Tiptoeing on little cat feet...it's Your Hardly Ever Daily Board Show!
ROUND 'EM UP: Not much of interest has happened in the couple of weeks since we last published. About the biggest thing that has happened is that the Board finally seated the Financial Procedures fact finding group. With one exception, the committee members are unremarkable. In its infinite wisdom the Board decided to put Nola "Cannot Tell a Lie, Except About My Husband's Law Library" Duffy on the group. Despite the expressed concerns of several members regarding Nola's unseemly fixation on one or two particular members, lengthy history of compulsive attacks, stated intentions to violate state and national bylaws to pursue these attacks, and outright bald-faced lies, she has been permitted to have an influence on the financial future of USGenWeb. Fortunately, although Nola has made every effort to control the committee, the committee appears incapable of seating a Chair and has not conducted any business since being seated.
Other than this, the Board has been in hibernation. There has been no further mention of the negotiations with Ancestry.
IN OTHER NEWS: We were saddened to learn earlier this week that long-time NCGenWeb County Coordinator B.J. Rountree passed away last month. We did not know B.J. well but we had communicated with her a few times over the years and always found her to be witty and kind. You can imagine our dismay to find to also hear that one of her fellow NCGW CC's, a certain John McGowan, said this about her passing on BJ's county list:
"HooRah!!! It's about time. Goodbye to those who controlled so many of the counties of northeastern NC for faar too many years, and who sat on their hands and did nothing but cause trouble for real genealogist and family researchers."
It's bad enough that no formal announcement of BJ's passing was made on the NCGenWeb list by the SC and that once one of the CCs announced it, not a single word of condolence or sorrow was uttered by the SC or anyone else (although SC Denise Woodside made considerable effort to cover her butt). No doubt Mr. McGowan was completely unaware that BJ's daughter is still present on the list on which he so gleefully trashed her memory. Class act all the way NCGenWeb.
-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Off and on since 1998
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Friday, November 09, 2007
The Sounds of Silence
Better late than never...it's Your Not-So-Daily Board Show!
BOARD AND BORING: It appears that the Board has finally found a way to keep the DBS from publishing; they just don't do anything. It's hard not to see that as a win for USGenWeb, since if they aren't doing anything they aren't f'ing anything up.
So, in a quick recap, here's what our favorite band of do-nothings has been up to in the last week or so:
The October meeting was adjourned and the November meeting called to order. The October meeting was notable for its lack of substance, but again...no news is usually good news. From looking at the November agenda, it will be more of the same.
Reflecting this singular lack of activity, the October minutes were published in record time, and despite stimulating a brief flurry of angst on the DISCUSS list (whose members appear to be desperate for anything to discuss), they are unremarkable. They are passed without comment by the Board.
Tina updated the service marks so that they now "reflect the owner as the USGenWeb Project, and the correspondent of record as the current National Coordinator." This little administrative item will be passed on to succeeding NCs. Well, that took only, what, five years?
Tina also announced that the Board received, count 'em, nine volunteers for the resuscitated Financial Procedures fact finding group, only it suddenly has become the Financial Management Committee. Wonder when that happened? We'll note that the call for volunteers both called it a committee and a "temporary fact finding group", so perhaps they are just confused about the meaning of simple words over in the Sekrit Sandbox. (No wonder, if they are using the Scooter Lexicon.) Tina asked the Mudville Nine for their particulars and the Board promptly dived into the Sandbox in order to winnow them down to the lucky five specified in the motion.
And last but not least, Linda Haas Davenport has taken over the Newsletter. As she's also BS, she gets to write all the Project's official history for the foreseeable future. Chickens are always safe with a fox guarding them.
And that's the way it was. It's been dreadfully quiet on all the lists. There's been no further update on the TGN negotiations, which we suppose bodes somewhat well. Maybe.
-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Yawning our heads off since 1998
BOARD AND BORING: It appears that the Board has finally found a way to keep the DBS from publishing; they just don't do anything. It's hard not to see that as a win for USGenWeb, since if they aren't doing anything they aren't f'ing anything up.
So, in a quick recap, here's what our favorite band of do-nothings has been up to in the last week or so:
The October meeting was adjourned and the November meeting called to order. The October meeting was notable for its lack of substance, but again...no news is usually good news. From looking at the November agenda, it will be more of the same.
Reflecting this singular lack of activity, the October minutes were published in record time, and despite stimulating a brief flurry of angst on the DISCUSS list (whose members appear to be desperate for anything to discuss), they are unremarkable. They are passed without comment by the Board.
