QUOTE(Giano @ Fri 16th January 2009, 6:46pm)
I don't think he is a person who can be guided, his own worst enemy I suspect.
QUOTE(Giano @ Fri 16th January 2009, 6:46pm)
Keeping order on God know's how many 1000s of editors needs a certain tough type, with a rational ruthless streak - a tough cookie.
QUOTE(tarantino @ Fri 16th January 2009, 8:00pm)
QUOTE(Pumpkin Muffins @ Fri 16th January 2009, 11:26pm)
FT2, if you're reading, the way to do that is with less words, not more. Besides the simplicity, it also means that you end up not saying some things.
He received the same advice from me and others but he decided not to follow it.
QUOTE(dogbiscuit @ Fri 16th January 2009, 10:03pm)
FWIW, in FT2's brief sojourn here, he PM'd me to explain that every post he made took him a long time to craft - perhaps an hour. He was obsessive about being misunderstood or misrepresented - yet the result was that he was often incomprehensible or ambiguous - the very result he was seeking to avoid.
(Snip)
I am especially concerned that he often makes comments about the amount of time he spends on things - that makes him sound obsessive, but he might just not be very good at stuff.
A number of users here will be fairly bright. They say bright people can sometimes get in their own way in communication, and without great self-analysis, that's surely true. I've never figured out the line of what to assume others need telling or don't, and between saying too little (and people misunderstanding) or too much. In that, I get cautious - "one (many times) bitten, twice shy" - I figure if I am open about everything, and consider the matter completely, then some will go tl;dr, but those who really care will have the information they need to work it out. Better sensing of "what needs saying and what doesn't" is a skill I don't have and wish I did, despite advice like Tarantino's (which believe me I'd gladly take if I knew how). Consolation: I figure there's worse if you have to choose a weakness. That said, any offers of help -- yes please (IMG:
smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)
I care nothing for politics, which is a good or bad thing depending how you see it. For me I see it as a plus. YMMV. I've mostly learned to avoid drama and its hounds quite well; in this case ultimately I haven't. Its a skill I learn mainly the odd times I don't succeed; I take it philosophically. I went into Arbcom "eyes open", knowing it shreds reputations. The job needed doing; the 2007 committee was failing the community badly, and nobody else seemed very likely to try changing that in any meaningful way. Personal cost of it? Meh. Important, but less of an issue.
Other wordiness stuff - 1/ People playing games tend to gloss over the detail (old saying - "the devil's in the detail"). Spelling it out might bore some, but it's advantage is being explicit as to exactly what's being said and what's not. Case in point, people were amused at the idea a 105 K statement of evidence might be needed, but when the microscope came round it meant not one thing raised hadn't been disclosed fully and such, which would have been a huge mistake. Also, 2/ arb writings tend to get very heavy weight|reliance|examination. I don't like my words being misrepresented, as Dogbiscuit says, and there's also a responsibility to think more carefully in a role like that. Not every post is difficult, but some are (eg, responsibility to people who will be judged by what's said, of being fair to them); and those talking about myself more than most. Not unusual.
Oddly, one of the main blockers on a public discussion of OM and the oversighted edits was that I simply don't know how to write the short statement necessary. Might seem trivial or laughable to some, but not to others. I asked more than once and set about doing so three times - June 29-30 (after OM), November, and again December. The notion of "Write anything but just write something" doesn't work well with sensitive and privacy-related issues, and the advice how one might do so was itself very uncertain. I'm not that sure even now what I'd do differently second time round. Probably told the more conservative voices on Arbcom after OM "you explain what happened or I will" a bit more strongly. I was offline most of July, consensus was firmly against, I was told it would be done "eventually" but it never was, and I didn't. Meh; lessons.
Apologies for the delay in replying; of course discussion was going on here but I only just got round to checking it out.
This post has been edited by FT2: