[at-l] The latest Wingfoor rants

["Jack Tarlin" <baltjack@hotmail.com>]

      All right, folks, here goes:


           The most recent spate of anti-Wingfoot whines is getting a bit 
ridiculous, folks, and it does this list no credit---just the
opposite.
      We've all had disputes with Dan in the past.  Most of us have friends 
that have been tossed off of Trailplace.  Sooner or later, I probably will 
be.  And sure, we all have all questions/concerns/ re. Dan's iron-handedness 
about the site.   Here's the news:  How he runs his site (let me repeat 
that, with emphasis---HIS site) is his affair, and we can chooses to 
visit/contribute to the site or we can go elsewhere.  The fact remains that 
however some folks feel about Dan and how he runs Trailplace, it's an 
extraordinarily valuable resoursce, especially to the prospective hikers, or 
anyone actively planning a thru-hike.  In terms of information available, 
Forums, Q&A, access to former thru-hikers willing to correspond with 
prospectives, directories of former hikers so people can find old 
friends---you name it, this is a pretty comprehensive site.  The fact that 
some folks have a problem with how the site is run IS NOT RELEVANT. A lot of 
folks get a lot of good from this site, and will continue to do so, just as 
hundreds of thru-hikers (maybe thousands) have derived incredible benefit 
from Dan's Handbook over the years, used it daily on their trips, relied on 
it heavily for their planning and preparation---yet they lose no opportunity 
to villify  and slam its author now that their trip is done.   Pretty shabby 
behavior, if you ask me.

     This is bullshit, and it's childish.  This mailing list, (maybe most of 
you guys don't know this) is known in thru-hiker circles as "the other 
mailing list" i.e., the mailing list that ISN'T Trailplace's.  Some folks 
refer to it as the "anti-Trailplace" list; some folks think the primary 
purpose of this site is to bitch about Wingfoot.  Is this the identity you 
want for this list?   Is this why you spend time on this list?   Is this 
something to be proud of?  Is this the sole raison d'etre for this list---so 
that every now and then it can go into anonymous Wingfoot bashing?  Is that 
the best thing this list has to offer?

     I sure hope not.  If you want nothing to do with Trailplace, fine.  I 
respect that.  If you want to help contribute to, and help improve an 
alternate site or mailing list, that's fine, too.   I think it's a great 
idea; it's good that there are other forums. I applaud this.  But the 
perpetual Wingfoot bashing is getting a little tiresome.  If you don't want 
to visit Dan's site, stay away.  It's too bad if you choose to do so, cuz 
most of you probably have useful things to contribute to the site, 
especially as regards information for prospective hikers.  Likewise, if you 
don't want to financially contribute to Dan's site, well that's fine too.  I 
doubt I will---if I've got any extra trail related bucks at the end of the 
year I'd rather give em to the ATC or a local maintainence club.  But this 
continual anti-Dan whine, bitch, and rant has got to stop---it serves no 
purpose, it makes the complainers look like petulant brats, and it only 
provides ammunition to those who mistakenly think that that's the primary 
purpose of this site.  And if it continues, you'll only prove them right.


   A final note.  Someone referred to Trailplace visitors as Dan's 
"customers".  This is amusing speech, as "customer", in its original 
Medieval Latin, refers to toll collectors---the modern word "customer" 
refers to those who make habitual and repeated purchases from a vendor of 
goods.  Here's the news, folks:  You're not Dan's "customers".   You're not 
buying anything from him, he's not selling you anything, he's under no 
obligation to treat you as a "customer";  You can visit his site whenever 
you wish, or you can choose not to visit it at all.  You can contribute to 
it however you wish.  You can support it financially if you wish.  Bit to 
spend your Internet time slagging it and dumping on its host is, in my 
opinion, foolish.  It discredits both the people making the complaints, and 
the Forum in which these complaints appear.   Can't we do better than this?

                                                   Jack Tarlin
                                                 (Baltimore Jack)
                                                 AT 95-96;97;98;99)

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