Richard, I am completely behind you on this! Well written, and I was personally surprised when I started seeing the messages changing in Thomas' favor on this. Whether intentional, or not, the extra drama put into his last post seems to have blinded people from what was really going on. If Thomas was being harassed off-list, by people expecting his games to be finished, then that is very unfortunate, but also totally unrelated to any of what has just happened between him and Che.
I think people are taking sides, because they aren't paying attention to what the issue has been. I'll give an example, that will hopefully illustrate the point I am trying to make. If my neighbor was a racist, and he was unjustly hurtful to people, it would be wrong of me to stand by his side if one of those people started to argue with him. Even though he was never mean to me, I have to look at the current situation, and admit that he Was! doing wrong to that person, or group of people. When people take Thomas' side on this, because he was wrote helpful posts, because he worked on games they enjoy, or because he is a nice person, then they are making this very same mistake. This argument is a result of how he speaks to other programmers, so if you are not one, you can't use the fact that he was kind to you as defense for his actions. Excuses have been made, that Thomas is simply misunderstood, but I doubt that is the case most of the time. Before I Ever! had any personal dealings with Thomas, I read posts where he clearly put down other developers, and made himself seem like their superior. I had seen this done to other people, and eventually I stepped in to defend someone who I felt was being treated especially bad by Thomas. I can't remember who it was now, but at the time they were so fed up with his posts, that they were considering giving up programming altogether. By stepping in to the conversation, I became a target myself, and I had Thomas criticizing how I do things. He wouldn't stop posting more, so eventually I told him off, and vowed never to argue with him about programming languages again! Since that time, I've seen him poke at a few other people, but as soon as the castaways game started to get popular, there was Thomas, posting a huge put down of my methods, for no reason whatsoever. Many of you probably remember it, as it was not posted long ago. There was no reason to post anything about programming languages, but Thomas decided to go off on a familiar rant, presumably to point out that my game's success wasn't as deserving because it was not done his way. Several people openly posted about how inappropriate he was with his negative comments. Like it or not, Thomas seems to believe that he is better than many other developers around here. Instead of letting people do things their own way, he insists on pressuring others do follow in his footsteps, and won't stop even if you tell him you are happy with your own choice. Please keep this in mind before you take sides. Be fair, and remember that even if someone wasn't bothering You! personally, it doesn't mean he/she wasn't bothering other people in an unfair way. Sorry if people don't agree with me, but that is how I see it. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
