From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Good last-minute save, WSFA
Date: Mon,  9 Feb 2009 20:16:07 -0500 (EST)
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Mike Bartman wrote:

> It wasn't well stated, but I suspect that what was bugging Candy
> was the bitterness and sniping that keeps coming into your posts
> about WSFA.

There was no bitterness in my post.  I was congratulating the club on
showing some signs of life, i.e. renewing its domain name at almost
literally the last possible minute before spammers snapped it up.
If a spammer *had* snapped it up, the club probably never would have
gotten it back.

At the last PRSFS meeting, I was once again asked what was going on
with WSFA, and I once again said I had no idea, as I hadn't attended
a WSFA meeting in years.  I was actually of the opinion that the club
may have died, based on the apparent total abandonment of the website
and its pending expiration, but I kept that opinion to myself.

I'm sorry to hear that Steve Smith has been ill for the past several
months.  He has my best wishes for a speedy recovery.  I had wondered
if something like that could be the explanation, except that I would
have thought that in that case someone else would volunteer to fill
in, as Sam Lubell filled in for Joe Mayhew as Journal editor in 1996
when Joe had his heart attack.  Or would at least take a minute to
post some kind of explanation.

Please understand, I'm not complaining.  Nobody owes me any WSFA
Journals or updates or explanations for their absence.  I'm just
pointing out that to anyone not present at WSFA meetings, the club
has given every impression of being abandoned.  I think that's why
I was asked about WSFA at PRSFS.

Also, I do a bit of work on this list every month, and part of that
is adding everyone who has attended three meetings to the whitelist,
so that if they post, their message won't be rejected.  But I've been
unable to do that, as I have no idea who has been to the last several
meetings, or, until now, whether there had even *been* any meetings
since last year's Capclave.

> You did a lot for WSFA, and were more than fair in how you dealt
> with transferring things when you left.

Thanks.

> Some WSFAns, most notably the Gillilands (who are no longer WSFAns
> either, due to actions on the part of WSFA that resulted from the
> way they treated you and their reaction to those actions), treated
> you very badly.

Please don't blame me for their leaving.  They left nearly a year
after I did.  Their leaving appears to have been based on the club's
reaction to several letters they sent to major fanzines which defamed
numerous WSFA members throughout all of fandom, including the club's
president, vice president, treasurer, and trustees.  I had nothing do
do with it.  I was merely one of many people they had defamed in some
(but ot all) of their letters.

> WSFA as a whole did not react as quickly as you demanded to that
> situation, so you've decided to blame the organization as a whole,
> and, at times, anyone still, or even newly, since you don't
> discriminate those who have joined since you left, affiliated with
> it, and you take frequent potshots at the organization when it
> doesn't meet your expectations.

No.  I have bent over backwards to avoid defaming WSFA and Capclave,
even when people question me about them, which they do.  I am not
upset at all about the vast majority of WSFA members.  I am friends
with several of them, and pleasant and friendly with nearly all of
them.  However, you must admit that WSFA and Capclave do have a
reputation for selecting some truly nasty people to fill some of their
offices.  Rather than get upset at those few people, I simply avoid
WSFA and its annual con.

> WSFA is a social organization.  People show up for fun.  They
> don't show up for strife, anger, yelling, accusations, or other
> unpleasantness.

That's certainly true of most members.  However, there are a small
number of members for whom strife, accusations, and vicious gossip are
apparently their idea of fun.  This is why I no longer attend WSFA or
Capclave or recommend them to others.  And no, I'm not just talking
about the Gillilands, or even Elizabeth, otherwise I would have
returned to the club after they left.  I think you know what three
people I'm talking about.  If you don't, please ask me in private
email, or in person at Ravencon or Balticon.

> You are free to react however you like, and say whatever you like
> about anything, especially on your own listserve, but if you keep
> getting more and more bitter about what happened, it isn't going
> to make your life better, or result in very many people wanting to
> associate with you in future.

I am not bitter, and I don't think the Gillilands had crossed my mind
at all this year until you mentioned them.  Plenty of people associate
with me, in and out of fandom.

I am, however, very stressed, due to several recent events, none of
which have anything to do with WSFA:

* My mother was in the ICU, and for a while nobody was sure if she
  would survive the week.  (She's still hospitalized, but no longer
  in the ICU.)

* Walking home from visiting my mother in the hospital, I stepped on
  something that went right through the heel of my shoe and gave me
  a nasty bruise, making it painful to walk.  I still can't walk
  without pain.

* For a couple days there was raw sewage that had come up out of the
  drains into my bathtub and toilet.  It smelled very bad.  And all
  the landlord had done was turn off the water.  So I couldn't use the
  toilet, take a shower, shave, comb my hair (combing it when it's dry
  doesn't accomplish anything), or even get a drink of water.  I'm
  paying more than a grand a month in rent for this?  Bad enough that
  there's no soundproofing and my new upstairs neighbors get up at
  5:00 am, causing my ceiling to repeatedly creak like a door in a
  horror movie.

* A spammer has been forging my email address on his spams.  This has
  resulted in over two and a half million blowback messages, and is
  likely to cause me to miss legitimate email and to have my domain
  name added to numerous spam blacklists.  And there's not a thing I
  can do about it, as he's touting a website in Spamland (also known
  as China).

> Candy's reaction, however stated, is likely to be reflected at least
> to some extent in others who get painted, even slightly, by your
> broad brush strokes.

Candy is the one person who automatically took Elizabeth's word for
it that I had refused to leave Elizabeth's condo, even though such an
action would be grossly out of character for me, she never produced
any witnesses even though there were allegedly numerous WSFA members
and others there at the time, she had invited me back at least twice
since the last time I had been there, and she refused to say whether
this alleged transgression had been a few weeks earlier or a few
years earlier.

That was not the first time Candy had called me a liar.  She had
previously insisted that I had blocked one of her messages from this
list.  She later apologized, and I, perhaps foolishly, accepted that
apology even though it was without explanation.

I have no idea why Elizabeth or Candy have attempted to destroy my
reputation in fandom.  Fortunately, they have failed.

So I can't say that I'm sorry to see both of them gone from this list.
(Elizabeth unsubscribed over three years ago.)  I will, however,
resubscribe them if they ask, as I'm not one to ban people.