How To Kill A Board

[Guest]

I love to read boards but as a rule I do not post. I am going to make an exception here because I want to thank you guys for creating separate forum for the drug thing which otherwise would have ripped this place asunder. To back up this contention I copy for you part of a post from one of the longtime Darkwing Board mainstays who says he is resigning from that group because of the posters' (over)reactions to the drug horror. Here is part of what he had to say---

<<... I'm tired of being the lone voice of rationality in this wilderness of vigilantes and anarchists. It's too bad so many of you on either side can't accept what the facts tell you -that not every elite athlete is cheating, or even a significant plurality, and that current drug testing actually does restrict usage. Or that a respect for basic human rights calls for allowing athletes due process in hearing their cases, contrary to the position of the authoritarians among you (I think John Ashcroft might have some positions open for you....)

...... There's no longer any discussion about what's significant in a performance, but rather to immediately speculate about which drug the athlete had used, and then whether the sport should just open the doors to wide open use, or if the athletes should be "hangin' high."....

Somehow, you folks have managed to take the joy out of the sport in your vindictiveness. I don't need to spend yet more time on that, and to break any temptation to get sucked back in, I'm unsubscribing.>>

[Guest]

Re: How To Kill A Board

What wrong you can't handle the truth!!!!!!!! I just love Jack N.

[6 5.5hjsteve]

Re: How To Kill A Board

Darkwing Lurker, by posting here I am violating what I am going to say next, but as Polonius said in "Hamlet", " Give many thy ear and few thy voice." Good advice.

[Guest]

Re: How To Kill A Board

>Here is part of what he had to
>say---

Very impressive speech. Trouble is that I can't find it. Please provide a date and name.

[tafnut]

Re: How To Kill A Board

"not every elite athlete is cheating, or even a significant plurality, and that current drug testing actually does restrict usage. . . .a respect for basic human rights calls for allowing athletes due process in hearing their cases,"

I agree 100% and applaud the sentiment. I wish more people subscribed to this, but so many would rather tear down than build up.

[Guest]

Re: How To Kill A Board

>Darkwing Lurker, by posting here I am violating
>what I am going to say next, but as Polonius said
>in "Hamlet", " Give many thy ear and few thy
>voice." Good advice.


Steve, that's the second classy reference you've made recently. Us hj-ers are obviously a class above the rest LOL! Unfortunatety the quote I remember the best was made by a high-ranking Brit official in a team meeting at Gateshead when competition testing first appeared: "If we can't find 6 of you who are clean we'll test 6 buggers from the crowd" !

[Guest]

Re: How To Kill A Board

You won't have me to kick around anymore!

[Guest]

Re: How To Kill A Board

>You won't have me to kick around anymore!

But it turns out that was a threat not a promise.

[Guest]

Re: How To Kill A Board

>Very
>impressive speech...

...but the intended recipients didn't get it. Kind of funny when you think about it. When a tree falls in the forest...Technically an innacurate post on the top of the page here unless the word "draft" is added. Since this is a drug post will the webmeister's stringent rules about accuracy in the drug area be applied to this also?

[Guest]

Re: How To Kill A Board

kinda funny. doesn't show up in the darkwing archive

http://www.mail-archive.com/t-and-f@dar ... llist.html

[Guest]

Re: How To Kill A Board

>kinda funny. doesn't show up in the darkwing
>archive

Exactly.

[Guest]

Re: How To Kill A Board

That's interesting. I, too, have been lurking on darkwing (and lurking only, since the T&FN Board went live), and I thought it was odd when the McCann message showed up here. I hadn't seen it on darkwing. At the time, I just assumed it would pop up on darkwing (these things sometimes happen--because of quirks in the process I'll see a response to a post before I see the original post). But it still hasn't shown up on darkwing.

Meanwhile, with McCann gone, poor Malmo is left without a foil. And darkwing is left without one its most rational contributors. I think it's only a matter of time before everyone over there realizes that this is a better place, and the mother of all track forums disappears.

[Guest]

Re: How To Kill A Board

>Meanwhile, with McCann gone, poor
>Malmo is left without a foil. And darkwing is
>left without one its most rational contributors.
>I think it's only a matter of time before
>everyone over there realizes that this is a
>better place, and the mother of all track forums
>disappears.

McCann is rational? Only if you believe him - he said it himself in his farewell speech: "It's dawned on me that I'm tired of being the lone voice of rationality in this wilderness of vigilantes and anarchists." Such hubris.

Malmo called him on his bullshit (many times); and rather than put his tail between his legs, McCann chose to malign two other darkwingers, Bob Kunneth and Jonas Mureika. Once exposed, McCann had no other choice but "resign."

[Guest]

Re: How To Kill A Board

I'll check in here. I didn't expect my farewell post to end up on this one, but one of my other nemises, Martin Dixon, sent me this thread trying to claim that I started it.

First, I left because 1) I got tired of Malmo only responding with invective and name calling. He never put together a coherent argument on any point, and could only respond with put downs. Not a very constructive discussion process.

Second, despite the claims to the contrary, the two posts I sent, which were only examples of the long discussion that was held about whether hearings were appropriate, clearly show that those two intended that there be no hearings. Read both carefully, and look further back into thread if you doubt what I say.

Third, I'll post the full text here in another post of my original email. I've noticed that the t-and-f archives sometimes have problems with recent posts.

Richard McCann

[Guest]

Re: How To Kill A Board-original email

>>Here is part of what he had to
>say---

Very
>impressive speech. Trouble is that I can't find
>it. Please provide a date and name.

Here it is (4:53 pm, 10/30/03):

It's dawned on me that I'm tired of being the lone voice of rationality in this wilderness of vigilantes and anarchists. It's too bad so many of you on either side can't accept what the facts tell you--that not every elite athlete is cheating, or even a significant plurality, and that current drug testing actually does restrict usage. Or that a respect for basic human rights calls for allowing athletes due process in hearing their cases, contrary to the position of the authoritarians among you (I think John Ashcroft might have some positions open for you....)

I'm not unsubscribing in anger, but in a realization that my participation in this list is futile. It's also become so meaningless to me as a resource. There's no longer any discussion about what's significant in a performance, but rather to immediately speculate about which drug the athlete had used, and then whether the sport should just open the doors to wide open use, or if the athletes should be "hangin' high."

Also, I've found that I get most of the useful info about any significant marks from other sources and including other listserves. I've also skipped over to TFN's board and seen that there's actually some interesting discussions of the types we used to have on this list, such as who were the best athletes or what were the greatest events.

Somehow, you folks have managed to take the joy out of the sport in your vindictiveness. I don't need to spend yet more time on that, and to break any temptation to get sucked back in, I'm unsubscribing.

I apologize for that public service interruption, and we now return you to your squabbling...