Tina updated the service marks so that they now "reflect the owner as the USGenWeb Project, and the correspondent of record as the current National Coordinator." This little administrative item will be passed on to succeeding NCs. Well, that took only, what, five years?
Tina also announced that the Board received, count 'em, nine volunteers for the resuscitated Financial Procedures fact finding group, only it suddenly has become the Financial Management Committee. Wonder when that happened? We'll note that the call for volunteers both called it a committee and a "temporary fact finding group", so perhaps they are just confused about the meaning of simple words over in the Sekrit Sandbox. (No wonder, if they are using the Scooter Lexicon.) Tina asked the Mudville Nine for their particulars and the Board promptly dived into the Sandbox in order to winnow them down to the lucky five specified in the motion.
And last but not least, Linda Haas Davenport has taken over the Newsletter. As she's also BS, she gets to write all the Project's official history for the foreseeable future. Chickens are always safe with a fox guarding them.
And that's the way it was. It's been dreadfully quiet on all the lists. There's been no further update on the TGN negotiations, which we suppose bodes somewhat well. Maybe.
-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Yawning our heads off since 1998
Friday, October 26, 2007
Prost!
Tagged and bagged...its Your Daily Board Show!
EPIC NOTHINGNESS: Whenever we manage to slip the bonds of the newsbunker for anything more than a few days, we always figure we'll come back to a big pile o' bad to have to sort through. Not so much this time, as it turns out. The Board has been almost entirely silent; except for a few uninteresting announcements, a call for volunteers for the Financial Procedures fact-finding group, and an abortive discussion of the defunct "Friends of USGenWeb", not much has gone on. Tina's last update on the TGN negotiations was two weeks ago; if the recent developments (see below) have changed anything, the Project wasn't let in on the news. She did note a couple of days ago that the ongoing negotiations encompass all USGenWeb pages on Root$web, not just the national pages.
In a small bit of sad news Tina announced yesterday that Denise Wells has bailed as editor of the newsletter. Denise did a reliably good job with the newsletter and she'll be missed.
YOU SAW THAT COMING: The big news in the genealogy world these days is the recent buyout of The Generations Network (aka MyFamily.com, Ancestry.con, and Root$web) by one of their former investment partners. Spectrum Equity now has a controlling interest in our favorite Big Genealogy Monopoly and despite numerous assurances that All Will Be Well, the fate of the company itself is not known. The new owners are making all the right noises (we love Root$web and we won't change a thing!) of course, but still anyone who knows anything about acquisitions is pretty sure that big changes will come sooner rather than later. Except for Joan Young, who immediately got out her pompoms and saddles shoes, most project members are keeping a wary eye out for future developments. Most outside pundits thinks this development will lead to an IPO, which would be very interesting indeed. Anyways, we'll just mutter a quiet "we told you so" and go back to sorting our photos of Prague.
BONUS QUOTE: "Either quit beating around a dead horse or looking for a horse with a gift in its mouth." --David Samuelsen
DOUBLE BONUS QUOTE: "In my humble opinion there is absolutely no need to set up a committee to discuss the funding, (even minimal ongoing costs), of the project. Very bad idea." --Tina Vickery, August 2002, Board-L
-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Jetlagged since 1998
EPIC NOTHINGNESS: Whenever we manage to slip the bonds of the newsbunker for anything more than a few days, we always figure we'll come back to a big pile o' bad to have to sort through. Not so much this time, as it turns out. The Board has been almost entirely silent; except for a few uninteresting announcements, a call for volunteers for the Financial Procedures fact-finding group, and an abortive discussion of the defunct "Friends of USGenWeb", not much has gone on. Tina's last update on the TGN negotiations was two weeks ago; if the recent developments (see below) have changed anything, the Project wasn't let in on the news. She did note a couple of days ago that the ongoing negotiations encompass all USGenWeb pages on Root$web, not just the national pages.
In a small bit of sad news Tina announced yesterday that Denise Wells has bailed as editor of the newsletter. Denise did a reliably good job with the newsletter and she'll be missed.
YOU SAW THAT COMING: The big news in the genealogy world these days is the recent buyout of The Generations Network (aka MyFamily.com, Ancestry.con, and Root$web) by one of their former investment partners. Spectrum Equity now has a controlling interest in our favorite Big Genealogy Monopoly and despite numerous assurances that All Will Be Well, the fate of the company itself is not known. The new owners are making all the right noises (we love Root$web and we won't change a thing!) of course, but still anyone who knows anything about acquisitions is pretty sure that big changes will come sooner rather than later. Except for Joan Young, who immediately got out her pompoms and saddles shoes, most project members are keeping a wary eye out for future developments. Most outside pundits thinks this development will lead to an IPO, which would be very interesting indeed. Anyways, we'll just mutter a quiet "we told you so" and go back to sorting our photos of Prague.
