Dearest Weasel.....

Whichever rock you crawled from under to enter the following entry into the UT Wall of Fame:

Poster with most unpleasant manners: John 'JVB' Petersen,
I am here to express a few sentiments in public....

First off, you are a gutless turd. Of all the places to lob a cheap shot my way, you had to bury it in a freely editable document where you could hide behind the face anonymity. Yes, I am opinionated. And yes, I am not afraid to be brutually honest with how I feel. At least I have the balls to say what I have to say in public. And in turn, to take any and all criticism that could come my way.

I believe in the right for people to express their opinions, no matter how controversial they are. And in the past week, I have posted some controversial messages regarding issues between VFP and VB, and some guidelines for posting messages on the UT.

I was told about this issue by a fellow UT'er via private email. In my defense, the person asked Michel to remove that part of the Hall of Fame entry since it was a personal attack on me. To that person, and you know who you are, thank-you. However, it was/is not my wish to have that entry removed. Alas, it was removed. I don't like censorship. It is a course of action that all to often as occurred up on the UT. I believe in the free expression of opinions. At times, I have hit some folks hard. As the old saying goes, 'If you are going to dish it out, you need to be able to take it..'

Regardless of how strongly you feel I encourage you to share your feelings honestly. However, you should have the character to not duck and cover. Stand by what you say. Don't be a wimp. At least with me, it is out there. You never have to worry about me stabbing you in the back. Rather, I will engage the debate online. And, most importantly, you will know who it came from.

I gather the JVB dig is directed at some views, which may differ from yours regarding the whole VFP vs. VB thread. What a pathetic, myopic view of the world you have. How boring it would be up here to have a bunch of ditto-heads droning on how VFP is the best tool for everything. Fact is, what I said has technical merit, as is typically the case with me. And that I think most of all, pisses you the hell off. It is that point of view that will hold many back in our community. If I have to be a little controversal to get people to notice some things, so be it. That may very well be my purpose here.

If by the way this happens to cost my 'offical standing' here as a sysop, so be it, I don't give a shit at this point. I'll be the F-ing evil sysop. The guy who may have an opposing view. They guy who gets pissed off at lame incomplete and useless responses. The guy who trys to raise the bar, improve the signal to noise ratio. I long for the pre-1996 Compuserve Days. We kept each other honest up there. Last I heard, this is supposed to be a technical forum, not social hour for my grandmothers bridge club.

Any of you that have ever met me in person know that I am a fun, easy-going individual. When it comes to some of the stuff that goes on up here, it tends to rankle my ass a bit. I said this once before: people will act on the advice you give. You owe it to them to be damn sure of what you are posting. If you don't have a clue, you should remain silent. Would you expect anything less if the tables where reversed and you needed an answer. Too many folks up here dash off one line answers that clearly don't come close to anything resembling an adaquate response. Often it is about quantity, not quality. I am not afraid to admit it. At least I don't run and hide. Or worse yet, go run, hide, and complain to somebody, 'Oh he was mean to me... I want you to delete that message, it was offensive to me.' Grow the hell up if you do this.

For somebody who is so unpleasant, I'll bet the ranch and the dog that if I posted something up here that you could use, or you read an article that I have written that would help you out and save you work, you would'nt think twice about absorbing the knowledge. In that case, not only would you be a spineless little turd, you would also be a hypocritical little bastard as well. Bottom line is that I have made my bones in this community. I don't need, nor do I derserve to take shit like this. If you want to send me a personal email, or post it online, that is fine. I then know who you are. This backdoor crap is plan bull-shit. Do me, and more importantly yourself the courtesy of having some backbone, and do it in the light of day....

This is all I have to say.....