RE: A few questions and comments from a member

["O'leary, Jack" <joleary@col-col.com>]

I missed most of this thread for some reason, but if Merril can't use
him, then maybe he could be assigned to putting together an introductory
package to send out to new members.  This would give him a good chance
to summarize things for beginners, and help the rest of us out to boot!

- Jack O'Leary

> -----Original Message-----
> From: krandall@world.std.com [SMTP:krandall@world.std.com]
> Sent: Thursday, December 31, 1998 4:37 PM
> To:   aga-mcm@aquatic-gardeners.org
> Subject:      Re: A few questions and comments from a member
> 
> On Thu, 31 Dec 1998, Neil Frank wrote:
> 
> >> I include my response to an email message from Robert Hudson, an
> interested
> >> AGA member. He has some interresting ideas and will probably make a
> good
> >> committee member. 
> 
> At 07:47 AM 12/31/98 -0800, Erik wrote:
> 
> >Robert has been a pain in the butt to me on more than one occasion,
> to the
> >point of being abusive.  On one occasion, he attacked me for offering
> >alternative advice to someone on usenet about incandescent lighting
> ("why
> >the hell do you so-called experts have to make things difficult?
> >fluorescent good, incandescent bad."). More recently, he has pestered
> me
> >twice to summarize information on the Krib rather than present
> original
> >data, because it is too "difficult" for beginners to understand. 
> 
> For the moment, I'll write Robert a little "something" to keep him
> happy
> while we discuss this more as a group.
> 
> While we certainly can use all the willing hands we can find, Erik has
> one
> of the most willing sets of hands we've come across, and he's also a
> pretty
> easy guy to get along with, I think.  
> 
> For those of you who know nothing more about this than the two posts
> from
> Neil and Erik, let me expand upon what Erik has said, and say that it
> bothered Erik enough that he mentioned it to me a while back, although
> I
> don't think he mentioned the guy's name, and I'm sure neither of us
> was
> even aware that he was an AGA member.  
> 
> IMO, Erik has done a tremendous service for the AGA by taking over our
> web
> site and mailing lists.  Beyond that, his own "Krib" web site contains
> more
> useful information than you can find in any other single place.  Erik
> and I
> have already discussed the lack of beginner "recipes" at the Krib
> site, and
> I am intending to send him my school tank stuff for people who want to
> follow a set-by-step plan without having to know any more than that.  
> 
> While we certainly don't want to discourage people who come offering
> to
> help out, I am a little offput by people who come on in attack mode.
> To me
> this feels a little too much like an end run around Erik.
> 
> My first thought is to assign him to Merrill.  If he is interested in
> working on outreach, or getting local people together, he could be
> very
> useful in that capacity, while still keeping him out of Erik's hair.
> 
> Hope every one has a safe and happy New Year.  Our plans are cancelled
> due
> to sick kids, so we'll have a quiet one... which could be a refreshing
> change too!<g>
> 
> Karen