilege, not a right.

> So I guess all I want to say is good luck. Keep evolt running and try to
> get rid of the stupid people who just want to talk! Tell them to join
> AOL and use the chat rooms. To keep evolt going needs ACTION not TALK.

Join AOL?  Why?  What benefit will subscribing to a bloated, antiquated ISP
bring to our organisation?

> Every one HAS a voice. Please don't let anyone tell you different. IF
> YOU ARE READING THIS YOU HAVE A VOICE!

Yes, everyone has a voice, and they are welcome to use it.  In fact, please
*do* use it.  The more opinions the merrier, but please do be aware that
those of us with privs have privs for a reason.  We have demonstrated over
the years that we have deserved those privileges by not abusing them.  With
power comes responsibility; please remember that.

I fear it may be some time before administrative privileges are extended
beyond those already with privs due to this incident.  evolt is not a
dictatorship, but neither is it an anarchic commune.

> So good luck and good bye. (Don't worry this will be my last post. I got
> the message)

PLEASE don't call us cunts and fools; it is highly inappropriate.  I hope
you will calm enough to consider rationally what you have done, what we have
said, and that you will consider returning to assist us in the tasks ahead.
 You have reminded us all that we cannot remain complacent, and we will
always have work ahead of us if we want our community to remain alive and
vibrant.  But at the same time, we cannot simply abandon the methodology
under which we work just because one person says so; it isn't fair to those
who have worked hard in the years of evolt's life to ensure its existence.

I've actually written more than I thought I would.  Again, please don't take
any of this as a personal attack.  No-one has it in for you.

-- 
_ __/|  William Anderson      |  Tim: Your cheese game is strong.
\`O_o'  neuro at well dot com | Zane: My cheese game. It's all about the
=(_ _)= http://neuro.me.uk/   |       cheese platter.
   U  - Thhbt! GPG 0xFA5F1100 | -- Tim Westwood, Zane Lowe, R1, Dec 2005




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