HankR wrote:Sorry to have to be blunt, but this "blowout" was not "inevitable" as you suggest. It was unnecessarily provoked by you.
Oh, but of course, because there's nothing I like more than fracturing a community, right?
Maybe you keep forgetting how he would go out of his way to quote me as "Dr Evil" when he knew that it annoyed the hell out of me. I guess you'd call me having a go at him for that "unecessary" too?
Fridger's statements were really quite innocuous. They could not have offended anyone who was not predisposed to take offense.
Funny, he seems to have offended people that aren't me... or are we all part of the conspiracy against him?
It is unfortunate that you "just can't stand" Fridger's "attitude" and feel a need to "stand up to people like that" (in heroic contrast to everyone else, who is "too meek or scared or apathetic").
So explain to me why I keep hearing people saying that they get annoyed by Fridger too. Or do you think it's acceptable to sit by and watch someone bullying newcomers? Or stalking women who join the board?
His attitude is most definitely the problem, and it has been historically. And he's been getting up peoples' noses long before I got directly involved.
In fact it is your own attitude that is the problem here. Your personal attacks on Fridger are entirely inappropriate in this forum.
Oh, and I expect you'll be saying that it's OK for Fridger to antagonise and offend people here as he's been doing? His behaviour towards people he doesn't like are entirely inappropriate too. Again, you might think it's fine to stick your head in the sand while people like Fridger with their over-sized egos intimidate and stalk and generally antagonise others, but I don't.
If he hadn't been so damn patronising and holier-than-thou about the Motherlode here, I wouldn't have needed to call him on it, would I. And again, note that I am not the only one fed up with him here. It's fair enough to give someone a degree of leeway because of their behaviour - we all have our idiosyncracies - but he goes way beyond the limit.
They certainly do not contribute to the comity of the Celestia community. If Fridger's posts annoy you, just ignore them. There is no need for you to respond. We do not need to be reminded of your antagonism towards him. So please desist. You may have no control over Fridger's behavior or actions, but you can control you own. Please try.
So your attitude is just to let the bullies play, so long as they don't aim their attitude at you, is it? How very community-minded of you. You'll forgive me if I disagree. I don't see why I or anyone should stand by and let others walk all over people when they can call them on it. Let's look at some examples of Fridger's "wonderful attitude" here for a moment since he's supposedly the innocent victim here, shall we?
1) Stalking of female programmer who joined the board last year. He drives her off by tracking down and posting photos of her here without permission, and generally harassing her and showing no respect whatsoever. This after she said that she could help out with the programming (which obviously didn't happen). This is not just rude, it's downright sociopathic, misogynistic and it definitely harmed the development of Celestia. For that alone he should have been tossed out of here in short order, but he wasn't.
2) Continual antagonism towards newcomers because he believes that they don't contribute anything to the program. Refuses to accept that the forums are becoming more than just a small discussion board populated largely by developers.
3) Continual lack of tolerance and patience with newcomers.
4) Continual patronising and antagonising tone and sarcastic comments to people he doesn't approve of (again, note him referring to me as "Dr Evil" all the time out of sheer spite when he damn well knew that it annoyed me).
5) Total failure to be able to take any personal criticism at all.
6) Total failure to acknowledge that he is ever wrong about his behaviour.
7) Total failure to ever apologise for any inappropriate behaviour even when shown to be wrong.
Do you want me to go on? And do you really expect me to believe that any of us have to tolerate that sort of behaviour and attitude here?
Meanwhile, what have I done that's supposedly "negative" here?
1) I've had a go at people (two in particular - Fridger and Bob Hegwood) for their undeservingly hostile behaviour towards others on this board.
... um, I can't think of much else that's been seriously annoying for some people. Maybe you can help me out here by pointing out how my supposedly "offensive behaviour" is more destructive to this community than Fridger's has been?
Do you think it's wrong to preach patience and tolerance regarding the newcomers? Because that's what I do all the time. I may not be quite so patient as Selden, but I'm a damn sight better than the likes of Fridger in that regard. Do you think it's wrong to be annoyed when you see people being bullied and made uncomfortable by his behaviour? Fridger should damn well know better. I expect that newcomers here would have some trouble settling in til they see how the community works - that's only natural. His attitude toward them serves only to drive people away, as it has indeed done so in the past.
Yes, it takes two to tango, but I'm not the one being sociopathic here. And you can be sure that if I didn't call him on his behaviour, then someone else would - which implies that I'm not the problem here.