Just if anyone is interested, here is the letter that dr is refering to. Do with it what you please. Thanks for the great time. It was fun while it lasted. I'm gone!
Hi there
First of all, I would like to thank everyone who sent me some words of encouragement through e-mail. It was very much appreciated and it touched my heart.
And just to clear something up, this letter is going to every one of you but it's not my place to disseminate e-mail addresses so it is sent to myself with a bcc to everyone who e-mailed me and a bcc to dr. (Just in case anyone was wondering about the header.)
First, I just want to make sure that I've made myself 110% clear on this point:
I DO NOT question Bishop's integrity. I applaud his achievement and I hope that this trend continues. I was questioning the BILL, not the USER. Just think about it for a minute. Forget who the people involved are and forget all that has gone on in the forums in the last few days and just look at the facts. A bill get 4 anonymous hits within 24 hours. Does this not "raise a few eyebrows"? This is the ONLY point I was trying to make.
My reference to Bishop/Nixon was a little hot headed and maybe I shouldn't have said that. But when there's a bank robbery, the first person the police go after is the one running away from the building. Even if you are absolutely positive of this person's innocence because you were having coffee with him next door when the alarm sounded you have to ask him 'But why did you run?'
When I walked away from the site, my main reason at the time was because of all the attacks that I had gotten in the forums.
After a few days of cooling down, this isn't bothering me as much anymore. I'm thick skinned enough to let this roll and if it were the only issue, I'd probably come back to the site.
There is a bigger issue that has come to the surface and that is the general gag order that dr has placed on everyone. This policy is WRONG regardless how you look at it. I have always disagreed with this policy but I have never said anything before. dr has made a point of this three times since I've been on the site. The first time was as a general comment to everyone, the second was during the 21MDB/Jake incident and mine was the third. I should have said something when he gagged 21MDB/Jake. I didn't and I regret my decision at the time and apologize to those two users. I had a post written out on my word processor but chose not to post it because I felt that I was still too new to the site at the time to be stirring the pot.
As I have stated, there is nothing wrong with voicing an opposing (or "negative") view on an issue as long as it is done in an adult and civilized manner. This opens a healthy debate which is necessary for any level of progress. But it is wrong to issue a general gag order. We are all adults and we are capable of monitoring ourselves. If I were to post something like 'this user is an idiot' or 'that user doesn't know what he's doing' then it wouldn't be long before other users would tell me to clean it up and voice my opinions in a more diplomatic manner.
Here is an excerpt of the letter that I wrote to my teammates on April 28
{begin}
There is gag order that dr imposes on everyone who doesn't agree with his preset concepts. We are very fortunate to live in a country that allows us to voice our opinions. In fact, our entire system of government is based on the opposition questioning the party in power. The profession that I respect the most is the soldier. He goes to work everyday not knowing if he'll be sent to the latest "hot spot" to fight for this very principle. And he may not come back. Many good men in the past have died so that you and I could enjoy this freedom. I once heard on a documentary 'If not for the events of D-Day, there could well be a swastika flying over Parliament Hill today.' I think that was Pierre Burton but I could be wrong. One of my hobbies is the
study of history and I have studied WWII in great detail and I agree with this statement. Yet dr, who is a soldier, stifles this very freedom. He did it to 21MDB and Jake the Drifter and now to me. I find this hypocritical.
{end}
Here is an example of what can come out of a 'negative' opinion.
April 8,2003: I posted a message on the Geocaching forum pointing out a user (handle: Snoogans) and asking if what he was doing was correct. I was not questioning his integrity but his procedure.
In the next three days, this post was viewed by over 300 people with 9 replies. All of the replies had two things in common:
they were all polite and they all said basically 'white owl, you're wrong'. A few went a little further and said 'are you aware of {procedural policy detail)?' I was not aware of these details.
April 14: I posted another message acknowledging that I was wrong and thanking everyone who had replied. This brought
closure to the issue. (Or so it seemed.)
April 28 11pm: I sat down and, over 2 hours, composed my CMT post that became 'My turn!' and another hour composing
the letter to my teammates. By 2 am I was done and sent both out with some regrets. I gave my e-mail a last check before I turned in and, with the timing of a Hollywood movie, there was a letter from Snoogans. It was an up-beat letter in which he basically said 'I have a master plan for what I'm doing. This is what it is …. ta-dah …. ta-dah …. ta-dah …. and would you be interested in partnering with me on a leg of this plan?' COOL! What an interesting and well thought out plan! This sounds like fun. Yes, I'm interested.
If you want to check out this thread, you can find it here:
http://ubbx.groundspeak.com/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=5726007311&f=6016058331&m=16560105 or if this link doesn't work, go to www.geocaching.com, click on 'Discuss Geocaching' on the left bar
forum: The Travel Bug
topic: What does everyone else think?
topic starter: white_owl
So what happened here?
1) I got an education
2) Of the 300 "view" others got an education
3) Snoogans and I became 'teammates' on a leg of his plan.
4) The Geocaching community in general benefits and grows because of all three above.
Yet on CMT, when a post is 'negative', it gets mis-interpreted and blown way out of proportion and dr issues a gag order. I say again: THIS IS WRONG!
I've had a lot of fun on CMT and I may consider returning to the site but only if the general gag order is lifted and we are given the right to freely voice our opinions. Of course with the stipulation that we remain civilized about it.
I am considering posting my views on the CMT forum in hopes of opening a HEALTHY, CIVILIZED AND CONSTRUCTIVE, debate on the issue. I would consider this as a 'gift' to the CMT community.
Again, thank you for your time and your support.
White Owl
