Author: Dirk Frickenschmidt
Date: 11:33:56 11/07/98
Hi all of you, so it's become time for me to say kind of goodbye for me earlier than I thought. Let me first of all say thanks to some people: *Enrique* - you are one of the most competent and at the same time(!) warmhearted people I ever met in the area of computerchess. A while ago I told you that I would never leave because others attack me or put me under pressure. But I told you I would perhaps leave when I get the impression that the whole thing is not longer worth the effort. This impression grew more and more, and it's no big deal at all for me now to draw the consequences. We will stay in contact and perhaps meet elsewhere. See you... *Ed* - I'm sorry I can't publish the rest of the Rebel10 tournament here. I will be glad to stay in contact with you and betatest your programs: they were always worth testing and played and play real good, positional chess. I'm also sorry that when Chris Whittington in my moderator time attacked you in here in a very uinfair way I hesitated to vote for a yellow card immediately. This hesitating was good for nothing, and just hurt you, instead of reaching my goal to keep things and people together then. It was a moderation failure. *Amir* - among the three present moderators you are the only one who has my full trust. In some critical situations I found your fair and thoughtful judgement quite helpful, and in one case a mail from you was the main reason why I have not become a passive CCC member (not posting constructive computer chess posts any more) already. Don't get me wrong: I don't say this to separate the three of you, instead I wish all of you to cooperate well and have not much trouble with moderating CCC. Concerning my slowly, but steadily grown distrust in Bruce and Don *as* *moderators* see below. Your program Junior5 is one of the real highlights of the recent years of computer chess, something I have been enjoying and still enjoy a lot: It was a pleasure to beta-test it and to use it on ICC, and I will still enjoy using it in further test games and autoplayer tournaments. Like in Ed's case, I will be glad to stay in email contact and keep on betatesting your program versions. Some critical remarks: *Bruce* - I think you're a nice guy, and I enjoy playing Ferret on ICC at all kinds of time controls. But this does not mean I accept anything from you. One thing I surely don't accept is the way in which you repeatedly wrote about the former moderators Enrique, Bob, and me, on CCC as well as on rgcc! I found your remarks more than once arrogant, self-compacent and degrading in tone and content, and I could easily prove that you besides writing in such a style (while being moderator) also were dead wrong concerning some things you said (including your latest email-response to me). So meanwhile I feel not at all respected by you while still respecting you. *Don* a) I strongly disliked and still dislike the style in which you treated me (and Moritz and Enrique), when Thorsten Czub wrote his slanderous ad-hominems about me (and them), spreading lies about me in here in midst of CCC, *completely* unrovoked, like that I am working for Chessbase and that therefore I were not interested in finding out "the truth" (namely Thorsten's dirty smear campaign truth, still used by him without any evidence up to now, namely his ever hatefully phantasized "cheating" of the Fritz5 autoplayer of the "ChessBorgs") about it. Instead of guarding me against such dirty libel and offending allegations, I got emails and decisions from you which basically put my protest against Thorsten's lousy behaviour on the same level as his abuse. Instead of showing Thorsten a yellow card then already, you deleted my posts just like his without any conceqence for him as abuser. Since I felt free to name one own moderation failure above (adressing Ed), I see no reason not to tell you that I regarded and still regard your behavior as a complete failure of fair moderation then as well. I also disliked how slow and unwillingly you reacted when Thorsten went nuts a second time, now posting one insulting and stupid ad-hominem after the other - for quite a while. I know that Thorsten writes a lot of interesting computer chess stuff, and read and welcome that like anybody else, but that does not give him any extra rights to offend others. Or does it??? I'm not sure any longer. All three moderators: I see that Thorsten came back very soon after his exclusion (which is ok with me), but that he took one of the very first occasions of writing here at all, to write again a lousy, offensive, dirty ad-hominem about Bill Gates. I still have it and wonder about how you moderated this. It's not about liking or not liking Gates: it's about the unhuman and insulting way Thorsten adresses his targets arbitrarily in here. I don't think Thorsten's again and again recurring little late-pubertarian outbursts of hatred give him any extra rights to write about others in CCC in that way. Now I don't find this offensive post about Bill Gates anymore (was it removed?), but I have to notice that Thorsten, after just having returned from a ban for such behavior, obviously had not to face any consequences for beginning to write in his old abusive style again. Instead I now read - once more completely unmoderated - from him about Moritz' protest: >If somebody would have spoken to me in that tone, >i would have kicked him between his legs. Is that the style nowadays appropriate for CCC? I'm glad I don't have to think about that any longer. :-) Concerning Moritz: I can only guess that you (Don? Bruce?) did Moritz no justice, when he complained about the unfair and unacceptable way in which Bruce adressed him on rgcc. Or did you assure him that he would be left in peace and safe from such remarks (as those of Bruce in rgcc) here in CCC? Thanks and critique: *Steve* - all in here owe you and some others lots of thanks for getting this thing running. When we as nine founders began posting here, you did a lot and did that fast to solve the technical problems. There's only one thing I never understood: why you for a *long* time never got Chris' account cancelled, even after being asked several times. This was the first time I got the impression that some unsound kind of hidden co-moderation was taking place. This caused a lot of trouble in the Whittington case, and even more, together with Don's and Bruce's behaviour in later critical cases, gave me the feeling that CCC is becoming more and more kind of inner-American ICD institution, at least as far as managing and moderation is concerned. I don't see any longer how my way of testing and having fun in computer chess could be compatible with the current situation. Conclusion: So I will retire from all active posting about computer chess testing and related issues in here. I will do computer chess stuff privately and by email-contacts from now on, or perhaps later try to find another, from my view more suited place for doing so. I could not name all the nice contacts I appreciated in here in my post. Greetings to all of you. Final note: *I do not ask my password to be removed.* I just retire from regular, computer chess related posting, reducing my activity to perhaps asking a question here and there, like some others do. After having seen hard times founding CCC with some others, then while co-moderating it and finally while becoming the repeated target of offensive abuse towards me or others, I will now just have a nice time, only reading and using its resources most times, like the passive users use to do. So thanks for the good things, and goodbye to the bad ones and to the old way of being online, Regards from Dirk
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