Sadly I think that Richardson needs to be kept on his toes-----all the time. If we in general, but Peter Stewart specifically, would relax, he would continue with his grandstanding especially if he goes unchallenged.
If you follow this list, Peter Stewart quite often supplies information and sources about genealogy you and I would not be able to find. On top of that, his knowledge of Latin has opened up knowledge for quite a few, also for quite some time.
Personally I delete messages form people where the subject line is of no interest to me. It is not that I want to avoid them, I just am running out of time. I am almost 65 and almost panic by the thought of the amount of work I _want_ to do. Since June of last year one person has sent me about 3.000 e-mails covering a specific area of Europe. These e-mails range from three lines to three pages. If I can enter the data contained it would improve the knowledge accessible on my website to that part of Europe incredibly.
Peter uses vitriol, but why? Because Richardson takes little notice and goes on on his merry way. Peter _reacts_ to the actions of Richardson. Take away the reason for Peter to re-act, and everybody would benefit because then Richardson is supplying acceptable information.
It is very sad. Richardson has been in a position which could have galvanised gen-med into a group actively improving genealogical knowledge. Many people, including myself, would/should have been eager to help him produce better books, but he is his own biggest enemy and he, not Peter Stewart, is the cause of all the animosity on gen-med.
With best wishes
Leo van de Pas
----- Original Message -----
From: jimpup@aol.com
To: leovdpas@netspeed.com.au
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 9:59 AM
Subject: Re: Restoring civility to this newsgroup
Leo,
What does it profit anyone to keep pounding the point about DR or anyone else ?
Peter still uses vitriol in abundant supply. It would benefit all of us if Peter would post something of substance without his ascerbic comments interspersed.
Perhaps we should delete Peter's postings without reading them!
I imagine many people in this group do that anyway.
Jim Malone
-----Original Message-----
From: Leo van de Pas <leovdpas@netspeed.com.au>
To: gen-medieval@rootsweb.com; jimpup@aol.com
Sent: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 5:43 pm
Subject: Re: Restoring civility to this newsgroup
Dear Jim,
Most of the time discussions work better if they are conducted in a civil manner, but that is not always possible.
Often it is important to see _who_ posts the "specious data". If someone does it in all innocence, I am sure no one will seriously attack that person, only the information. However it is a different matter when that person for years has put himself on a pedestal, claiming to be the all round expert. If I were an expert, I would be ashamed to display information so obviously wrong. If I had received it from someone, I would check it and then return it to the person who sent it to me with the explanation what is wrong.
It is a terrible thing to make public a genealogical line riddled with errors, as there will always be another innocent person taking for granted it is correct as the "great so-and-so" says so. And once errors are passed on they can be perpetuated for a long time.
Also I think it is bad when people make public statements (especially while standing on their pedestal) and when challenged ignore the invitation to produce a sample. For instance Richardson maintained that "Countess" is a historic given name. Just because in France and in French there has been a woman with the given name "Comtesse" does not make "Countess" a given name. I think the Anglos-Saxon desire to translate everything into English is terrible.
You say that "If you have a dispute, treat it with respect and work out the details". But how do you do that when the person making an erronous statement refuses to engage "in a respectful conversation"? Sometimes it makes people maintain that a spade is a shovel, just to get their message and frustration across.
Most unkind/impolite/rude messages are not actions but re-actions in frustration, who do you blame? It has nothing to do with "kicks" of the kind you refer to. Also do not bring in the list administrators, their position has been explained over and over again.
With best wishes
Leo van de Pas
Canberra, Australia
----- Original Message ----- From: <jimpup@aol.com>
To: <gen-medieval@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 7:42 AM
Subject: Restoring civility to this newsgroup
Hi all!
Let us please return to civility in this group.? Name calling is > childish.?? Bullying is an elementary tactic.
We are primarily into research but lately his has been burdened by?some > very strong?responses as some people posture to strut their "stuff."
Some of the people on this group have found tremendous information and > placed it here for many of us to use.?
When someone posts specious data, rather than pointing out the difficient > elements some people choose to attack.? Some people post 6-8 or more > messages on the same topic.? With a little effort they could be condensed > into fewer messages.
If you have a dispute, treat it with respect and work out the details.??
It seems to me that the list administrators could do something about this > problem.??
Some of us have had errant data and have received helpful notes.??At > thesame time?others have been attacked.?? Maybe this is the only way some > posters can get their "kicks."
?
Looking forward to seeing cicility restored to this group.
Jim Malone
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