BONUS QUOTE: "Either quit beating around a dead horse or looking for a horse with a gift in its mouth." --David Samuelsen
DOUBLE BONUS QUOTE: "In my humble opinion there is absolutely no need to set up a committee to discuss the funding, (even minimal ongoing costs), of the project. Very bad idea." --Tina Vickery, August 2002, Board-L
-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Jetlagged since 1998
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Q & D
And away we go...it's Your Daily Board Show!
ROUNDUP: The Board has approved the July minutes. This catches them up to September; we expect those to make their appearance shortly. The Board also approved Greta Thompson's continuing role as their representative to the Election Committee. Otherwise, all is quiet. There's been no further word on the status of the negotiations with Ancestry.con.
NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS: We've heard through the grapevine that Betsy "Not On My Watch" Mills has told Diane Mason she may no longer post her poll results to the DISCUSS list. Apparently the ever-increasing number of members indicating they would be in favor of incorporation is making some folks a little nervous. There are still no members who would go on record (so far as the poll is concerned) as being opposed to incorporation. Also on the DISCUSS list, NC Tina has been hounding Sandy daily to post her comments to the "summation" thread. No other vocal member has been subjected to such special attention, which is odd given that the most vocal of those opposed to incorporation did not bother to reply to Tina's original request. We are fairly sure that at the end of the summation discussion it will have turned out that droves of members replied privately and all opposed to incorporation. That's how these things usually go when the prevailing winds of public opinion are not blowing the right way.
HUFFING PAINT: Meanwhile over on the alternate CC list, there is nothing of interest to report. The list has collapsed into one of its semi-regular White Man's Burden Club whine fests, full of the usual easily-refuted internet "truths" about Iraq, Katrina, poor folks, brown folks, religious fanatics, and foreigners. It has little to do with genealogy (other than some "my family was here before yours" one-upmanship) and nothing to do with USGenWeb, so its fairly safe to ignore it until the cave-dwellers retreat once again into their warm, safe dreams of the good old days.
THOSE GOOD OLD DAYS: "As for Daryl, well he reminds me so much of Eric it is difficult for me to distinguish the difference. Every Election that has been held for the Project has brought out some people we have "Never" heard of and after the election "Poof" they are gone. I hate the fact that this joker is stalking many of us, and what he did to Ellen is horribly sickening and if I were her I would turn him into the authorities in jigtime you can bet on that! But I would guess if he is banned from the list he will continue to Stalk and that isn't good. We don't have to respond. I have a feeling that left alone he will go away. He is just a hanger-on and not very effective. To my way of thinking, he has hurt John R and Teresa more than he helped them. I am certain you all know what happens to children who are put in "time-out" or otherwise ignored." --Kathy Heidel, Board-Exec, 17 July 2002
-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Riding the tide since 1998
ROUNDUP: The Board has approved the July minutes. This catches them up to September; we expect those to make their appearance shortly. The Board also approved Greta Thompson's continuing role as their representative to the Election Committee. Otherwise, all is quiet. There's been no further word on the status of the negotiations with Ancestry.con.
NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS: We've heard through the grapevine that Betsy "Not On My Watch" Mills has told Diane Mason she may no longer post her poll results to the DISCUSS list. Apparently the ever-increasing number of members indicating they would be in favor of incorporation is making some folks a little nervous. There are still no members who would go on record (so far as the poll is concerned) as being opposed to incorporation. Also on the DISCUSS list, NC Tina has been hounding Sandy daily to post her comments to the "summation" thread. No other vocal member has been subjected to such special attention, which is odd given that the most vocal of those opposed to incorporation did not bother to reply to Tina's original request. We are fairly sure that at the end of the summation discussion it will have turned out that droves of members replied privately and all opposed to incorporation. That's how these things usually go when the prevailing winds of public opinion are not blowing the right way.
HUFFING PAINT: Meanwhile over on the alternate CC list, there is nothing of interest to report. The list has collapsed into one of its semi-regular White Man's Burden Club whine fests, full of the usual easily-refuted internet "truths" about Iraq, Katrina, poor folks, brown folks, religious fanatics, and foreigners. It has little to do with genealogy (other than some "my family was here before yours" one-upmanship) and nothing to do with USGenWeb, so its fairly safe to ignore it until the cave-dwellers retreat once again into their warm, safe dreams of the good old days.
