Forwarded for Tony for Seth.

- d.

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tony Sidaway tonysidaway@gmail.com Date: 21-Apr-2007 22:56 Subject: Fwd: Quitting while I'm ahead (or at least not smeared) To: David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Seth Finkelstein sethf@sethf.com Date: Apr 21, 2007 5:22 PM Subject: Quitting while I'm ahead (or at least not smeared) To: Tony Sidaway tonysidaway@gmail.com

[Tony, can you do me a favor and forward this to wikien-l ? I don't trust the good graces of someone who calls me a "media troll". Thanks]

I was composing a reply to Wales' message saying that I thought it was particularly inappropriate to accuse me of trolling when a key element of my scenario ("Jimbo will *PERSONALLY* REBLOCK Brandt") had just been proven *true*. Granted, I didn't get everything right, but particularly in the wake of the reblocking, such a charge seemed to be shooting-the-messenger.

Then I found myself penalized and misquoted ("blatantly say they're doing it to stir up material for a column" - I said no such thing, and this is a complete distortion of my being fully open and transparent in disclosure - ever consider that if I were inclined to sensationalism, I'd just been handed a great story-"hook"?). Further, I assume the person who mischaracterized me is then the person I'd have to appeal to in order to post a defense.

It's not worth it.

I've had enough Net experience to know by now that challenging the gods tends to get you turned into a newt, and it rarely gets better. So I'm going to quit while I'm ahead, or at least not thoroughly smeared.

-- Seth Finkelstein Consulting Programmer http://sethf.com/ Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/ Interview: http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php