Posted by MHK on June 07, 2001 at 15:56:01:
The following is my thoughts with respect to Wayne's post.. As you may imagine I somewhat disagree and believe that it is important that I explain where I'm coming from in light of his post..
First off, I have NO problem with alternative points of view, nor do I believe that everyone will embrace DIR. I have said this repeatedly and no matter how many time Seahunt repeats the same lie I do in fact invite opposing points of view. But I would offer that whenever I, or Walker, putforth a position we are required to back it up to the umpteenth degree.. What I get frustrated about is when other's offer up issues and then refuse to back them up.. I have stated that Seahunt, I believe, has an agenda. Mine is to advance diving safety, Seahunt's is to destroy my credibility.. A few have tried to climb on his coat tails, most notably Chris and Kelphead, and to a lesser degree Eins.. Over the course of time I have lost all respect for each and all of them and as such I tend to treat them with disdain.. There is a well earned reason why I have come to that conclusion and it is not to be confused with a new diver, or a diver that has an alternative point of view. I simply treat people how they treat me, and while I'm often times accused of being rude [ insert adj. of choice] those three are equally rude with basic impunity from the regular crtitics..
The list was down for several days which was an unitended opportunity to allow the heat to reduce and see if we could get the list back on track. Rather than recognize that opportunity, the webmaster and owner of this list came out swinging. I believe strongly that this was a calculated move to increase the foot traffic given that he charges his advertisers on a per-post basis.. The first post out of the box from Chris was that the only thing that was lost * was DIR BS, that nobody cared about anyway*.. ( I find it ironic that Seahunt was all up in arms when I used the term BS), but that aside, the tone for confrontation was set.. And it was set by the webmaster, despite the attempts at pointing the blame at our direction..
As I noted I believe that Seahunt has an agenda, and it is to destroy my credibility... He attempts to claim the moral high ground and cast himself as someone who protects against *bullies*.. Frank Farmer has shared with me a private e-mail that he received from Seahunt and I was willing to not share it publicly even though it speaks directly to Seahunt's sneaky and coniving ways.. In light of what has transpired today Frank Farmer has given me his permission to post the e-mail to help shed both sides of the issue.
----- Original Message -----
From: "m"
To: "Frank Farmer"
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2001 5:21 PM
Subject: Another thought....
> Besides which, aside from what I recently
thought of, don't tell me
> you think I haven't managed to be fairly
annoying. How many times have I
> helped Michael look foolish? I've done more than
scratch his credibility,
> I've hammered on it quite effectively.
> You might be surprised what I am weaving...
and I'm not even really
> conciously trying.
> Also, if I want to make a scratch
somewhere, maybe the right place to
> do it is not where you would think.
> Besides, I hate to mention, you shouldn't
try to manipulate my views.
> That game can be played both ways. Worse yet,
were that I could be fooled.
> I'm already sensitized to you and so I see you.
I don't rely on my sight,
> but I still see.I don't want to, but it can be
convenient sometimes.
> Whaddyu want to put on the table?
> You just don't know what I am designed
for.
> I need to go diving. The Bahamas were too
warm for me.
> Enjoy, Mike
Reading through the above it's clear that he has taken some enjoyment from *hammering my credibility* and I should be expecting something else equally as coniving that he is *weaving* now.. Furthermore the tacit implication to Frank is that if he sides with me he have Seahunt having already been *sensiticized to him*..
I've been very open about everything that I do, say and believe so I think it's important that everyone sees both sides..
Furthermore, with respect to Kelphead, I by-in-large ignore her because my view is that she only wants to stir up the pot and barely does she ever offer a point of view about diving, inasmuch as she nitpicks about ancilliary non-diving issues. For example, in Chris' post that I discuss above wherein he said DIR BS, I later put that comment in a different context and said that he called us BS artists.. From my perspective whether you say DIR is BS or you say a BS artist is 6 of one and a half dozen of the other, it's the spirit of the comment that spoke to the tone he set.. Rather than acknowledge that point, we spent several posts parsing the difference between DIR BS and/or BS artist... I'd have no problem helping her or answering any of her questions if they ever had anything to do with diving.. All she wants to do is stir the pot... I took her on a trip to Santa Barbara, I had her over my house, I lent her gear, I spent hours and hours going over diving.. This, obvioulsy was all done off the list, but then when we get on here she spends half of her posts parsing language that doesn't amount to a hill of beans in the diving context...
Her last attempt you'll see at a non-diving attack on my credibility is that I didn't return her e-mail, I just made up a fake e-mail address, and then she notes she believes I did the same thing with BillP, who acknowledged that he was having e-mail problems and he had NO problem with our communication.. Again, a baseless, non-diving accusation that challenges my credibility, even after I went out of my way to help her...
I acknowledge that I'm an easy target because I don't back down.. The ex-New Yorker gets the better of me when I see people with hidden agendas trying to ruin my hard earned credibility.. So if we want to be fair on this list and we want to keep the blame game going take a look at Seahunt's e-mail and you'll see he isn't as pure as he would have you believe, and his motives have nothing to do with protecting the list from the big bad DIR bully...
Just some thought from this side of the fence..
Later