ADMIN>AdminPost
Io would like to offer an apology to the regular readers of this board for allowing certain threads which have popped up over the past couple of days to continue. Normally, I try to identify hot topics, and if I see that something is getting out of hand, I'll send an e-mail to those involved asking that they try to show a little more restraint. I have found this to be a remarkably effective way to run things, and in general it works quite well with a minimum of hard feelings. In this case, however I spent most of the day away from any computer trying to land a job. When I finally got back I found that there had been a flamewar which had gotten rather ugly and which was quite unnecessarily. At the center of this was Jay who, Contrary to many opinions, can be quite reasonable and cooperative, and it seemed to me that the shelacking he took yesterday was excessive. I admit that his repeatedly stating that those of us not in Chama have no idea what it's like is extremely irritating especially to me since I will probably be unemployed as of July 1. While this is not exactly the same situation as that faced by the people of Chama and Antonito, it's close enough that I find it very insulting that Jay would assume that I'm completely clueless. Regardless, his insistence on that point did not deserve the trashing he took. These are desperate times, and desperate people often don't bother with diplomacy - even when diplomacy is in their best interest.
On this board, we ask that personal attacks be kept to a minimum. Questioning others ideas is fine - that is the whole point of a board such as this - however when the argument degenerates to a flamewar, it's time to sit back, calm down and try to be reasonable. That is not always easy.
So, please, let's drop the subject of whether we understand the desperation in Chama and Antonito, whether the "Gumment" is to blame (in this case, blame is a waste of energy anyway), and try think up some ideas on how to get through this, or at least go back to our charter topic. And if somebody comes up with a abrasively worded, completely inane idea, shoot down the idea WITHOUT getting personal.
One last comment regarding my situation and this board. Assuming that those id... - um - good people at Cedant.com can keep it up this board will stay. period. So please if you want to send money, send it to the Friends, the RGRPC or the RR, maybe buy a through ticket on tomorrows Parlour car. And when the ticket agent says they're not running, point out that you're only there in spirit anyway so it doesn't matter.
And pray for rain.
Don
