Messing up in Small Boats

Dear group,

No one will deny Don Elliott's knowledge about the technical aspects of boating, nor his talents as an illustrator.

But, and this has been more than proven by the recent conflicts, Don Elliott lacks the qualities to be a moderator. When the smallboats group started, there was quite a group of interesting people sending posts. Gradually they stayed away from this forum. I stayed on and gave Don the benefit of doubt. But more and more, I began to see that he has a problem with this medium :

everytime a post is sent that dares to question an Elliott statement, he takes it as a personal offence and either refuses to answer or clearly gets angry and venomous. On several occasions his reasoning was wrong, but instead of admitting it, and perhapslearnsomething, he twist the subject just so, that heappearsto be right again. ( you know, the false-guru-syndrom)

Now that so many people have expressed the same feelings about Don's behaviour, and have either left the group or will do so soon, I think Don has to face the two possibilities left :

1.He continues to "moderate" the Don Elliott "group"in the same way, creating more and more rules to protect his ego, chasing the last of the creative thinkers away. This would enable him to really enjoy the sweet melody of his own thoughts, no longer disturbed by our "profanities"( see "rules"). OR:

2.He wisely decides to make room for a new moderator, preferably someone with a bit of grey hair, who loves the beauty in heated discussions and sees humour as a higher form of intelligence. This would enable Don to become amemberand concentate on what he is really good at.

So, Don, now that you've heard "the wish of the whole" ( see your rules) from so many different people, what will it be ?

If solution1, I will probably continue to read your articles, yes, they are often great.( That is, if I 'm not banned too ..!) But I will definitely also look for a new group, where a friendly exchange of ideas about designing, building and sailing small cruisers is the topic, this time based on freedom of thought and equality of participants. Perhaps the " Microboats group" somebody mentioned ?

Best regards to all,

Bert.

PS This post is sent to the smallboats group and to the Bolger group.