Re: Ok, so why was Beverly Cadieux kicked off Delphi?

[gschnaubelt@delphi.com]

I am a paying member on Delphi and would like to present my point of view
on the happenings in the A2 Forum.
 
In my experience, the tone on Delphi has always been civil, friendly and
helpful, except for the two occasions which have caused discussion here.
 
The first episode of flaming was definitely provoked by outside
influences. I feel that it is perfectly legitimate for forum management to
put a stop to flaming, by censorship if necessary - especially as several
members requested this as well. Many had understanding for Nathan Mates'
attitude, but did not feel like becoming involved in unsavoury
mud-slinging, however great the provocation - unfortunately this was
construed by him as lack of support.  Despite the form his departure from
the Apple II community took, I don't think that many of us have condemned
Nathan for his actions. I am extremely grateful for his contributions to
A2 programming - he and Jim Maricondo didn't ask a single cent for the
fabulous update of Twilight II, which was released as copyrighted
Freeware. I doubt that those who were instrumental in depriving the Apple
II community of one of its best programmers have the talent to contribute
anything even approaching the value of Nathan Mates' developments.
 
I followed the entire "Beverly Cadieux story" on Delphi as well. She was
definitely not "ordered off" by forum management. Most paying Delphi A2
members (myself included) feel considerable loyalty for the last large
service which is still so Apple II-friendly. It is not surprising
therefore, that Beverly aroused some antagonism when, although she used
the forum to post information about her mailgroup, she made some
disparaging remarks about Delphi at the same time. However, I can confirm
Jeff Blakeney's statement that it was only one member who wrote something
like "if you don't like it, why don't you leave".
 
Personally, I welcome all Apple II information, also from vendors, and I
have great respect for Beverly's profound Appleworks expertise - I don't
think that anyone objected to A2 mailgroup announcements being posted in
the forum from time to time. When Beverly wrote that she would be leaving
Delphi permanently, there were also several conciliatory messages from
forum members asking her to stay. However, she also unceremoniously
dropped _all_ Delphi members from her mailing list, even though none of
them had been involved in the skirmish at all. This did not exactly foster
good relations. Possibly under the impression that the forum discussion
could be regarded as "Delphi-only", there were some messages in a thread
started by someone who, obviously not knowing Beverly very well, felt that
she had overreacted. Once again, I can confirm what Jeff wrote:
 >There were a couple old grudges that were voiced in that thread but
 >nothing I would call a serious flame.  The rest of the thread was just
 >various other discussions that were never moved into their own
 >threads.  People just kept replying to other people's messages.
 
The thread started off with this topic and, due to the Delphi message
system, continued long after the discussion had changed to other topics.
Naturally, it is unpleasant to find that others have been "talking about
you behind your back", but not normally sufficient reason for such
outrage. I agree that this discussion was not polite, but it was not
particularly insulting either and in my opinion, those who excercise
criticism must be prepared to harvest criticism as well, without "going
off at the deep end". Be that as it may, the offending thread has now been
removed at the request of Beverly and other forum members as well.
 
Jeff also wrote:
 
 >What gets me is how whenever something goes wrong on Delphi it gets
 >talked about here.
 
Why do I get the impression that someone is going out of his way to
discredit Delphi? (Could this be an evil conspiracy hatched by the
disciples of Microsoft?) Mr. Turley makes no secret of the fact that he
regularly lurks in order to "pass on" messages posted there - somewhat
superfluous in my opinion, as webside access to A2 forum messages is free
for anyone who is interested to read them in the unabridged form and in
the correct context. There is absolutely no necessity for any form of
rivalry between csa2 and Delphi A2. I have found useful information posted
both here and there. All could benefit from the recently established "A2
University" on Delphi. I'm sure that the concept of peaceful coexistence
is not unknown to Apple II users.
 
Sincerely,
Giselle Schnaubelt