>I wasn't looking to show the light. As I said elsewhere, I think some things are best done quietly and try to operate by putting my concerns on the table with the people who can do something about them.
>
>That's fine when you act as Tamar Granor on your own behalf. But when something sad happens and you're a leader and people can't see you doing anything, they reach their own conclusions.


I've read down this subthread before replying. I'm more interested in doing what I think is the right thing than in whether people know I'm doing it. I've tried to be a leader in this community by providing people with useful information on using the product. In addition, I've tried in my interactions with Microsoft over the years to represent a constituency that Microsoft likes to ignore--those folks who don't always go out and buy the biggest, fastest, newest machines. (I beta-tested VFP 3 on a WFW 3.11 machine using Win32S and didn't upgrade to NT until after the product shipped.)

It strikes me that my behavior here ties in neatly to my religious leanings (such as they are)--acts, not faith. I do what I think is right, and don't generally toot my own horn.

>Pulling an example from a different venue, when I had a problem with one of my kid's teachers, I would go to the teacher and then the principal rather than standing up at the school board meeting or writing a letter to the editor.
>
>Right, and I've not seen anybody in the UT who would expect any different. However, if there was widespread disquiet from other kids' parents about a teacher as well, and you're the class rep, and you approach the matter in secret and without telling/involving the other parents because you think that's best, what do you think will happen?
>

I've done it. I sat there and watched my 7th grader spend 45 minutes dissecting a particular teacher while an administrator took notes. My kid was most distressed not at his own interactions with the teacher, but at the way the teacher treated other students.

I've spent the better part of a year documenting issues with a different teacher and periodically writing to the school to let them know what was going on. (In that case, I did encourage others to do the same, but in private conversation, not in public fora.) That ended with the teacher being guided to retire.

I will stand up in public and encourage others to follow the necessary steps to resolve a problem, but that's a general statement, and I think I have encouraged people to communicate with Microsoft over the years.

>There's a time to make a loud public protest (and I did sign the petition fairly early on) and there's a time to work quietly behind the scenes.
>
>And often there's a time for both. Look, it may well be true that you're working effectively behind the scenes.

In some ways, but clearly not in others. But I think we're beyond the point that any of us could have been particularly effective.

Tamar