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Author Topic: An Open Letter to James McMurray  (Read 7802 times)

RPGPundit

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An Open Letter to James McMurray
« Reply #75 on: December 15, 2006, 02:06:32 AM »
*sigh* Yes, the sig does smack of passive-aggresion. But whatever, if that's as bad as James' reaction to all this gets, I can live with that.

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hgjs

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An Open Letter to James McMurray
« Reply #76 on: December 15, 2006, 02:24:29 AM »
Quote from: James McMurray
It was brought to my attention that there was a question about whether I'd have chilled out sooner if people had let me know it was bothering them. I'd like to point out two things in regards to that:

1) When Stuart mentioned his annoyance at the derailing of his competitve play thread by me and Pundit's discussion of Hackmaster I apologized and immediately tried to get that thread back on topic.

2) When all this first came to a head I told Pundit several times that I was poking fun at him for my own enjoyment and that I'd continued in public because I'd gotten a few PMs from people who were also enjoying it. I didn't get a single PM from anyone but Pundit saying it wasn't appreciated. If I had, I'd have stopped immediately.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled whatever it is you're talking about. :)


Speaking for myself, I found it annoying when threads I was interested in kept on devolving into you and the RPG Pundit taking shots at each other.  I didn't say anything about it 'cause I just figured that was your thing.
 

droog

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An Open Letter to James McMurray
« Reply #77 on: December 15, 2006, 06:40:02 AM »
Pundog, what you did is fair enough, I guess. But why don't you try just ignoring James if you think he's trying to be disruptive? I mean the old-fashioned way. Let him see what you say, let him try to provoke you (if that's what he's doing). Then don't respond. If you ignore people, they stop bothering you.
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TonyLB

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An Open Letter to James McMurray
« Reply #78 on: December 15, 2006, 09:15:13 AM »
Yeah, I'd echo droogs question.  Why this, rather than ignore-listing him (or, even harder, reading his posts and then choosing not to respond) yourself?

I tend to think of the IL feature as a way a person can help themselves to stand down.  "Go ahead, post what you want, I'm not rising to that bait, because I've chosen not to."  It's an act of wise surrender.

Forcing it on someone else, though ... I don't quite know what to make of that.  "Okay, I'm gonna post whatever I want, and you're not going to respond, because I've chosen not to allow you."  Wierd.
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RPGPundit

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An Open Letter to James McMurray
« Reply #79 on: December 15, 2006, 10:35:09 AM »
Quote from: TonyLB
Yeah, I'd echo droogs question.  Why this, rather than ignore-listing him (or, even harder, reading his posts and then choosing not to respond) yourself?

I tend to think of the IL feature as a way a person can help themselves to stand down.  "Go ahead, post what you want, I'm not rising to that bait, because I've chosen not to."  It's an act of wise surrender.

Forcing it on someone else, though ... I don't quite know what to make of that.  "Okay, I'm gonna post whatever I want, and you're not going to respond, because I've chosen not to allow you."  Wierd.


As the Admin, I can't actually put myself in a position where I can't see what James is doing, both literally and in terms of responsibilities to the site.

Its tough, but ultimately that's reality: I'm the Alpha here, so I'm not going to blind myself to his shenanigans when I can just blind him to me.

As for why I couldn't just "ignore what he wrote"; the problem is that he was regularly posting in threads I was writing to; when I ignored him, he'd just keep doing it, with other ad hominems.  It became pretty obvious that the guy wasn't going to give up.

In any case, why the fuck should I have to restrict or punish myself for HIS actions? Fuck that.
Like I said, in the end, I'm the Alpha Male here. Up until now I'd never done a single fucking thing that would count as "exerting my authority" as an Admin, so I really didn't get where James' little "challenge the Alpha" deal was really coming from (since, unlike the two of you, he didn't seem to be a guy with massive Forgist sympathies trying to snipe just out of general fear of what my success would mean or hatred of my refusal to recognize the Swine's claims about RPGs), it was just a general issue with picking me out as the Alpha.  
Well, fine; that's what happens in the end. He got bit in the snout.

I'm very patient of criticism here, about two thousand times more patient than any of the websites which my potential critics would hold up as more sterling examples (so them claiming I'm somehow "power tripping" here is a pretty baldfaced and baseless assertion; no one would be allowed to say or do the things either James, Tony or Droog have done toward me on here if it was to Cessna or Curt on RPG.net, or Ron Edwards on the Forge; unlike them, I tolerate all kinds of open dissent), but in the end I also WILL NOT allow this site to be ruined by a bunch of clever guys trying to abuse that patience in order to collapse all discourse with carpet bombing of "pissing all over the RPGPundit".

RPGPundit
LION & DRAGON: Medieval-Authentic OSR Roleplaying is available now! You only THINK you've played 'medieval fantasy' until you play L&D.


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The most famous uruguayan gaming blog on the planet!

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Dark Albion: The Rose War! The OSR fantasy setting of the history that inspired Shakespeare and Martin alike.
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Also, now with the CULTS OF CHAOS cult-generation sourcebook

ARROWS OF INDRA
Arrows of Indra: The Old-School Epic Indian RPG!
NOW AVAILABLE: AoI in print form

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TonyLB

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An Open Letter to James McMurray
« Reply #80 on: December 15, 2006, 10:49:57 AM »
Quote from: RPGPundit
so them claiming I'm somehow "power tripping" here is a pretty baldfaced and baseless assertion
Did somebody say that? :confused:
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James McMurray

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An Open Letter to James McMurray
« Reply #81 on: December 15, 2006, 01:43:00 PM »
I couldn't find any accusations of power tripping through the search function, and don't recall any being made.

TonyLB

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An Open Letter to James McMurray
« Reply #82 on: December 15, 2006, 01:50:22 PM »
>shrug<  Ah well, in any event, he's logically correct:  If such statements are made, I'm in agreement that they're bunk.  Pundit isn't using power for the sake of using power.  That doesn't mean that he's doing it for the selfless pursuit of everyone's happiness, either, but I certainly don't see any evidence that he's doing it because he likes the power.
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James McMurray

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An Open Letter to James McMurray
« Reply #83 on: December 15, 2006, 02:07:03 PM »
Yeah. If he (or any of the mods) were prone to that sort of behavior this would be a vastly different place.

RPGPundit

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An Open Letter to James McMurray
« Reply #84 on: December 15, 2006, 04:20:44 PM »
My statements above were meant to be more of a "vaccination" argument than a response to anything said thus far. I know that there's more than enough people out there who would be prone to saying things like this, and the best defense is a good offense.

RPGPundit
LION & DRAGON: Medieval-Authentic OSR Roleplaying is available now! You only THINK you've played 'medieval fantasy' until you play L&D.


My Blog:  http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/
The most famous uruguayan gaming blog on the planet!

NEW!
Check out my short OSR supplements series; The RPGPundit Presents!


Dark Albion: The Rose War! The OSR fantasy setting of the history that inspired Shakespeare and Martin alike.
Also available in Variant Cover form!
Also, now with the CULTS OF CHAOS cult-generation sourcebook

ARROWS OF INDRA
Arrows of Indra: The Old-School Epic Indian RPG!
NOW AVAILABLE: AoI in print form

LORDS OF OLYMPUS
The new Diceless RPG of multiversal power, adventure and intrigue, now available.