THOSE GOOD OLD DAYS: "As for Daryl, well he reminds me so much of Eric it is difficult for me to distinguish the difference. Every Election that has been held for the Project has brought out some people we have "Never" heard of and after the election "Poof" they are gone. I hate the fact that this joker is stalking many of us, and what he did to Ellen is horribly sickening and if I were her I would turn him into the authorities in jigtime you can bet on that! But I would guess if he is banned from the list he will continue to Stalk and that isn't good. We don't have to respond. I have a feeling that left alone he will go away. He is just a hanger-on and not very effective. To my way of thinking, he has hurt John R and Teresa more than he helped them. I am certain you all know what happens to children who are put in "time-out" or otherwise ignored." --Kathy Heidel, Board-Exec, 17 July 2002
-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Riding the tide since 1998
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Where Does The Time Go?
The behinder we get...it's Your Daily Board Show!
SPINNING WHEELS: The Board has been busy doing nothing the last couple of days. Tina adjourned the September meeting and called the October meeting to order. The October agenda has been posted and contains a few new items (notably, the revival of the Financial Procedures motion from last session and a couple of quarterly reports). The August minutes were approved as submitted. The July minutes were also submitted but a question as to their completeness has been raised, so they have not been approved and are on the October ballot. Both of these minutes were written by Linda Haas Davenport, who wasn't BS when the events occurred; we're guessing Scooter doesn't have the time for it anymore.
Still no word on the negotiations with TGN, but we suspect we won't get any real news on that topic until it is a done deal.
DRINKING THE KOOLAID: We have been much amused to watch Joan "Root$web Poster Child" Young's various contortions as she patiently attempts to explain away some of the more harsher realities in Root$web's current AUP/TOS,the harshest being of course that USGenWeb does not own its own mailing lists. We think it likely that if someone were to provide incontrovertible proof that Root$web kicks puppies, Joan would find some way to make that a good thing for genealogists.
In her defense though (and since she won't come right out and say it), Root$web's current AUP is more or less standard for the industry and it is a vast improvement over the old one. Anyone who was around back in the day remembers how Brain ran Root$web as his own personal fiefdom (which in truth it was). You wanted to remove some posts? Well OK, but the price for that was getting all sorts of snark from His Nibs and a permaban from all of Root$web's services. If you were a "donor" (ie, gave them money) you would have the special pleasure of having Brain toss your money back at you, whether you wanted it or not, in order to prevent you from laying claim to services for which you had paid. When Brain and the "little" woman decided to sell Root$web, they dissolved the "cooperative", unilaterally changed the AUP to give themselves a permanent right to distribute user-contributed content, made it impossible to make lists no-archive, and began to feed ads (occasionally offensive ones) over user's messages. Many people, however, came over to Root$web when Maiser was spammed nearly out of existence and didn't really feel that the lists they brought with them suddenly became Root$web's property to do with as they saw fit. When they protested, though, many were tossed off their lists and message boards without notice. Possession is 9/10ths of the law and Root$web had possession;it was that simple. The only person we know who was finally successful in having all her family association message boards and list archives removed did so at the cost of never being able to so much as post a message to a Root$web mailing list for the rest of her life.
Joan is fine with all this, of course, because Root$web keeping control over other peoples' stuff is good for all of us. Until of course, it isn't. USGenWeb now has hundreds of mailing lists on Root$web, none of which we can take with us if we decide to leave the nest. Our list archives will stay on Root$web, merrily making money for TGN, regardless of where we choose to go. Since many of them actually say "usgenweb" or "xxgenweb" or "xxgen" in the title, people would be forgiven if they assume that they are still affiliated with USGenWeb in some way. Whereas, of course, if we were permitted to actually close the lists, take the archives with us, and repost them somewhere else, they would still be available to the membership and other genealogists, but they wouldn't have TGN's ads and branding all over them. Win for us, but not for TGN.
-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Pulling rabbits out of our hat since 1998
SPINNING WHEELS: The Board has been busy doing nothing the last couple of days. Tina adjourned the September meeting and called the October meeting to order. The October agenda has been posted and contains a few new items (notably, the revival of the Financial Procedures motion from last session and a couple of quarterly reports). The August minutes were approved as submitted. The July minutes were also submitted but a question as to their completeness has been raised, so they have not been approved and are on the October ballot. Both of these minutes were written by Linda Haas Davenport, who wasn't BS when the events occurred; we're guessing Scooter doesn't have the time for it anymore.
Still no word on the negotiations with TGN, but we suspect we won't get any real news on that topic until it is a done deal.
DRINKING THE KOOLAID: We have been much amused to watch Joan "Root$web Poster Child" Young's various contortions as she patiently attempts to explain away some of the more harsher realities in Root$web's current AUP/TOS,the harshest being of course that USGenWeb does not own its own mailing lists. We think it likely that if someone were to provide incontrovertible proof that Root$web kicks puppies, Joan would find some way to make that a good thing for genealogists.
In her defense though (and since she won't come right out and say it), Root$web's current AUP is more or less standard for the industry and it is a vast improvement over the old one. Anyone who was around back in the day remembers how Brain ran Root$web as his own personal fiefdom (which in truth it was). You wanted to remove some posts? Well OK, but the price for that was getting all sorts of snark from His Nibs and a permaban from all of Root$web's services. If you were a "donor" (ie, gave them money) you would have the special pleasure of having Brain toss your money back at you, whether you wanted it or not, in order to prevent you from laying claim to services for which you had paid. When Brain and the "little" woman decided to sell Root$web, they dissolved the "cooperative", unilaterally changed the AUP to give themselves a permanent right to distribute user-contributed content, made it impossible to make lists no-archive, and began to feed ads (occasionally offensive ones) over user's messages. Many people, however, came over to Root$web when Maiser was spammed nearly out of existence and didn't really feel that the lists they brought with them suddenly became Root$web's property to do with as they saw fit. When they protested, though, many were tossed off their lists and message boards without notice. Possession is 9/10ths of the law and Root$web had possession;it was that simple. The only person we know who was finally successful in having all her family association message boards and list archives removed did so at the cost of never being able to so much as post a message to a Root$web mailing list for the rest of her life.
Joan is fine with all this, of course, because Root$web keeping control over other peoples' stuff is good for all of us. Until of course, it isn't. USGenWeb now has hundreds of mailing lists on Root$web, none of which we can take with us if we decide to leave the nest. Our list archives will stay on Root$web, merrily making money for TGN, regardless of where we choose to go. Since many of them actually say "usgenweb" or "xxgenweb" or "xxgen" in the title, people would be forgiven if they assume that they are still affiliated with USGenWeb in some way. Whereas, of course, if we were permitted to actually close the lists, take the archives with us, and repost them somewhere else, they would still be available to the membership and other genealogists, but they wouldn't have TGN's ads and branding all over them. Win for us, but not for TGN.
-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Pulling rabbits out of our hat since 1998
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Whack-A-Mole
Endless rivers of nonsense...it's Your Daily Board Show!
STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE: Late last evening, Tina posted an update on the state of the negotiations with TGN over the mastheads. She took three paragraphs to say nothing. The negotations are ongoing, they are discussing the mastheads, TOS/AUP, and prior agreements. They'll keep us posted, thanks for playing, yadda yadda yadda. Since it has been over two weeks since we've heard from the Board on this topic, we suppose we should be grateful for the attention.
WE THINK THEREFORE WE ARE: The discussion on the incorporation issue seems to be finally waning a bit. We noticed that once we pointed out that the majority of discussion participants are in favor of some flavor of incorporation (or at least a more formal status than we have now) by a rather large margin (14 for vs. 4 against, with a handful of "still thinking about it"s), the wind seemed to go right out of the sails of the "naysayers". It's hard after all to claim the "majority" don't want something when the majority of those talking about it clearly do want it. If the hundreds and hundreds of Project members who aren't participating in the discussion voted in similar proportions, the issue would carry in a landslide.
POLITICS OF PERSONALITY: The numbers above do not, of course, include those who have intimated privately that although they personally could support incorporation, they won't publicly admit to it because it puts them into the "wrong camp." Among these are Nola Duffy and Norma Jennings. There is nothing quite like putting a personal grudge ahead of the Project's welfare.
THE PHANTOM MENACE: Several of the more desperate among the usual suspects have been playing a game whereby they accuse those in favor of incorporation of not actually being members of USGenWeb or of using *gasp* aliases. So we've been playing right back and suggesting they let their fingers do the walking and find the info themselves; that's what Google is for. We found a valid Project website for everyone on the list; there isn't any reason they can't. Well, except for the reason that it doesn't fit their agenda to find Project websites for everyone on the list. So they pretend that things like displaying a "Friends of USGenWeb logo" or having websites affiliated with other Projects is somehow bad. Even worse, they pretend that they don't already know the answers to their questions. Since Don has already found the website he's looking for and posted it to the DISCUSS list, we find it most disingenuous that he persists in claiming that Diane is either not a Project member or is working under an alias.
