RE: beans and JSPs and stuff...

Thanks to everyone who commented, both pro and con, about the recent debate.  
Let me state this: in my opinion, the tone of the conversation, not the 
content, was out of line.  Brad and I see things from completely different 
viewpoints.  Heck, he's published a book on e-RPG, I've published a book on 
JSP/servlets.  He's a regular contributor to RPGenerationX, I'm the moderator 
of JAVA400-L.  He's got an RPG tool that converts spool files to PDF (I think 
SPLTOOL is RPG, anyway); I've got a Java tool that does the same.

It's inevitable that we clash in our viewpoints.  And a healthy, vigorous 
discourse between the two of us would in fact be a good thing for this list.  
It's when the interaction devolves into a more personal, more acrimonious 
debate that things get out of hand.  Brad and I have talked offline and we're 
trying to reach a common ground.  At the same time, I urge those of you who've 
been put off by the recent coommentary to try and look past the personal 
animosity and read the content - it was quite enlightening, and in my opinion, 
absolutely essential for the future of the AS/400 as a web-enabled machine.

I will attempt to be more professional in my demeanor, and I'm sure Brad will, 
too.  We happen to hit each other's buttons, and have for some time now, and I 
apologize that it was to the deteriment of the list.  As moderator, it's my job 
to curtail these problems, not contribute to them <wry grin>.

And along those lines, let's try to keep the off-topic chatter to a minimum.  
I'd say that if an offtopic conversation goes beyond one response, it's time to 
close it down.  I'm just as guilty as anyone else, so this will be my personal 
guideline: if I happen to make an off-topic remark, and someone responds, I 
will do my very best to not respond again.  So don't take it personally if I 
don't continue an offtopic thread <smile>.  On the other hand, if you DO want 
to pursue something offtopic, feel free to drop a private email - this is not 
an anonymous list, so you can always take conversations private.

The Turing conversation and the Stephenson conversation are good examples of 
threads that probably shouldn't continue, except in private.  So if you see an 
offtopic comment in response to another offtopic comment, try to refrain from 
adding a third post to the thread.  I will, too.

Again, apologies to those who found the repartee between Brad and I offensive 
or inappropriate.  We'll work to keep things a little calmer.  But remember 
this: if there weren't people like us who are passionate about this machine, 
then there'd be less progress.  Feel free to get a LITTLE passionate - just 
keep it friendly <smile>.

Joe Pluta
(Attempting to be a better) Moderator



---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Eyers, Daniel" <daniel.eyers@honeywell.com>
Reply-To: JAVA400-L@midrange.com
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 07:13:06 -0700

>Actually, I have found Joe's comments extremely interesting... I have
learned a great deal just from lurking...

Perhaps change the tone, but not the content.  Those who are not interested,
feel free to use the delete button...

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