[RP TownTalk] Ice storm clean up (fwd)

[Andrew Farrington]

I regret that my words were such that so many reasonable people were led
to conclude that I meant them as a vicious and heated personal attack on
David Hiles.

This was not my intent, and moreover I believe that Mr. Hiles was not
among those that drew this conclusion.  I view Mr. Hiles as quite a potent
asset to the community and I very much enjoy sparring with him.  I believe
we communicate in very similar and compatible ways and I hope I am correct
that he enjoys it as much as me.

Mr. Hiles and I, I perceive, are of a kind who are much, much more
comfortable having someone tell us he thinks a notion we've voiced is, for
example, a "ludicrous, half-baked and insane notion not worth the time it
took to write," than to have someone presume to tell us how we should
speak. To me, the first would not be troubling in the slightest for me to
hear from anyone, whereas the second rankles.  However, I accept that it
seems I am the exception and not the rule in this respect.  I did not mean
to offend anyone.

With that said, I believe the posting guidelines are good, and acknowledge
that I plainly appeared to many to be outside them.  I have been moderated
for coloring outside the lines once before, and warned more than once.  I
suspect it will happen again, whatever my intention.  David Hiles -- and
this is something I strongly respect -- has decided to not agree to try to
mind the guidelines, and posts a banner at the beginning of each of his
missives stating this.  The price he pays is that he has to wait for Alan
or Sarah to read and approve each of his messages before they are sent to
the list.

I have not decided what this all means for me, and will rejoin the list
once I do.  Meanwhile I'll keep up via the web archive.

Andrew Farrington