Author: Albert Silver
Date: 05:31:37 02/20/99
Go up one level in this thread
On February 20, 1999 at 00:13:10, Will Singleton wrote:
>On February 19, 1999 at 20:32:35, Djordje Vidanovic wrote:
>
>>One of the moderators felt that he had something to tell me. He did it in an
>>email which is, not only in my opinion, but also in the opinion of some other
>>people on this forum to whom I sent it (to check if I had misjudged it), a
>>scandalous piece of malicious communication. Deeply hurt, and shaken, still
>>incredulous, I hereby withdraw from this Forum. I am hurt even more as there
>>are many nice and civilised people here whom I will surely miss. However, the
>>only course of action that I felt I could pursue now was to simply leave.
>>
>>Best regards to CCC!
>>
>>Djordje
>
>
>Today I sent a message to Djordje. It contained a request to desist from
>off-topic posts. (And I apologize for this post, but felt I had to set the
>record straight.)
>
>After that simple and polite request, I said I was removing my moderator hat,
>and the rest of the message was personal, just from me to him. I took issue
>with some of the statements he had made, and requested some further information.
> If he felt I was harsh, I did not intend to be at all. But that was strictly
>between him and me. It was a PERSONAL communication, that was absolutely clear.
> There is no reason at all for him to withdraw. My moderator duties do not
>prohibit me from emailing someone on a personal basis.
>
>I apologized to him because I wrote something in a way that could have been
>misunderstood. But nothing harsh or underhanded was intended. Sometimes we all
>have strong opinions, and we express them sometimes well or sometimes poorly.
>Maybe I expressed them poorly.
>
>But this was a personal message, had NOTHING to do with CCC, and he has no
>reason to withdraw. He makes very valuable contributions, and we would all miss
>his presence.
>
>Will Singleton
I must admit I found this intriguing. I don't understand how you expect take
your moderator hat off in the middle of an official communication. Imagine a
letter that followed these lines:
Dear Sir,
As a moderator I am writing to bring your attention to a proliferation
of off-topic posts, which on a personal note I thought were incredibly stupid.
Indeed this desire to write on topics not directly related to computer chess,
nor having the words computer or chess in them (or acceptable synonyms) has been
cause for a certain amount of alarm, and on a personal note, what do I care if
you are currently being held prisoner in a hidden camp for ethnic cleansing?
Such posts detract from the purpose of this group which is, as I am duty-bound
to remind you, about computer chess, or tolerably, about either chess (as long
as the position was submitted to Crafty or Fritz), or computers (if their
purpose is chess related or have at least one chess program installed on it. NB:
Microsoft Chess is not considered valid for this purpose). On a personal note,
what the hell do you expect us to do about some bogus address in Serbia? Form a
a protest group in front of gates that you yourself explain are watched by men
in black ski-masks armed with automatic weapons? Ha! Get real! As moderator I
was relieved to see that in your last post you state that this will probably be
your post so I presume that no future warnings on this subject will be
neccessary.
Best regards,
Your friendly Moderator
Of course, I am exaggerating but you can see what an ambiguous foot this puts
you on. Think about it.
Albert Silver
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.