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DirkWinnie

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 3 months ago

September 10, 2007.

See also: A letter from Joanne Evans

A Spammer in our midst

A large scale attack on me as a person and our Blog

A Thought From Andy Gilbert


Dirk Winnie has written an email. Above his email are a couple of messages from me to him, ascertaining if it is his wish to have this on the Web.

 

Hi Dirk,

Please let me know clearly if you want this published on the web.

I await your reply.

Tom.


 

Hi Tom,

 

It's up to you. For me it's not important I'm just really disappointed in where this has all gone. My initial comments about moderation and the editorial role stand. My personal emails to you still stand. I have nothing against you personally, I enjoy your wit and sense of humour. I am not aligned to any group to bring you or the blog down. This has got out of hand and I don't want anymore to do with it unless we can work alongside each other to progress our sport. I will not always agree with you or expect that you will agree with me however I would like to operate with respect to each other.

 

Clearly, I can't tell you how to handle this letter. You have to take responsibility for that.

 

Tom, I reiterate, you are a good guy. I look forward to debating many more points with you if that is your wish. The can of peaches is still alive and well, awaiting an on the terrain battle.

 

Regards

 

Dirk


Hi Dirk,

 

I will publish to text of your main email tomorrow.

 

At to top I will have my question: "Please let me know clearly if you want this published on the web. I await your reply."

 

Followed by your reply.

Followed by your main email.

 

Please let me know if this is not OK.

 

Tom.


Tom

 

Sweet as. Are you playing in the regional singles, just in case we

meet and the can of peaches is required?

 

Cheers

 

Dirk.


Dirk's main email follows now:

 

On 10/9/07 1:43 PM, "Dirk Winnie" wrote:

Hi Tom,

 

I am cc ing this letter to others as I have no idea how to get a mass message out to those involved. Please feel free to either publish it on the blog, forward it to anyone you think might be interested or delete it.

 

I want to make it clear that I act on my own and do not need others to do my bidding. The cc ing of my previous email came about only because my communications on the blog appeared to be blocked. If you say that they have never been received then I have to accept that at face value.

 

I am no technological genius. I have no knowledge of how to save a comment when I make it on the blog. What I do know is that some of my comments have been published and some have not and I have used the same process each time.

 

Let me go back to my original comment and no I won't be quoting word for word from my first posting because it is the intent that is important not the exact statements.

 

1. I talked about the moderation facility that you have enabled. What I was trying to say is that you open yourself up to criticism for this if you don't have a criteria. You have published anonymous comments in the past, why if these comments weren't abusive or or personal attacks did you choose to ' moderate' these ones. For your information I have still not seen the 'spams' and quite frankly now I don't to.

 

2. My postings to your blog/ wiki have never been made in consultation with anyone else. I stand by what I say. I own it and I'll take responsibility for it. I will not take responsibility for what anyone else says, regardless of who it is or what they are saying. I have many friends in petanque and I do not always agree with them over issues, petanque or otherwise. It doesn't affect the friendship, in actual fact I think rational debate and conflict can strengthen these bonds.

 

3. Associated to the above point is the page that that you have created for the DirkLippards. I don't know your motivation for setting up this page but I can assure you that I have had no part in an orchestrated attack on the blog to bring it down. I cannot speak for either Joanne or David as we have not discussed this. I have frequently disagreed with Joanne and David, both on and off the piste. I also know that Joanne and David have disagreed on issues. I believe being married or being friends does not make you accountable for each others views.

 

4. I believe strongly that there is a place for an independent blog/ wiki/communication vehicle which gives the players a voice and also allows the PNZ executive and council to gauge the feelings of the wider membership. It must however be impartial and free from too much editorial interference. I know when Andy had his electronic communication he suffered for it ("I was one of the more vocal and outspoken commentators in the past (remember the E-newsletter?) and suffered the consequences on a personal level". Quote incerted by Tom. Quote taken from this PAGE), however, I thought that maybe we had grown up a bit since then. Perhaps not. It needs guidelines and policies and I think a good place to start would be not to allow anonymous postings.