BONUS QUOTE: "Rather then get our knicks in a know, why not first give a committee a whack at listing advantages and disadvantages. That is what I and a lot of others seem interested in......not endless rivers of nonsense from one or two members...." --Don Kelly (who we really ought to put on the payroll)
DOUBLE BONUS QUOTE: "I don't carry 8-10 years of grudges. I don't want to waste my life that way. Hate destroys the hater not the one that is being hated and despised." --Norma Jennings, who should know
-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Getting our knicks in a know since 1998
STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE: Late last evening, Tina posted an update on the state of the negotiations with TGN over the mastheads. She took three paragraphs to say nothing. The negotations are ongoing, they are discussing the mastheads, TOS/AUP, and prior agreements. They'll keep us posted, thanks for playing, yadda yadda yadda. Since it has been over two weeks since we've heard from the Board on this topic, we suppose we should be grateful for the attention.
WE THINK THEREFORE WE ARE: The discussion on the incorporation issue seems to be finally waning a bit. We noticed that once we pointed out that the majority of discussion participants are in favor of some flavor of incorporation (or at least a more formal status than we have now) by a rather large margin (14 for vs. 4 against, with a handful of "still thinking about it"s), the wind seemed to go right out of the sails of the "naysayers". It's hard after all to claim the "majority" don't want something when the majority of those talking about it clearly do want it. If the hundreds and hundreds of Project members who aren't participating in the discussion voted in similar proportions, the issue would carry in a landslide.
POLITICS OF PERSONALITY: The numbers above do not, of course, include those who have intimated privately that although they personally could support incorporation, they won't publicly admit to it because it puts them into the "wrong camp." Among these are Nola Duffy and Norma Jennings. There is nothing quite like putting a personal grudge ahead of the Project's welfare.
THE PHANTOM MENACE: Several of the more desperate among the usual suspects have been playing a game whereby they accuse those in favor of incorporation of not actually being members of USGenWeb or of using *gasp* aliases. So we've been playing right back and suggesting they let their fingers do the walking and find the info themselves; that's what Google is for. We found a valid Project website for everyone on the list; there isn't any reason they can't. Well, except for the reason that it doesn't fit their agenda to find Project websites for everyone on the list. So they pretend that things like displaying a "Friends of USGenWeb logo" or having websites affiliated with other Projects is somehow bad. Even worse, they pretend that they don't already know the answers to their questions. Since Don has already found the website he's looking for and posted it to the DISCUSS list, we find it most disingenuous that he persists in claiming that Diane is either not a Project member or is working under an alias.
BONUS QUOTE: "Rather then get our knicks in a know, why not first give a committee a whack at listing advantages and disadvantages. That is what I and a lot of others seem interested in......not endless rivers of nonsense from one or two members...." --Don Kelly (who we really ought to put on the payroll)
DOUBLE BONUS QUOTE: "I don't carry 8-10 years of grudges. I don't want to waste my life that way. Hate destroys the hater not the one that is being hated and despised." --Norma Jennings, who should know
-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Getting our knicks in a know since 1998
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Five Times As Clever
Wind 'em up...it's Your Daily Board Show!
VALLEY OF THE DOLLS: New Board member Concetta the Simple has now made her maiden voyage on the DISCUSS list, and sadly floundered on the shoals of low expectations. While we are not surprised to find she is firmly on the side of the usual suspects (watching her simper and pander to Ellen and Joy is both painful and amusing), we had hoped for a bit more than "if I agree with you your point is legitimate; if I don't you are a naysayer." It is so... jejune.
Alas, we can see once again that we shall have no worthy opponents among the new Board members. Even Scooter has become depressingly easy to scare back into his hole. Our last great hope is Silent Jason Mendenhall, who speaks only when spoken to and sometimes not even then.
