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Re: (meteorobs) Should Zay Sign off Meteorobs?

At 06:29 PM 1999-07-23 EDT, you wrote:
>If you want me off...or on, just send me a quick private email 
>simply saying "stay on" or "stay off". You don't have to explain anything 
>either way...unless you have this craving urge to "let me have it" or "heap 
>praise" or whatever?

George, I want you here expounding your knowledge and wisdom as regards
meteors. I certainly don't want to see you leave; but on the other hand, a
lot of us are kinda tired of the ole back-and-forth stuff when something
controversial comes up. A week ago, you were doing just great, issuing a
bunch of very informative and interesting posts. I delighted to read "the
old George" again. Then this camera thing came up, and I think you took it
almost to an extreme with Sirko although there were some things about which
you were correct and others did not, or do not, quite see the way that I
think I do, and that you do.

The real problem, George, is that sometimes, you don't drop things when
they should be dropped; you keep coming back and coming back and often,
personally provoking someone which causes more of the same. I've been on
the internet, and e-mail, only since about 1994. During my first two or
three years, I, too, used to poke and prod someone, often dirtily, and
getting bitten back. Then I realized one day that I was wasting a whole lot
of time doing nothing but e-mail, and the majority of that, some nights,
doing personal comebacks to some issue or turkey that appealed to me at the
time.

And you know what? I wasn't enjoying it one bit. I was always thinking what
I should have said, how I came across, and thinking "how wrong the other
guy is,". I had to learn to step back and stop reacting to everything that
I read to which I did not (and still do not, for that matter) agree.

And the rewards were great for learning to do that: I gained a coupla extra
hours each night, and I stopped having to worry about what someone was
going to retort to one of my posts. Sometimes, I still do hop in there and
let loose; I started doing that the other night on another reflector but
after an hour of carefully choosing words, finally realized that what I was
about to post was not going to do more good than the harm it would impart,
and that people would be just as well off if I didn't post. So I didn't. It
did let me blow a bit of personal steam and maybe that was good for me.

But overall, I've been finding that writing things that cause an issue to
drag on and on and on ad infinitum just does not enlighten either my life,
nor the lives of those other posters to which I was to respond.

I'm sorry that you and Sirko got into it the other day, and that a few
others felt it necessary to also hop in. What everyone should have thought
about, perhaps, was how much difference those posts were going to make to
the overall issue of video observation. A little forethought may have
dissuaded some and kept this in perspective... At least, that's how I see it.

George, you've got too much knowledge and experience and smarts about
meteors to impart upon the rest of us for any of us to want to see you
leave. But good grief, Man: when you feel the need to come back time and
again, please step back and don't post about that issue for a day or two.
Let it cool a bit. If the issue still seems so strong, then maybe it does
deserve a new posting. But personal stuffs almost never are welcomed by the
readers of a reflector, regardless who the people having at it are. I
shuddered to read the retorts from Jim B., Lew, Mark, and a coupla others
to yourself a coupla months ago, then your own replies; and it was a great
relief to see the whole thing die out.

>I already know what the inner circle clique wants, but 
>I'm more curious about the cameo posters and the many lurkers. So folks, 
>here's your chance to give me a voluntary boot and I will be sincerely
honest 
>about the tally.

I'm not about to "give you a personal boot", George; I just want to ask you
to refrain from the constant comebacks, even when you believe you've been
misunderstood. And let's leave the muckraking to those on the tube and
radios who get paid for it!

SteveH
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