Since my name was dropped in Art's first post in this thread, I feel entitled to
chime in. I have waited a while to do so, reading the other posts with great
interest.

A lot of what I was going to say has already been expressed quite well by others.
Vlado and Dudley chimed in with the rest of the hand grenade squad ( very
entertaining! ) and others such as Gordon, Peter and the Lizard contributed in less
incendiary ways, with at least some attempt at an evenhanded appraisal.

Those familiar with my posting history these many years know that sometimes I stray
just a bit from a flat recitation of facts. For the purposes of this post,
however, I am restricting myself to a very low bull**** factor. ( Very difficult
for me!)

First, I want to state a few things in reference to a variety of things which have
come up.

I host and code Art's web site, but ALL the content is his. I correct typos from
the emails he sends me, but that's it. There is no money involved in any of this
for either of us. Also, Art is not really a particularly tech savvy guy.

All my contact with Art has been email, no phone calls, no face time, no faxes, and
just one snail mailed clipping. However, over several years, I have encountered
absolutely NO indication that he is not who he says he is. In addition to the
evidence available on the web site, I have encountered numerous other pieces of
evidence verifying his identity.

----------

The "Autocollimator" story:

I spent about half an hour this afternoon on Google, and emailed another "RAM
regular" to discuss the issue. I did NOT email Art himself. Autocollimator is a
real word, BTW.

In my opinion, there is a very good chance that Art either IS "Autocollimator" or
had a very direct influence in those posts. I will not detail my reasoning here,
but it involves NO "inside" information.

I really don't think it would be such a big deal if Art wanted to have a little
extra fun on the group, and created another persona to express some different
views. Let's face it, "Autocollimator" is hardly the worst offender we've seen
lately. I don't plan to spend any time worrying about it.


-------------

I don't really have anything to add to the "Good Art/Bad Art" controversy, others
have covered it quite well. Except for this post, I don't think I have ever
commented publicly on it, and I don't think I have any great insights. The
tradeoffs are obvious to any reasonable long term reader of RAM.

-------------

And now, of necessity, I must address the issue of Mr. Marron. Over the years, I
have watched many new posters earn universal derision and enmity on the group.
However, I can't recall anybody else who reached his current depths of disapproval
without benefit of outlandishly nonfactual statements. Mr. Marron is now in the
losers' league of Tarver, Mladen,.and the XXX999 kooks, sinking below the Arndt
level, without ever making a really silly claim ( by the loose standards of RAM ).

Mr. Marron has even posted valuable material at times. However, by the sheer force
of obnoxious personality, he has managed to irritate people even while making what
should have been a legitimate contribution. This happens to posters all the time,
of course ( including Art ). But Mr. Marron has raised this from an occasional
communication problem to a consistent barrage of offensive invective, untempered by
any real original contributions ( unless you want to count lyrical praise of his
"almost an airplane").

I suppose I am a bit naive, a bit of a romantic with regard to communities like
RAM. I have always felt that the raging battles we see would never happen if we
were sitting around a table with the benefit of tone of voice and facial
expressions to leaven the harsh typing of a newsgroup post. I certainly don't
think all opinions would coincide in such a venue. ( What would be the fun in
that? ) But all in all, I used to say I'd be glad to have a beer with any of the
non loon RAM regulars, regardless of how much I may disagree with them on issues.

Now, however, I have found an exception to that rule.


Bob McKellar

..