[Steppes] Plea for the SCA

[Jay Rudin]

Frankly, I find this thread absurd.

1. The offending action was many years ago.

2. The person whose name or device was insulted is not present, and is not
complaining.

3. The person wasn't insulted, just the drawing of an axe or a falcon

3. If anything was done about it, we don't know.

Yet, it suddenly seems to be important enough to clog the Steppes list.
Why?

As far as anyone knows, the submittor might have seen it and laughed.  He
(or she) might have never seen it.  He might have seen it, gotten upset, and
gotten an apology.  The herald may have been lectured, or removed from
office, or any of a number of things.

We say that when somebody offends you, the first step is to talk to that
person directly, and get the other side of the story.  We don't have
*either* side of the story yet.  We haven't talked to the submittors *or*
the heralds.

I will not speak against this herald until I talk to the herald.  That is
the polite thing to do.  I won't get upset on a submittor's behalf without
finding out if the submittor is upset.  That's the logical thing to do.

If you'd like to know more about the process, contact the local herald.  You
can attend commenting sessions, get involved, and learn what the situation
is.  You can even help do the job the way you'd like it to be done.  I think
you'll learn that the heralds are in fact hard-working, courteous, and
willing to teach you.  And that sometimes comments get out of line, and the
heralds rein them in.  And that they're human, and make mistakes.  But if
you want to insult what they do, I recommend that step one is to learn about
what they do.  My mother used to say, "You can always criticize the
housework if you're holding a mop."

It's bad enough when people hold onto grudges for years, about something
that really hurt them.  But when we don't know if anyone was hurt?  And we
don't know whether the problem was take care of?

I've seen cases in which the submittor had a sense of humor, and had no
problems with the comments.  I've seen a submittor get upset, receive an
apology, and the forgive and forget.  And I've seen a commenter get kicked
out of the job for making rude comments.  In all three cases, the issue was
over, and bringing it back up is, at best, unhelpful.

For the record, I've seen the comments made on my original submission.  I
laughed.  Please don't get annoyed on my behalf.

What happened in the cases of the axe and the falcon?  We don't know.  And
unless a submittor complains, it's none of our business.

If somebody does something that upsets you, step one is to contact that
person privately.  Until you've done that, there isn't a step two.
Complaining on a public forum without first trying to talk to the offending
officer is bad for the officer, bad for the list, and bad for Ansteorra.

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin