[Paddlewise] newsgroups happenings

From: ralph diaz <rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com>
Date: Sun, 13 May 2001 12:08:23 -0400
It seems that fellow Tim with his sponsons has gotten worse and worse in the
rec.boats.paddle.touring newsgroup and others.  His pattern is to have a
canned message for a few days that he repeatedly sends to the newsgroups to
any string of messages whether his message in any way fits or not.  Often he
will keep sending that canned message in reply to his own over and over
again so that a thread may be 10 messages long with nine of them being his
with little or no variance in the wording.

The latest canned message is interesting.  The second paragraph goes as
follows:

"Do not lie to people about rolls and paddlefloats to murder them.This is
why
Canoe and Kayak Mag, Seakayaker Mag, Ralph Diaz, Matt Broze etc. are in such
serious trouble with charges of murder in the second degree."

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.  It certainly puts me in some very
good company.  An earlier set of his canned messages had me similarly
condemned in the same breath as a condemnation of Charlie Walbridge, a
renowned figure in the whitewater world especially for rescue techniques he
developed and for his continuing monitoring and analysis of whitewater
accidents.

As far as I know neither of these fine magazines nor we three gentlemen have
any criminal charges against us.  Sure, it is all ridiculous but repeat a
charge often enough and it gets to stick.  While regular participants on the
newsgroups dismiss the guy as insane or worse, what about the occasional
newsgroup visitor?  Or what about dejanews which archives newsgroups
messages in searchable form?  Some one goes to search my name, or Charlie's
or Matt's in a search engine and this kind of stuff could be part of the
stream of search results.

Those of us in the Wavelength listserve days remember the Tim charges
against John Winters as a baby killer and a signer of a suicide pact.  I
eventually, in Tim's eyes, joined John in killing babies.  The only killing
that did take place was effectively of Wavelength; and led to Jackie and
others creating a sane venue for discussion, PaddleWise.

Anyone know of anything practical that can be done?  I know that subscribers
to those newsgroups have apparently repeatedly approached internet
authorities and I think Tim's Internet Service Provider to no avail.

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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Received on Sun May 13 2001 - 09:13:41 PDT

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