[Steppes] Plea for the SCA

[Diane Rudin]

--- Chris Baran <chris_baran at hotmail.com> wrote:

> When I was submitting my name
> and device I was sent a letter with a copy of all comments.  I don't
> know if
> it was intentional or not but they had also stuck in a copy of an
> e-mail
> with many personal exchanges that was extremely derogatory of a) my
> device
> and b) my name.

I'm sorry that was sent to you.  That was not appropriate or helpful.
I suspect that the extremely overworked herald doing the job was in a
hurry and used what he/she had on hand.  I'm sure there was no intent
to offend.

> Strange, I never knew I submitted my things to be part of a
> personal critique.

Hold on there.  If the comments were of the sort, "this doesn't look
like a bird, it looks like an iguana", while that sort of comment is
not as helpful as it could be, it *is not* a personal critique.  Step
back and separate yourself from the pieces of paper.  If, on the other
hand, the comments were of the sort, "what idiot drew this", that *is*
personal, and insensitive, and behavior that should be corrected.

An awful lot of people fall into the trap of believing that criticism
of their work or their behavior is criticism of them.  I try not to.
Sometimes I fail, because I'm human.  Sometimes I say snarky things
about others' work, because I'm human.  I've tried for years now to
avoid putting those things in print, precisely because they can come
back to haunt you.  There are people who still want to hold me
responsible for stupid things I said or did fifteen years ago when I
was very new and young and didn't know any better.  That makes me sad,
because I'm a very different person now, and I wish they'd take the
time to get to know who I am now, rather than dwelling on who I was
then.

I'm sorry that you had such a negative experience.  You should consider
contacting the persons involved directly, and trying to convince them
that they need to improve.  For all we know, they have long since
learned better behavior.

> Oddly enough the comments in the email were also
> erroneous since I had the documentation to back both my device and
> name up.

Not everyone has the same resources or standards for information.  It
is possible that you had access to information that they did not.  It
is also possible that they had access to better information than you
did.  In the course of my undergraduate and graduate studies, as well
as in the SCA, I have learned a great deal about the vastness of
information that's out there--and the paucity of it which is applicable
to the SCA.

You've left out the ending of your story.  Did you resubmit?  Did you
include all of your documentation?  Was it from reputable sources?  Has
your name since been registered?

Please don't give up because of a bad experience.  I did that in 1984
when I first encountered the SCA.  I gave it another try two years
later in college, when I encountered some friendly, welcoming SCA'ers,
who convinced me that I'd had one bad experience.

We learn, and we grow, and we change, and we move on.

--Serena
who uses her own experiences for illustrative purposes only, because
that's the most readily available data she has, and in no way takes any
of this personally

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo
http://search.yahoo.com