 

5. It is time to move on for us all. Mistakes have been made on all sides, and yes I include myself in the group of people who have made mistakes. For those that I have offended with my views I make no apologies. My comments were not intended to be offensive. I believe that my comments have been focussed on issues, not individuals. For anyone who make have felt that my comments were a personal attack, I apologise. That was not my intention. If people are prepared to bury the hatchet and work together i believe that our sport will begin to flourish again. Some good initiatives are underway, coaching, arbitring and some inter-regional matches. An impartial players voice can only support all this. Tom, I will reiterate publically that I believe that you are a good man, you do have high principles and I believe you can play a role in helping to unite our Petanque community.

 

I have just returned from a very well run tournament in Hawkes Bay. I would suggest that among the players there would have been people who have differing views on the issues in petanque at the moment. I would even go so far as to say there were people there who don't even like each other, however, this did not affect the congenial atmosphere that pervaded the tournament.

 

To all that receive this either directly or indirectly, your response is up to you. My intention is to work alongside those of you who genuinely want to move the game forward and improve the relationships between the various sectors of our petanque community.

 

Noho mai ra

 

Dirk


 

I have just one or two point. The DirkLippards you see is not the name of the page. It is the Wiki link representing a page. If you look at the top of this page you'll see DirkWinnie, the Wiki link for this page. You will also see these names at the end of the address line (URL) in your browser.

 

I also strongly feel that this was a planned concerted attack on me as a person and editor of our Blog. It is just not plausible that I became the victim of such a large scale attack from Dirk, Joanne, David Lippard and with Bryan Wells giving his jubilant support from the sideline, just by coincidence. All this over my editorial decision to moderate comments - come-on guys!

 

The fact that your comment has not appeared on our Blog does not automatically mean that I have disallowed it. Dirk and Joanne have on a number of occasions stated that they are not sure about how to do things with regards to our Blog or Wiki "I am no technological genius". Graeme Burnard's success rate with posting comments on our Blog (and we all know he has experience) is about 50%. It's true, you ask him. When he has no luck he just fires it off as an email to me and I paste it in for him. If your comment does not appear within, say, 12 hours - email it to me. Remember, it's not you doing something wrong, it could be your browser, or the Blog user interface playing up.

 

 

With regards to moderation, I do have a criteria - always have had. If a post has the potential to be, or become controversial - give your name. If you just want to congratulate someone or a team - you don't have to. We should all ask ourselves how many emails, letters, faxes do we not sign with our name?. Signing is so automatic, surely we all do it without thinking. Why can't we carry that over to our Blog comments - it has nothing to do with policy. Yes, from about the last two hundred comments I have let the occasional unsigned one through - please pull me up next time you spot one.

 

Update 23/09/07: After the dust had settled over all these unfortunate exchanges between all of us, and we had just settled into the great efforts of our team in Thailand - Andy Gilbert arrives home from a five week holiday. God only knows why, but he decided to have a go at me, and start the whole thing all over again.

 

Cheers, Tom.

 

PS. I am happy for anyone to add to this page. Do it yourself, or email it to me.


See also: A letter from Joanne Evans

A Spammer in our midst

A large scale attack on me as a person and our Blog

A Thought From Andy Gilbert


 

2 Comments:

 

At 2:34 PM, Anonymous said...

There have been numerous occassions where I have posted comments on the blog and they have not shown up. This has been a system error (probably my own doing) and not Tom sitting there striking them off willy nilly. When this has occurred, I have re written them and emailed them to Tom and he has posted them on the blog for me. I suspect this is what has happened to others.

 

I do not believe for one minute that Tom is guilty of the things he has been accused of. I have been away for the weekend at a very well run tournament in Hawkes Bay and cannot believe the venom that has appeared on the blog. It was Tom that gave us this facility for our use.

 

I am appalled at the criticism he has received and the nasty nature of it.

 

This also proves that he does not conduct censorship at the level he is being accused of otherwise none of these personal attacks on him would appear. He has my full support." Graeme Burnard.


 

At 5:20 PM, Anonymous said...

I have also had problems with comments not appearing and have done exactly the same as Graeme B and emailed Tom to put them up for me. I don't think I have done anything differently at these times, it just sometimes does not work.

Liz


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