PLAYING GAMES: Of late the two great project discussion lists have amused themselves with the lofty question of incorporation. After several days and hundreds of messages, we have come to the conclusion that absolutely no one (ourselves included) has even the slightest idea what they are talking about. This is not stopping anyone from talking a good game and from boldly stating personal beliefs as if they came from heaven carved on stone tablets. Someone on the alternate CC list is running a poll to find out who is interested in incorporating, and with every post Nola Duffy vaguely threatens to sue them, when she's not offering them the necessary funds to incorporate. On DISCUSS, Ellen, who is adamantly against incorporation, makes claims that would appear fairly simple to document, but yet she can't be bothered to do so. Joy seems very confused about our actual status as an organization and how that affects our liability. Debra/David Crosby still pretends to be two people, but can't manage to have either of them make a meaningful contribution to the discussion. (We do admire someone who makes a big show of coming back on a list just to stick her tongue out and run back to her hiding place.) Joyce routinely conflates nonprofit incorporation with federal tax exempt status. Sandy (who probably knows more about this than anyone given her actual real life experience) talks to walls with a remarkable vigor. Tina has taken to moderating people who get to close to hacking off Root$web. Even the normally quiet backwater of the NWPL list has become a hotbed of political turmoil, with Norma "Look At Me!" Jennings going so far as to intimate that someone on the alternate list suggested a hit on Tina, among her other conspiracy-oriented ramblings. (Of course she can't find that message now. Pity. We can't decide who enjoys the limelight more, her or Nola.)
All of this is pointless gibberish until the Board decides what, if anything, it wants to do about it. Our silent and invisible elected representatives have, according to Greta, retreated to the Sekrit Sandbox more or less for good, because they cannot bear the thought of actually interacting with their constituents. They are busy right now negotiating away our project identity, but we're sure they'll dismiss this incorporation nonsense just as soon as they have a spare minute. They really do not want to be accountable to the membership.
FANTASY ISLAND: And then we have Nola "I Slept With a Lawyer And That Makes Me One" Duffy, who has spent much of the day trying to goad Diane Kelly into attempting to incorporate USGenWeb somewhere so that Nola can call down the flying monkeys. Nola complains constantly about people on the lists who threaten legal action but, no lie, there is no one quicker than her to summon the spectre of her pet legal poobahs and make dire yet strangely vague threats against everyone in sight. She is all talk and no walk though. Just as soon as you ask her for some sort of tangible evidence of her legal claims, she has to "go out" for a bit, the subject gets dropped, and the questions never get answered.
Earlier today, we come to find out that her late hubby has a law library named after him. How do we know this? Nola happened to drop that she'd donated all his books and papers to "the law library that now bears my husband's name." This is very interesting. So we looked into it. We were completely unsuccessful in finding a law library named after Leonard Duffy (or any other Duffy). What we did find is a small collection of books and papers donated to the Fred Parks Law Library at the South Texas College of Law.
We are sorry, but heaving a few crates of obsolete law books at your husband's old college when you are cleaning out the house does not constitute a "law library." We've been in many a university library in our time and we know what happens to these "special collections." The materials are accepted with the proper words of gratitude and then left to gather dust in the basement. Most of them are never even unboxed, and unless there are rare or particularly interesting documents and books, or you were actually famous for something more than writing one article on mortgages in Texas, most people will never look at them again.
So now we know where Nola's vaunted "expert legal advice" probably comes from. And we can imagine the groans of despair every time the poor first year that has to man the phones in the university's legal services office hears old Mrs. Duffy's voice on the phone.
BONUS QUOTE: "I maybe wrong in quoting this but it was my understanding that a group of USGenWeb members got mad and pulled their pages and formed USGenNet. I felt that just because they were mad, they took their sites and tried to compete with USGenWeb. I feel they should have stayed and tried to work things out rather than run. So, when the offer came from them to add us to their server, it just didn't sit right with me. I felt like they were rubbing it in our faces so I voted against being added to their server for those reasons, my own not the Regions desires but my own grudge." --Gail Kilgore, explaining why she voted to turn down USGenNet's offer (and demonstrating her complete misunderstanding of what USGenNet is)
DOUBLE BONUS QUOTE: "'Just so!' cried the Red Queen. 'Five times as warm, AND five times as cold - just as I'm five times as rich as you are, AND five times as clever!'" --Lewis Carroll
-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Setting 'em up, knocking 'em down since 1998
VALLEY OF THE DOLLS: New Board member Concetta the Simple has now made her maiden voyage on the DISCUSS list, and sadly floundered on the shoals of low expectations. While we are not surprised to find she is firmly on the side of the usual suspects (watching her simper and pander to Ellen and Joy is both painful and amusing), we had hoped for a bit more than "if I agree with you your point is legitimate; if I don't you are a naysayer." It is so... jejune.
Alas, we can see once again that we shall have no worthy opponents among the new Board members. Even Scooter has become depressingly easy to scare back into his hole. Our last great hope is Silent Jason Mendenhall, who speaks only when spoken to and sometimes not even then.
