response 17 of 66:

Feb 14 03:31 UTC 2010

BTW, SRW got back :) all is well.. he's waiting for his Grex passwd to 
be reset so he can make changes.

See now.. that's another case to point.. I was a bit worried about that 
- thinking that he was being nasty and Oo! what a scum-bag! In fact, if 
ye had asked me for my opinion on SRW just 10 secs ago, I'd have slayed 
the man! In fact, and I hate to admit this, I was wondering if board 
had done some nasty evVil thing by telling me one thing and had snuck 
behind my back and told SRW to silently discard my request.. and I was 
in the process of listing all my sins and pondering which particular 
stunning discourse with Chad had been the last straw. Then the whole 
remmers thing, for a moment I contemplated a remmers sneakily calling 
SRW and telling him to you know.. put my request in the dustbin. *sigh*

It's all very embaressing and it's not meant to detract from what Cross 
is saying (because Cross is a different person and probably does not 
react the way I do).. my point is Resp 16: makes a lot of sense and 
avoids this complicated debate. Remmers can suggest something and work 
on his project - even if Cross thinks it's crap and Cross can do the 
same. It doesn't have to be perfect, or the most beauteous, or the most 
elegant piece of work (RT).. it's just a stupid shell with hardly any 
users.. so we should be able to do what we want and have a lot of fun. 

response 19 of 66:

Feb 14 16:20 UTC 2010

Since the matter of 'staff stamp' has been raised:  The matter was
discussed in e-mail.  No formal vote was taken, but the discussion made
clear that the majority of staff were in favour of adding tsty and
remmers.  So the board acted.   

response 21 of 66:

Feb 18 04:28 UTC 2010

  
wel, i did wnat tonster added. and i will lobby for tonster in 
the futre.
  

response 23 of 66:

Feb 19 16:34 UTC 2010

I do find it rather odd that there's some question and need for an
interview, like I'm asking for a job and grex is some top secret weapon
or something.  I've been around m-net and grex for 17 years, and I've
been a root/sysop for m-net for over 10.  I'm not some new person no one
knows.  

response 25 of 66:

Feb 19 20:03 UTC 2010

"Why should we hire you?"

response 27 of 66:

Feb 19 21:55 UTC 2010

Maybe I'm just asking for too high a salary, but damnit I'm worth every
penny.

response 29 of 66:

Feb 19 23:06 UTC 2010

Hahaha. That reminds me. How come we arent talking about LOST online
here any where?

response 31 of 66:

Feb 20 17:03 UTC 2010

I'm a bit disappointed in the boards previous decisions vis-a-vis
staff.  It's the old-guard re-asserting themselves.  Oh well.

response 33 of 66:

Feb 20 23:27 UTC 2010

It was divisive, Richard, because most the traditional place for
such discussions has been M-Net.  John created a forum that he
controlled, where the creation of new 'items' had to be done,
basically, by him.  That's the antithesis of an open discussion,
Richard.  It also fragmented the discussion.  When that was pointed
out to John his response was, "Well, I think I'll leave things the
way they are."  Not exactly in the spirit of working with others,
is it?

John's retained sole control of Grex resources before (like the CVS
server).  And he's been asked several times to do things for Grex
in the last few years, but has always declined; why the change of
heart now?

But tell you what. Richard, why don't you just ask John what his
motivation is for joining staff?

And further, why does John get the green light when Tonster doesn't?

And as for user validation, well, how do YOU propose to counter
Chad and mickeyd crashing Grex all the time, Richard?  And how is
it killing Grex?  Perhaps you forgot when Grex was constantly down
because Chad and Mickey were crashing it all the time?

Tell you what Richard.  If you value open discussion so much, why are
you so eager to put someone who has a history of closing things up in a
position to do it again?

response 35 of 66:

Feb 23 01:51 UTC 2010

resp:34 So Ken, after complaining about not having access to validate new
users, have many have you validated?  You throw a lot of stones, but live
in just as much of a glass house as anyone else.

I'm not opposed to a place that isn't M-Net, but I don't want it controlled
by a single person.

response 37 of 66:

Feb 23 02:22 UTC 2010

Dan #35: Cool, a totally unrelated ad hominiem attack!  Those are 
the best.  
 
Yup, in the interval between the time I volunteered to do user
validation, and the time I got set up to do it, all the motivation
dribbled away.  (Four months?  Six months?)
(Most of that was due to other social events on 
Grex having nothing to do with any participants in this discussion.)

response 41 of 66:

Feb 23 14:03 UTC 2010

Re resp:32 - Thanks for the support, Richard.  The steps taken to
restrict access to the system were probably necessary, alas.  One
of the challenges facing Grex right now is how to get back on a
growth path without incurring collateral damage from twits.

My thinking was that resp:14 was a bit of pot-stirring that was 
best ignored, but maybe I should set the record straight on a few
things.  I never "lobbied vigorously" for a CMS.  My recollection
of the CVS server business is different from Dan's.  And although
Dan is a board member who believes that M-Net is the best place to
hold Grex discussions when Grex is offline, Dan wasn't speaking for
the board on this issue - there are two board members who are on
record as believing the opposite.

As to why I volunteered to return to staff in December?  Well,
because it appeared that Grex was in danger of sinking into oblivion.
In particular, Dan was calling for a permanent shutdown.  I wasn't
ready to see it happen, and neither were a lot of other people, to
judge from the turnout at the December board meeting and the
discussion that took place there.

I'm here to help out, not "take control" as resp:14 suggests.  Like
other people, I throw out ideas from time to time as to directions
the system might take, some of which are probably ok and some of
which are probably lousy, but I'm a team player who doesn't make
changes without concensus.  I was a root staff member on Grex for
about 15 years starting in 1991, and that's the way I played it.