Re: Come in rec.kites, your time is up? (Gaffer MIA)

Subject Re: Come in rec.kites, your time is up? (Gaffer MIA)
From Andrew Beattie <andrew@tug.com>
Date Sun, 19 Apr 1998 10:39:50 +0100
Newsgroups rec.kites

Andy Wardley told me about this thread, so yesterday I dropped in to have a browse. Much of what Andy guesses is very accurate, but I feel that I should answer the general question in my own words.

So: Why isn't Gaffer posting to rec.kites these days?

Well, it's a combination of things. None are the whole reason, my absence is as a result of the combination.

  1. I've moved job. My old job was unchallenging. I looked for technical challenge and stimulation outside my work, and found it in kite flying. I would work on kite-related stuff on the train on the way to work, on the train on the way home, at home, over the weekend, and I'd be thinking about kites most of the day at work as well. In contrast, my new job now occupies most of my time and attention. Typically, I'm out of the house (wearing suit and tie...) before 6am and won't be back before 7pm. Since I'll be in bed shortly after 9pm ready for an early start the next day, that doesn't leave much time for rec.kites... I don't have the time or enthusiasm left to deal with my Email. Even important issues like Peter Hugger's kite and Ted's missing Tshirt don't get their proper attention (now both being addressed).

  2. The S/N of rec.kites. There are two sides to Andy's "Sweetcorn" image. He is correct that it is less and less worth trawling through the crap to find the occasional nugget of corn, but that is the view of an information consumer. Consider the point of view of a provider: A good posting takes an hour or two to write, sometimes more. There is very little incentive to craft a good article, just to chuck it in amongst the crap. It used to be the case that when you met rec.kiter's in the field, that everyone had read the same stuff. It actualy made things difficult for me - everything useful I might talk about, I had already written about, and everyone had read it. That time has gone - no-one is reading it all any more. The people I want to write for arn't here any more. Near the end of 1994, Micheal Graves held a vote to find the 10 most valuable contributors to rec.kites, to receive a special silver-coloured version of the rec.kites pin. They were:
    • Marty Sasaki
    • Ron Reich
    • Simo Salanne
    • Andrew Beattie
    • Bernhard Malle
    • Peter Ulfheden
    • Anne Rock
    • Bert Tanaka
    • Brooks Leffler
    • Dan Rubesh
    Most if not all of them have gone. Sure, we have some good new blood, Andy Wardley is a prime example, but the trend is downwards.

  3. I've not been flying. I've not flown my own kites since BBT3. Hopefully I'll be flying again soon, but with the core flying missing, the writing dries up. You may care to contrast this with the drivel of Frank Kenisky. Frank writes about rules and politics, he insults people and drags them down, he writes about other great kite fliers in order to bask in their reflected glory, but in all his exensive writing, I don't recall him ever writing about kite flying. Nothing about the experience of flying, nothing about techniques or tricks, nothing about kites he flies. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from the evidence I see, the very person who in my opinion does the most damage to kite flying, the AKA and rec.kites is not even a kite flier.

  4. I am working on a new (non-kite) project. It is still in the development stage and it is too early to announce it publicly, but I'm very excited about it, and working hard towards it.

  5. I don't have a Unix newsreader at the moment. Netscape is newbie friendly, but it is expert hostile. It slows me down considerably, which doesn't help.

  6. I've achieved my target in traction kite development. The Chevron does everything I hoped and more. To take traction kite development further, I would have to set my sights on the Lynn N-Gen, and I just don't have the experience or education to tackle that (let alone the time...).

But, all is not lost, I may well be back at some time in the future to tackle something new...

Finally a word of advice. Before you post to rec.kites, ask yourself the following question of your posting: Is it worth reading ?

Think about that question...

Andrew 

-- 
Due to a hardware problem, I have had to reply to this using a
particularly crap mailer with important features missing, a dreadful
editor and a ponderous user interface.  Sorry if it is delayed or if
it it not up to my usual standard - Andrew