STEWART-L Archives

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Subject: [STEWART-L] some context for Jim Petermann's resignation
Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 14:08:43 EDT

Jim Petermann wrote:

"This decision comes about partly because of a situation that has arisen
where my private messages to people posting off-topic messages to the list
have been publicly posted on other lists, out of context, resulting in a
steady stream of mail to me with personal attacks and threats in an attempt
to force me to change my administrative decisions and policies."

Hello, everyone --

I am writing as the administrator of the mailing list in question,
GENEALOGY-DNA. As a fellow list administrator, I have great sympathy for Jim
-- some of my list members have acted less than tactfully, to put it mildly.

But I hope it might clear the air if I supply some context. There is always a
context! The messages on GENEALOGY-DNA are publicly available in the
archives, so there's no need to be mysterious.

http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/GENEALOGY-DNA/2002-09

The message dated 18 Sep 2002 "Sample DNA Email Refusal" contains the message
in question. It was actually in the context of ongoing discussions about
difficulties sometimes experienced by people who would like to organize
surname DNA projects (see particularly John Walden's message dated 8 Sep 2002
"Surname Project Announcements"). Jim's private message was quoted as another
case example for us. I am sorry that this resulted in such unpleasantness for
Jim -- he was probably the target for a lot of pent-up frustration.

Today (21 Sep 2002) I composed a rather lengthy message "DNA project
announcements on other mailing lists" with my thoughts on the subject. There
are many more messages in the GENEALOGY-DNA archives with different views.

If Jim P would care to resume his duties as the STEWART list administrator, I
suspect things would calm down in short order. I now return you to your
regularly scheduled programming :)

Ann Turner
GENEALOGY-DNA List Administrator
http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Miscellaneous/GENEALOGY-DNA.html

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