Joseph A. Fitzpatrick Nov 6 1993, 5:02 pm show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: j...@neutrino.Nuc.Berkeley.EDU (Joseph A. Fitzpatrick) - Find messages by this author Date: 7 Nov 1993 01:02:15 GMT Local: Sat, Nov 6 1993 5:02 pm Subject: Re: Letter from 76 ics users Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse Please add my name to the original list of 76, which is probably much longer by the time I am posting this article. I agree with them that the ADMINs on ICS have done and are continuing to do a great job, and have every reason to feel proud of their achievement. As I have not read r.g.c. or logged on to ICS for a week, I have mercifully missed the hornets' nest stirred up by the original 'Guppies are ruling the Aquarium' post. I'd like to add my $0.02 worth to the discussion: First, I agree with almost every post I've seen on this that the use of the term 'Guppies' was tactless, even pejorative. I've never even liked the term 'fish' - I play chess for my love of the game, and not for bragging rights that I beat Mr. X 3 out of 4, and certainly not to look down on my own or anyone else's ability. Sure, we can feel proud of scalps we've taken, but is that the only reason to play the game? Aren't the games that most please us the ones in which both sides played with best play? Brilliancy prizes are given for games that show chess as an art, that give us positions that make us sit back and say 'Wow!' under our collective breath. And if we see the right moves that lead to these positions, whether our rating is 1250 or 2250, we can create such art, and it's quite a rush when we do. So I don't like the idea of looking down on anyone's chessic strength - everyone does what they can. I hope the writers of the original article didn't mean to cast as- persions on the chess abilities of the new ADMINs - they surely won no support for their cause if they did. Second, I don't think chess ability is anything of a good indicator of who makes a good ADMIN or TD in the real world. Many TD's and club directors I've known have been strong players, but I see this as an effect, in part, of their love of the game which, IMHO, is a much better measure of directing ability. Granted, TDs and ADMINs need to know more about chess than did Carole Vorderman (sp?) at the start of K-S, but if this hurdle is crossed, then things which are (perhaps more) valuable to see in an ADMIN are things we already see in the ADMINs we've got - understanding of C programming, diplomacy in talking to sysadmins on systems we use, wisdom in adjudicating disputes between players, a sense of fairness, a love of the game, and a lot of time to devote to this (sometimes thankless! :( ) pursuit. Thank goodness chessic strength isn't really necessary here; many of ICS' highest- ranked players are people with a lot else to do: Aries works with GM Joel Benjamin on _Chess Chow_, among other activities; GMRohde works in a law firm. So what if a new ADMIN is not as strong as the next player - he's logged on to do a job that does not necessarily include beating that next player. And I'll take a competent ADMIN who's a C player over one who is a stressed out chess master who has no programming or organizational ability, thank you. Perhaps the writers of the original post were concerned that new ADMINs, like Milwaukee or brahms, had not yet recorded any game results by the time of Jeff Ely's post of their records. They might have formed the opinion that Goob was a disaster as an ADMIN. Both of these may be cause for concern, but the ultimate decision to award ADMIN status is up to Darooha and the current ADMINs. I'm sure those worthies are just as interested as are many in seeing ICS continue and even expand as the great cyberspace chess club that it is; their decisions must be well-considered, and done with information to which the rest of us aren't privy. So, I think it best to voice our con- cerns and not let this degenerate into a morass of unjustified criticism. For the sake of the future growth of ICS, I hope they have made the right decisions. And I believe, though I haven't met them, that Darooha and the veteran ADMINs share this hope. New ADMINs, if you're reading this I wish you good luck and Godspeed at fulfilling the weighty responsibilities of your new offices. To everyone else, I say let's settle down and play good chess. Sincerely Yours, Joe Fitzpatrick an46741 Nov 7 1993, 7:38 pm show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: an46...@anon.penet.fi - Find messages by this author Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 01:47:09 UTC Local: Sun, Nov 7 1993 5:47 pm Subject: More sign ICS letter. Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse Since the "Letter from 76 ICS Users" appeared, about 15 more users have posted their own sentiments to the ICS Admins via r.g.c. (the best way), but some of these and others have also asked me to add their names to the list of signers of the earlier letter. Perhaps best is to repost that letter with expanded list of signers. By my count, the signers now number 100. I apologize for the misspelling of Arnaque and LLama on the earlier list, which occurred despite proofreading. [ The following is a letter which was posted on ICS for just a few days recently and attracted some 76 signers. The letter very deliberately avoids touching on the commercialization issue at all, partly because we would have had trouble getting more than three signers to WHATEVER we drafted, had we discussed commercialization! The signers represent a spectrum of some 1400 ICS rating points, with both ends of the spectrum being heavily represented. Some of the comments people had on signing -- "super idea!" "Thanks!" "Yow!" "bravo! great idea!" "add me to the list!" "What a lovely thing to do!" "What an awesome idea!" "could not agree more" "I can never thank enough for what these guys have done for me." Darooha has several times said that he would prefer