[Paddlewise] thank you, Jackie Fenton

It is hard to believe but it was just a year ago that we were going
through an incredibly nasty time over on WaveLength.  Tim I., of
s--------- fame, was viciously attacking John Winters and Rich Kulawiec
with incredible charges of suicide pacts, killing babies, et al.  No
matter  what the subject matter of a discussion string, Tim would enter
with his diatribes promoting his product and insulting and attacking
anyone who dared differ.

It was clear that trying to rationally deal with these attacks was a
waste of time.  But it was also understandable that those being attacked
were concerned about their reputations especially in the eyes of any
newcomers who might sign on fresh to the listserver in the middle of the
vicious attacks.  To break the useless cycle of trying to deal with Tim,
I started to follow up his attacks with a brief two or three paragraph
statement giving the background and asking that people not post
responses to Tim's rantings and just ignore him.  Of course, I wound up
joining John and Rich as Tim targets.

The backgrounder statement I would post with every Tim tirade seemed to
enrage Tim even more.  He filled the listserver with messages but
subscribers pretty much stuck to the strategy of not responding and
letting my boiler plate disclaimer serve to warn newcomers of what was
really going on with Tim's posts.

Tim was preventing frank discussions from taking place on all sorts of
issues including on s-------s themselves.  The WaveLength listserver was
losing its value to paddlers as nothing was being done to keep Tim in
check.  That is where Jackie Fenton stepped in around late January to
start creating a new listserver, PaddleWise, that would monitor against
personal attacks and help keep discussions on topic.

In the first week of February, she finally launched PaddleWise with
fingers crossed. Well, the rest is a very nice history.  Discussions are
informative. If they at times are provocative it is without provocking. 
I think we all are gaining from being on the listserver. PaddleWise has
lived up to the two senses of its name.  It has been paddlewise, i.e.
about paddling.  And it has made us all a bit more wise in our paddling.

So let us give Jackie a very big thank you and abrazo (a Latino hug) for
creating this fine, valuable listserver and for keeping her hand on the
tiller in guiding us through to being more sea savvy.

ralph diaz
-- 
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Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com
"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
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