[Foundation-l] Contact in Thailand - @Jimbo

Mon May 22 16:23:43 UTC 2006

Walter van Kalken wrote:

>Please read my earlier answer to Jimbo Sannse and there you will see 
>that I did admit to saying those things, but that I never did it. Also 
>if things go wrong in the foundation and no-one reacts at first were do 
>you go then? Please answer that? I didn't have the three years that 
>discussions usually take. I feel it is a shamefull thing that people do 
>not take comments seriously untill they make the ultimate threat. 
>Basically someone is ignored and not being heard untill he says the 
>ultimate thing. It is extremely bad that this happened and everyone 
>ignored things and let this happen. It is actually still happening 
>because RonaldB is still ignoring all questions!
>
The point here is that a threat to use one's greater powers (such as 
stewardship) can be every bit as disruptive as actually using them... 
perhaps even more so because of the air of uncertainty that it creates.  
Kids can react negatively when a parent says, "You have to do this 
because I said so."

>The foundation could learn a thing or two from this. One of them being 
>that complaints should be taken more seriously at an earlier stage, 
>especially if they have been uttered by an active member and not just by 
>him. Ignoring complaints and sticking your head in the sand only leads 
>to escalation, problems do not get solved by being ignored, people get 
>extremely pissed especially with the ignoring of a time-sensitive 
>subject. Although many people have told me that ignoring is the right 
>way to solve a problem (or should I say "challenge" for the political 
>correct ones out there) in the foundation, basically all people adhering 
>to that school of thought are damaging the situation and are damaging 
>the foundation. Because a next time it won't just blow over and fade 
>away like it has now.
>
Welcome to the real world!  My own experience is that I know I've 
espressed a good idea by how much it's ignored.  I need to apologize 
profusely to all those others who have had good ideas which I have 
ignored.  I still have many of those ideas from two and three years ago 
in my in box, and try to maintain the vain hope that someday I will 
answer them.  Good ideas require quiet reflection before a valid 
response orconstructive criticism can be sent back, and if I may lament 
on this myself we are ever more acclimatized as a society to 
instantaneous response and gratification.  It leads to an insidious 
proliferation of rules designed to provide quick fixes for all our 
problems, because the number of them that we feel compelled to solve 
seems overwhelming.

Ignoring a problem out of a mistaken devotion to political correctsness 
does _not_ solve any problems; it makes one a part of the problem.

Maybe we should have a SlowWiki ... even though that may be an oxymoron.

Ec