money to thanks (:-), but perhaps this expression of appreciation will not be entirely wasted; it seemed overdue to some of us. Right -- shlock hour over -- back to the Baker-Bibuld saga. The letter: ] Dear Darooha, Vishnu, TheDane, and AnteTempore: The signers of this letter want to express their gratitude for all the time and work you have put into ICS, from doctoring and improving the software (HUNDREDS of hours of work, according to one veteran ICS user) to conducting a perpetual hunt for hosts, to essentially constant daily baby-sitting and maintenance of the server and its users. We think you deserve a better image on r.g.c. than that which has formed in the past couple of weeks. Sincerely, Almighty BBB cagey DaveS ap Beltim check Dennis ARCEE benoni ChunLi destroy aries Bigfoot cutler dima Arnaque Birchbeer DixieFlatLine BoKnowsChess DogStar Brett drh Duffer egg forrest Gauss Hamsa Iain jalfano gelert Heather Josce Gorsat hersco juggie highlord Hill patrick paulx King Madman Niklas Pawnbroker Kliph mann nnn Petroff Knightmare matulovic Norm piranha kurt medinfo nostalgic POTZ MichTech Ppannion LaFlair Moctezuma lance mortal oldtimer qrqr leone music onlooker LLama mynah Reid Lowlander Revenant lucho Satanas TheBear uzun Warthog sgrog Tim wes shah Torre vek Will Sister Trader Vision Willardt sms tripod voltaire Wolfie Surf Troly Vova Woody sveshi zardoz, zep, and, of course, Zippy ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to h...@anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to a...@anon.penet.fi. Ghica Nov 8 1993, 7:31 am show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: g...@fig.citib.com (Ghica) - Find messages by this author Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 15:03:57 GMT Local: Mon, Nov 8 1993 7:03 am Subject: Re: More sign ICS letter. Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse In article <015302Z08111...@anon.penet.fi>, an46...@anon.penet.fi writes: |> |> Since the "Letter from 76 ICS Users" appeared, about 15 more users |> have posted their own sentiments to the ICS Admins via r.g.c. (the |> best way), but some of these and others have also asked me to add |> their names to the list of signers of the earlier letter. Perhaps best |> is to repost that letter with expanded list of signers. |> |> By my count, the signers now number 100. I apologize for the |> misspelling of Arnaque and LLama on the earlier list, which occurred |> despite proofreading . |> 101 - my handle is "cranium". -- [the opinions above are my own!] "This will just take a minute.." "It worked on my machine..." "If I knew it wasn't going to work, I would have tested it sooner!" Crassly Commercial Quantum Mechanic Nov 8 1993, 10:07 am show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: mor...@cco.caltech.edu (Crassly Commercial Quantum Mechanic) - Find messages by this author Date: 8 Nov 1993 17:22:45 GMT Local: Mon, Nov 8 1993 9:22 am Subject: Re: More sign ICS letter. Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse g...@fig.citib.com (Ghica) writes: >In article <015302Z08111...@anon.penet.fi>, an46...@anon.penet.fi writes: >|> >|> By my count, the signers now number 100. I apologize for the >|> misspelling of Arnaque and LLama on the earlier list, which occurred >|> despite proofreading. >|> >101 - my handle is "cranium". Make that 102! Mine is "jmm" Jones -- Jones M Murphy Jr Assistant Vice President, New Products AIG Financial Products 100 Nyala Farm, Westport, CT06880 (800) 248-SWAP zou Nov 8 1993, 3:25 pm show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: z...@cyco.tamu.edu - Find messages by this author Date: 8 Nov 1993 16:14 CDT Subject: Re: More sign ICS letter. Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse Add my name!! I am 103!! --Bigfool Kevin Gowen Nov 8 1993, 6:17 pm show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: kgo...@cie.uoregon.edu (Kevin Gowen) - Find messages by this author Date: 9 Nov 93 01:12:05 GMT Local: Mon, Nov 8 1993 5:12 pm Subject: Re: More sign ICS letter. Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse In article <8NOV199316144...@cyco.tamu.edu> z...@cyco.tamu.edu writes: >Add my name!! I am 103!! > --Bigfool Make me 104, please. --fishy James Annan Nov 9 1993, 8:44 am show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: a...@vax.oxford.ac.uk (James Annan) - Find messages by this author Date: 9 Nov 93 13:35:05 GMT Local: Tues, Nov 9 1993 5:35 am Subject: Re: More sign ICS letter. Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse In article <8NOV199316144...@cyco.tamu.edu>, z...@cyco.tamu.edu writes: > Add my name!! I am 103!! > --Bigfool Many happy returns. -- James Annan. Kirk Ruel Gorden Nov 10 1993, 12:10 am show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: krgor...@unccsun.uncc.edu (Kirk Ruel Gorden) - Find messages by this author Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 04:00:09 GMT Local: Tues, Nov 9 1993 8:00 pm Subject: Re: More sign ICS letter. Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse In article <2bmqp5$...@pith.uoregon.edu> kgo...@cie.uoregon.edu (Kevin Gowen) writes: >Make me 104, please. > --fishy I'm number 105. I can't describe how much I've enjoyed the ICS. Limms Harold Castro Nov 12 1993, 9:29 am show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: cas...@imag.fr (Harold Castro) - Find messages by this author Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 10:49:12 GMT Local: Tues, Nov 9 1993 2:49 am Subject: Re: More sign ICS letter. Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse I didn't want to overload the network but...... I want to be the number 104! -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Harold CASTRO LGI, RDC Maths Pures (IMAG), | o o BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9 FRANCE | <~\ /~> tel (33) 76 51 44 81 | />...o...(\ e-mail: Harold.Cas...@imag.fr | ^^^^^^^^^^^ -----------------------------------------------------------------------