Posted by Peter H on October 27, 2005 at 17:34:41 from 86.130.120.38 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Resignations posted by John Nichols on October 27, 2005 at 03:24:07:
I am just a little bit lost as to why you want to resign
I can understand why you asked that question, John. From your postings, you are actively curious and genuinely interested in everything that is going on and have a fresh, trusting attitude. Good for you. I, on the other hand, feel weary and suspicious. I feel ‘something is going on’ under the surface of Tarboard – I can’t say what, but whatever it is I don’t like it. I hope you won’t mind if I say that, in a way, you are the ‘Roger’ of Tarboard and I am the ‘Susan’.
(Before I go on, I would like your (John’s) advice on a technical matter. I reckon anyone could have two identities on Tarboard. What you do is acquire an email address under an assumed name (easily done), then you apply to Ian for a posting password and username for Tarboard, using the new name and saying that you’re a lifelong AR addict blah blah usual stuff. Ian gives you your new passcode and you can then pretend to be someone else on Tarboard, provided you remember to use the assumed name. You could even have an argument with your old self, or better still work 'in tandem'. I suspect that this is already being done. Is there any technical snag in this?)
Your ‘resign’ question deserves a serious answer. Here’s the best I can do: if I, you or anyone has worked voluntarily for any society for hour after hour, year after year, behind the scenes, and witnessed others doing likewise or even more, to keep ‘the show on the road’, then even the most casual negative opinion (what Ian calls a ‘tentative perception’) posted on a public website can make you suddenly believe that it has all been a complete waste of time. All that work demolished in a couple of sentences. One of the harsh aspects of website posting is that it is so easy to snipe mischievously from afar, protected by anonymity, and cause remote damage. That’s really why I want outa here. I don’t want even to chance seeing that sort of thing.
One consolation, John – they always say both Roger and Susan were essential in the AR stories . . . .