PLAYING GAMES: Of late the two great project discussion lists have amused themselves with the lofty question of incorporation. After several days and hundreds of messages, we have come to the conclusion that absolutely no one (ourselves included) has even the slightest idea what they are talking about. This is not stopping anyone from talking a good game and from boldly stating personal beliefs as if they came from heaven carved on stone tablets. Someone on the alternate CC list is running a poll to find out who is interested in incorporating, and with every post Nola Duffy vaguely threatens to sue them, when she's not offering them the necessary funds to incorporate. On DISCUSS, Ellen, who is adamantly against incorporation, makes claims that would appear fairly simple to document, but yet she can't be bothered to do so. Joy seems very confused about our actual status as an organization and how that affects our liability. Debra/David Crosby still pretends to be two people, but can't manage to have either of them make a meaningful contribution to the discussion. (We do admire someone who makes a big show of coming back on a list just to stick her tongue out and run back to her hiding place.) Joyce routinely conflates nonprofit incorporation with federal tax exempt status. Sandy (who probably knows more about this than anyone given her actual real life experience) talks to walls with a remarkable vigor. Tina has taken to moderating people who get to close to hacking off Root$web. Even the normally quiet backwater of the NWPL list has become a hotbed of political turmoil, with Norma "Look At Me!" Jennings going so far as to intimate that someone on the alternate list suggested a hit on Tina, among her other conspiracy-oriented ramblings. (Of course she can't find that message now. Pity. We can't decide who enjoys the limelight more, her or Nola.)
All of this is pointless gibberish until the Board decides what, if anything, it wants to do about it. Our silent and invisible elected representatives have, according to Greta, retreated to the Sekrit Sandbox more or less for good, because they cannot bear the thought of actually interacting with their constituents. They are busy right now negotiating away our project identity, but we're sure they'll dismiss this incorporation nonsense just as soon as they have a spare minute. They really do not want to be accountable to the membership.
FANTASY ISLAND: And then we have Nola "I Slept With a Lawyer And That Makes Me One" Duffy, who has spent much of the day trying to goad Diane Kelly into attempting to incorporate USGenWeb somewhere so that Nola can call down the flying monkeys. Nola complains constantly about people on the lists who threaten legal action but, no lie, there is no one quicker than her to summon the spectre of her pet legal poobahs and make dire yet strangely vague threats against everyone in sight. She is all talk and no walk though. Just as soon as you ask her for some sort of tangible evidence of her legal claims, she has to "go out" for a bit, the subject gets dropped, and the questions never get answered.
Earlier today, we come to find out that her late hubby has a law library named after him. How do we know this? Nola happened to drop that she'd donated all his books and papers to "the law library that now bears my husband's name." This is very interesting. So we looked into it. We were completely unsuccessful in finding a law library named after Leonard Duffy (or any other Duffy). What we did find is a small collection of books and papers donated to the Fred Parks Law Library at the South Texas College of Law.
We are sorry, but heaving a few crates of obsolete law books at your husband's old college when you are cleaning out the house does not constitute a "law library." We've been in many a university library in our time and we know what happens to these "special collections." The materials are accepted with the proper words of gratitude and then left to gather dust in the basement. Most of them are never even unboxed, and unless there are rare or particularly interesting documents and books, or you were actually famous for something more than writing one article on mortgages in Texas, most people will never look at them again.
So now we know where Nola's vaunted "expert legal advice" probably comes from. And we can imagine the groans of despair every time the poor first year that has to man the phones in the university's legal services office hears old Mrs. Duffy's voice on the phone.
BONUS QUOTE: "I maybe wrong in quoting this but it was my understanding that a group of USGenWeb members got mad and pulled their pages and formed USGenNet. I felt that just because they were mad, they took their sites and tried to compete with USGenWeb. I feel they should have stayed and tried to work things out rather than run. So, when the offer came from them to add us to their server, it just didn't sit right with me. I felt like they were rubbing it in our faces so I voted against being added to their server for those reasons, my own not the Regions desires but my own grudge." --Gail Kilgore, explaining why she voted to turn down USGenNet's offer (and demonstrating her complete misunderstanding of what USGenNet is)
DOUBLE BONUS QUOTE: "'Just so!' cried the Red Queen. 'Five times as warm, AND five times as cold - just as I'm five times as rich as you are, AND five times as clever!'" --Lewis Carroll
-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Setting 'em up, knocking 'em down since 1998
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