From: hbh@athena.mit.edu (Heidi Hammel)
Subject: A Wheel post
Organization: Massachvsetts Institvte of Technology
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1992 02:03:34 GMT

Dear folks on r.m.gd,

Most of you couldn't care less about this, and if you can't just
"hit 'n'" to skip it, sorry to take up your time.

For those who *do* care: Ok, ok, we hear you!  Yes, there is a list
called the Wheel.  Yes, it was secret for a while and that made some
people unhappy.  Yes, about 3% of our total past volume was discussion
of expansion issues and such.  Folks, one person had a problem with a
private mailing list.  That person chose not to work with the other
folks in the list to resolve it, but instead brought it to you. A few
others here (non-participants in the list) took his "expose" and ran
with it, feeding you just enough information to fan a hate campaign.
More and more people are jumping to conclusions with no first-hand
knowledge of the situation.

The Wheel is simply a collection of friends who seek to engage in an
ongoing conversation about diverse topics that interest us: from the
Dead to houses to gardens to cats to weddings etc. We wanted a forum
with more intimacy.  If r.m.gd is a concert, then the Wheel is a house
party.  Concerts are great, but house parties are fun too.

The Wheel is not a substitute for rec.music.gdead.  It is just
different.  Some of us continue to read and post in r.m.gd. 
Some don't. Some never did in the first place.

Many of us had friends that we wanted to include, but the limits of our
own time and of the machine we reside on, and our desire to maintain an
intimate forum, meant that we had to limit our size. We have continued
to grow over time, but the process has been difficult.  It was important
to us to maintain the trust we had built in each other, so we didn't
want to include new people with whom a participant had a personal conflict. 

Now listen close, folks: we made mistakes.  Some of the conflicts were
discussed publicly in our group. We regret this, and have learned from
it and have moved beyond it.  If some have felt hurt by the existence
of the Wheel: that was never intended.  We are sad that some here in
r.m.gd -- in the absence of knowledge and on the basis of words presented
out of context -- have chosen to believe the worst, and through their
harsh words have caused pain to many blameless individuals.

You know many of us.  If the Wheel were one fraction the evil, malicious
place it has been described as being, do you think we would continue to
be a part of it?  The vast majority of us are happy with it, and those
who feel uncomfortable about certain aspects have, with this one exception,
either worked within the group to make it a better place or simply moved on.  

It seems very, very likely that there are a few people who are going to
continue to spread misinformation about the Wheel and use it as bait for
a flame war. It is fairly clear that some are ready and waiting for a
response from the Wheel, so that they can murder us.  Some of us have
already felt so provoked that they have posted on their own.  Rather than
have each one of us stand up and be flamed individually, we chose to save
the bandwidth.  And the Wheel *will* be flamed, scorched, toasted, and
burned for this post, for any other post we may have posted, or for not
posting an acknowledgement at all (a path that several of us wanted to
take and still believe would have been best).  So be it.  We just wanted
to set the record straight, as we see it.  Those here with open minds
can make their own judgements.

If you see friends listed below and you fear that they have suddenly
become evil incarnate, or you simply want to hear their side of the
story, please talk to them!  We have nothing to hide.  The list below is
not complete for several reasons.  Many people were not currently on-line
and it would not be fair to list them without their permission.  Sadly,
a few are afraid to put their names here because they feel they will
continue to be misjudged or abused (a justifiable fear, in light of
some recent comments and actions in r.m.gd).  Other people have their
own reasons not to sign.  We respect their choice.

Ann Terese Heil   Beth Rosenfeld   Bill Weisman     bongo
Bonnie Petheram   Catherine Yang   Cindy Loiselle   Eric Fischer
Erik Sowa         Glen Wheless     Heidi Hammel     Jean Richter
Joanne Petersen   Lee Fife         Leora Lawton     Louis Marco
Mark Weber        Philip Williams  Phil Mercurio    Randy Jackson
Timothy Dalton    Tom Clark        Walt Engelund    Taro Tsuzuki (MoBo)
Mark Boronkay     Jeff Loomis      Richard Baum      

and others
--

    Heidi B. Hammel   (hbh@astron.mit.edu)   MIT 54-416   EAPS Dept.
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead