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Dear Maplewood, (I do not know your
name)
I think you received a message from me earlier
today in error, though if you are in the New England area, and would enjoy the
Boston Aquarium Society planted tank open house you are welcome. I was
sending out directions to people RSVP'ing, and got your e-mail mixed in with
those. It was this evening that I realized the mistake and read your
message.
I am sorry that you are disappointed in my
response. It is absolutely true that I do
not respond to all e-mails, because many, MANY of them come in as a result of my
column in AFM. It is policy stated in AFM that I do not respond directly
to mail or e-mail because of the quantity that comes in, but only through the
magazine column. I have also stated a number of times through the years in
that column that I do NOT use letters in the column (or respond to them in
e-mail) when the sender doesn't give their name. I feel that the people
who write to me know my name, it would be common courtesy to share theirs as
well.
As far as your previous
e-mails are concerned, I do not know anything about whatever you sent me at an
earlier date. I have only been the editor of TAG for just over one year
now, so maybe you sent your previous message to the old editor? I went
back to the message I received from you on Jan 25th, because it is very unlike
me to not respond to a message regarding TAG or the AGA. I do know
why I did not respond at that time. The e-mail you sent me came in with no
name, no message and an attachment. I'm sure you know that computer
viruses are often carried in attachments. It is strict policy in our house
that NO attachment is opened unless we know exactly who it is coming from, what
is in the attachment, and have a reasonable level of confidence that the source
computer is virus protected.
You may or may not know this, but one of the most
common viruses (technically a "worm", not a virus) is "Klez". This worm
uses the address book of the infected computer to send out infected e-mails that
LOOK like they are coming from the computer of someone else in the address
book. So there is no way of knowing where an infected file comes from
except that it is certain NOT to have come from the person whose address is in
the "sender" line. I'm sorry if it disappoints you, but I'm afraid that
for the safety of my computers and files, I would do exactly the same thing if
your message of Jan 25th arrived again tomorrow.
As to your questions about TAG, I'd be happy to
address them. I have also cc'd our board, so they have a chance to see
your suggestions as well. We have not had a person in charge of "technical
advice" for several years now. There are several reasons for that.
First, there are many valid approaches to the planted tank hobby. It
doesn't seem right that the AGA have an "official" technical advisor who
advocates a single, specific approach. Second, There are other sources
that people can turn to for immediate, quality feedback on aquarium problems or
questions. The AGA does not expect to have a specific "technical advisor"
for TAG any time in the foreseeable future for these reasons.
There are other good sources to turn to,
however. The Aquatic Plants Digest is a wonderful source of advice.
Since there are many people involved, no one person bears the burden of being
continually "on call". An added benefit to the person who asks the
question is that they get a more balanced range of answers than they might get
from a single "expert". The AGA has also
had its own "members' mailing list" for some time now. Are you aware of
that? It is listed on our website, and you can join it through the web
site. If you are uncomfortable with the idea of posting on the APD, you
are welcome to ask questions on the AGA list. There are a number of
people who read that list who would be happy to respond, and if one person is
too busy at a specific time, another is there to step up to the plate.
But I must warn you that neither the APD nor the
AGA mailing list accept attachments either. And again, one of the reasons
for this is to protect other readers from viruses and worms that hide in
attachments. So I'm afraid if you had sent your Jan. 25th message to one
of those lists, you would have been as disappointed as you appear to be with
me.
I am very sorry for the misunderstanding, and I
hope you understand OUR position better now. While I cannot always
respond to general e-mail requesting advice, I do try to respond to ANY e-mail I
receive regarding the AGA and/or TAG. If your e-mail of Jan 25th had
included ANY message at all rather than an attachment with no text in the body
of the message, I would still not have opened the attachment, but I could have
contacted you explaining why.
Thank you for contacting me again with an e-mail
instead of an attachment so that I had an opportunity to discuss this with
you. If you would like to send your question again, in the body of an
e-mail, I can try to help you, or at least point you in the direction of
information that can help.
Sincerely,
Karen A. Randall
krandall@rdrcpa.biz
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