Servers are being updated at RB. need another 5 days. and what's happened with byron's site?
haven't got my code yet.
seems like some "behind the scenes" communicating may have been taking place here at SI to keep the creeps at bay. instinct tells me that they (SI) do understand, that after all, we are... CUSTOMERS!!
who knows, but Bob has sent me a rather well thought out and informative pm earlier. i may post it because it is interesting in-as-much as it does give a greater insight to his challenges and possible changes he will make in the suspension process later down the line.
i still believe that the fbna gang and si are a bit too chummy for what should be an arms length relationship. ie, social gatherings, pictures with b dryer? and Bill ulrich of magneticdiary fame who apparently has an intimate knowledge of SI goings on. the same Bill Ulrich who purportedly designed the original FBNA web site and in concert with the "gang", not be confused with "BOB ulrich. Especially since their, the "gang's" motives are totally and unequivically in question.
hell, here's bob's (SI admin) post for all to see. (Forgive me Bob, as I believe you kinda expected me to follow suit from this am anyhow.) he wrote it with an eye to it being public anyway. It's basically an answer to one of my pm responses to him and he comes off pretty well in this. Really human after all and with a sense of humor. Mine is italicized and his is... well
Getting a little testy, aren't we?
Damned straight! Wanna make sumpin' of it? <g> (just kidding)
You say you don't read the boards, usually. however, you do appear to spend a lot of time here. There must be a reason. more causal than casual.
Recently, I've spent a lot of time reading the DGIV and MTEI threads. Some days, I was able to read all new messages for the day.
However, there seems to be an organized campaign now to harrass, threaten, and abuse me and my employer via email, so I really can't even do that little bit until I get caught up with the emails. I'm concerned that, hidden within the hundreds of abusive messages, there might be a few desperate pleas to remove someone's daughter's name and phone number of something similar. Happens a lot. BTW, those result in 14-day suspensions, regardless. If something is personally abhorrent to me, I'm a little more severe with it. We'll never (hopefully) be able to remove the human aspect from the admin role.
Anyway, even when I'm not swamped, I can't read all of the boards. The DGIV and MTEI boards represent less than 1% of the total traffic on this site and there are literally thousands of threads. Reading it all would simply be impossible. I doubt we, collectively, read even 1% of the site.
we truly have difficulty believing you don't receive many, as in humongo, complaints about our "friends" at fbna. we would honestly be shocked.
Oh, I receive many, many complaints. They've really stepped up recently in terms of number of complaints, and the abusiveness of them. Many seem to be a form letter, always emailed and CC'd to the same people, leading me to believe there's an organized effort, but the majority are nothing but harrassment, abuse, and threats.
Bulls always outnumber bears in any forum, for obvious reasons.
if you use the "resonable man" theory employed in the courts, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that they are clearly harassing these few threads. and continually i might add, and apparently with impunity, your comments as to the privacy of the admins actions aside. it's what we see that counts, not what you say you did or didn't do.
We can't discount the privacy of admin actions. However, I am going to ask for that to change. Someone suggested a thread in which only I can post but that everyone can read, in which I'll atomatically post the name of any person who has been suspended, the length of the suspension, number of suspensions, and the reason. I think many aspects of it have merit and I'm going to throw it against the legal/ownership wall and see if it sticks.
However, IMO, it simply isn't valid to assume that because someone oesn't notice anything different means that nothing really is different, though many seem to believe otherwise.
with that said, i'd like to address one more issue. when a letter is sent to me through the mails, i own the rights to it. even if it was from philandering bill down in dc. i do what i wish with it. no
contest. if you are sending me something in a pm that you wish to be suppressed from public view, than ask and i will consider your request
I'm going to let my employers make the call on that one. In any event, my emails and private messages are going to be much more terse from now on, and will only include things I might say publicly.
Most people seem to appreciate my personable, chatty nature (I am, after all, a person -- something that the harrassers, abusers, and threateners either don't realize or don't care about), but that's just too bad.
on the bright side it is nice to see that you recognize there are more forces at work in our relationship, as in the si admin and us as a customer base, than just an arbitrary dismissal of one's point of view.
glad to see you coming around
Actually, I'm not "coming around" to that point of view. It's always been an important part of how I carry out my job duties. And keep in mind that I do this job, when I am accustomed to earning more than double the pay, primarily because of my deep love of SI and all that it represents.
I am not in the habit of arbitrarily dismissing any point of view, even if (especially, actually) it is in conflict with my own. I'm still learning, and that wouldn't be possible if I assumed I already know all the answers and they're always right. My removal of your
suspension, I think, would be an example of that.
However, it does become difficult not to summarily dismiss a point of view when it is expressed by a seemingly organized group of people who choose to include threats, abuse, and harrassment in their messages expressing that point of view.
Well, off to see if I have more private message needing replies, send a few PM's of my own (I think a dozen or more), then off to catch up with the email. I'll probably be "back" in a week.
Regards,
SI Admin (Bob) |
