Subject:
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Re: Mad Hatter and RTL (Was Re: Who documents rtl?)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Mon, 31 Jan 2000 14:50:35 GMT
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Viewed:
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2368 times
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Paul Baulch wrote:
> Sproaticus wrote in message <388C8BED.3BCCF9F@io.com>...
> > Gary Istok wrote:
> > > I agree with Todd, it's why I left RTL in 1999. The Mad Hatter was the • final
> > > straw.
> >
> > Man, now I gotta go back into deja.com and see how stupid someone had to be • to
> > completely alienate someone as smart and creative as Gary.
>
>
> Definitely, go to Deja-News and read the Mad Hatter thread. The poster known
> as "Mad Hatter" was not stupid. Egotistical, certainly. Immature, without
> doubt. Rude, obviously - and how. He was also a fan of the LEGO brick. Now,
> I am not defending the actions of Mad Hatter on RTL. I am also most
> definitely NOT Mad Hatter. I guess I just wanted to get this off my chest.
>
> What I feel, personally, to be a certainty is that he was around 22 years of
> age and had not yet developed the "social skills" (for want of a better
> word) that most of us take for granted. He was at the age where intellectual
> superiority must be achieved/maintained at the cost of absolutely everything
> and everyone else. Why do have I drawn these conclusions about him?
> Because, when I was 22, that's exactly what _I_ was like. Heck, I think I
> even posted a couple of flames to RTL of all places, being disdainful of
> others' creative efforts. Luckily I didn't really start a flame war.
> Fortunately it's doubtful that anyone remembers any of that. More
> fortunately, I have grown up a fair bit since then. Even then, though, I was
> there because I was a fan of the LEGO brick.
>
> When I read Mad Hatter's later posts, like many RTL users I felt an
> emotional response. Like many RTL users I responded, in my own way. I don't
> know whether anyone read my replies, certainly none of them were replied to.
> I fretted, thinking that people might take my posts as a provocation to Mad
> Hatter, but he never replied to them and I never intended him to. They were
> meant to point out what I thought was going on in as simple and clear terms
> as possible, because it seemed that RTL users were being baited into
> arguments with him. Where they might have felt indignation or anger, though,
> I felt only pity. I knew only too well about that hole he was in, I was once
> in it myself. Ironically, it seems that most of my posts never made it off
> my local news-server (at least, they're missing from Deja's version of the
> thread).
>
> Later, someone said something "intended only for worthy RTL users" (I
> paraphrase) along the lines of "Mad Hatter's posts and the replies to
> them.... were the stupidest thing they ever read on RTL". Ironically, I saw
> this as just as stupid a statement as all the replies it apparently referred
> to. This isn't strange, because that poster was doing just what all the
> other "worthy RTL users" did with Mad Hatter: They got upset. They had an
> emotional outburst. They were still decent RTL users and they didn't deserve
> to be called "stupid". Franky, even now I'm fascinated by the thread. It
> contains many useful lessons in how not to deal with difficult people.
>
> Which leads into the most insightful, reasonable and compassionate post,
> which was by Gary Istok himself. It's painfully ironic that Gary, then,
> should mark that thread as what drove him from RTL. Gary, you explained Mad
> Hatter better than all of us. Jeremy is right, you _are_ smart.
> We drove Mad Hatter away (this neither pleases me nor disappoints me). I
> would urge you to come back, Gary, but I fear that there is no point.
> rec.toys.lego is not what it once was. It couldn't be, not after LUGNET.
> Surely that's another reason you left.
>
> I am giving up rec.toys.lego. More recently, there have been certain
> off-topic cross-posts (i.e. spam) of an offensive nature (one was racist and
> another seems to have been pornographic). Neither this sort of thing nor the
> flamewars/profanity bother me[1]. I'm just sick of the overwhelming
> proportion of market-related posts. IMO they should have made
> rec.toys.lego.marketplace and I'm still baffled as to why they didn't.
>
> Goodnight everyone,
> Paul
>
> [1] I have an open mind and I'm very proud of it. How open is _your_ mind?
Well, um, uh, gee, thanks Paul.
The Mad Hatter was actually not the only reason I left RTL. Time was another
consideration. I just didn't have enough time to do both RTL and LUGNET
justice.
I really did see the good in Mr. Hatter. I saw someone crying for attention. I
felt bad for him, because here he was a very intelligent, yet belligerent
individual, starved for attention.
Gary Istok
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Mad Hatter and RTL (Was Re: Who documents rtl?)
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| Sproaticus wrote in message <388C8BED.3BCCF9F@io.com>... (...) final (...) to (...) Definitely, go to Deja-News and read the Mad Hatter thread. The poster known as "Mad Hatter" was not stupid. Egotistical, certainly. Immature, without doubt. Rude, (...) (25 years ago, 29-Jan-00, to lugnet.general)
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