response 163 of 186:

Dec 5 15:10 UTC 2003

And besides, when has an item on grex ever stayed on topic, without 
some drift. Drift... that's what Grex is about.

response 167 of 186:

Dec 5 16:39 UTC 2003

Actually, I would like to hear Jamie's views on making Grex's 
community more diverse. How does he propose we move toward that goal?

response 169 of 186:

Dec 5 19:18 UTC 2003

"change is good" - that's just as much a bullshit generality as "change is
bad".  Sometimes change is inevitable, regardless of "good" or "bad", but
change is not always for the better.  Each proposed change must be evaluated
on its merits, and not automatically embraced just because it *is* change.

response 173 of 186:

Dec 6 01:48 UTC 2003

Regarding #172; Well, Mary was pretty convinced that I was abusing my
powers.  Even though I repeatedly explained my actions and she ignored
my explanations.  It was pretty clear we couldn't prevent dah from
logging in, anyway.  Somewhere in there, Mary got the horribly mistaken
impression I was willing to turn off newuser---I have no idea how or why,
but she made a comment about it being ``non-negotiable''.

I was also getting some pressure from other members of the board to
step away from the situation.  So, I undid what I did and stopped.
Mary continued to insist I had abused my authority (such as it is;
grex staff has no real authority.  That all comes from the board and
membership.  Grex staff does have discretion to do certain things,
like lock accounts if circumstances dictate---anyway, that's minutea,
and I digress).

I admit; to this day, I'm still pretty perplexed as to what she was
thinking.  She never explained herself well, and mostly made sniping
comments about it.  I note she asked none of this of Valerie who just
recently did something virtually identical.  And indeed, the same board
member who suggested I step away from the dah/naftee issue came down
firmly in support of locking jp2.  Also, what Jamie did wasn't even
malicious.  What dah did was.  From that context, locking jp2's account
was less defensible than locking dah's accounts.  When dah logged in
again and again using new logins, I blocked his ISP (though I missed
some of the IP range).  I had posted somewhere that no one other than
dah and naftee had logged in from there in over a month, and only two
or three people in the three months prior (at the time I still thought
polytarp and naftee were the same person).

The really funny thing was that polytarp himself (or whatever psuedo he
was using) posted something along the lines of, ``Wow, I intentionally
abuse grex and I get more out of it in return than I had at the time!''
after I unlocked the polytarp account.

I've given up getting anything resembling a sensible statement of her
comments out of Mary, though.  This is the third time she's grossly
distorted something I've said or done.  The first time, I mentioned that
grex should encourage users logging in *only* for free email to look
elsewhere, and she insinuated that I was suggesting grex shut off email
service.  The second time I mentioned casually that my female friends
who had had abortions had often felt emotionally conflicted over their
descisions, and she insinuated I was against abortion and added the
comment, ``my opinion of you just tanked.''  Shesh.  I've never seen
someone take random, idle comments and be so vindictive about their
gross misinterpretations of them.

That said, I was touched by how many people asked me to stay on grex
staff.  I would do it, but the unfortunate thing is that I have to leave
in less than two months for a ten month stint, during which I will have
only limited access to a computer.

response 175 of 186:

Dec 6 04:38 UTC 2003

re 173
It seems that, apart from mary, you did have a lot of support in locking dah's
account for filling up user partitions.  In item 29 of this conference, the
user other both offered constructive criticism towards your actions and yet
commended your efforts, then immediately wrote  a few choice words to willcome
(resps 31-33).  responses 43 to 72 are mostly willcome complaining about the
mass IP ban, after you had unlocked the naftee account. Responses 76-82 are
more interesting.  Willcome gloats after needling you to get his accounts back
and ISPs unbanned, and succeeding, and out of frustration for all the wrong
things, you resign from staff.  In short, it's a sad chapter.

response 177 of 186:

Dec 6 07:42 UTC 2003

This is a worthwhile discussion and there's a lot more to it yet to be said,
but I think jp2 is right that it doesn't really belong in this item and we
should move it to another.  If, when I get to the end of coop, I discover that
a new item has not already been created to continue this, I will create one.
I hope that those of participating in the discussion of cross's activities
on staff and departure therefrom will take up the discussion there.

response 181 of 186:

Dec 8 15:48 UTC 2003

Re resp:179: Get over yourself.

response 183 of 186:

Dec 9 02:28 UTC 2003

Yes, it's dress-up day.  Try on those staff clothes.

response 185 of 186:

Mar 30 05:28 UTC 2004

annoying