ADMIN/MEMB: Prospective Members

[Cindy C.]

Hey,

Thanks for staying on top of all of this, Tom.

> -Michelle Apostolides (AKA pinguthegreek) requested membership a 
> while ago. 

Hey, guys?

Seriously, I am somewhat puzzled by this.  I pay reasonably close
attention to posts on this list, and I do not recall seeing any
request from Michelle at any time to join this list.  I remember
seeing one from Kelley and one from Carolyn, but nothing from Michelle
is coming to mind.  Now Tom is referencing Michelle's request, and I
am feeling seriously out of the loop on this issue.  Did this request
occur off-list or on MEG?  What did it *say?*  Would someone *please*
forward Michelle's original message (or anything else from her on the
subject) seeking to join us here so that we'll all have the same base
of information?  

I ask the question for a reason, actually.  As things stand, the only
rationale I recall hearing for Michelle's candidacy in August was the
she might wish to "observe* or some such.  Personally, I am not keen
on the idea of admitting folks to this list to observe, lurk or even
link-check at this point.  I really think our priority ought to be
rounding up a replacement for Porphyria, which has been pending a very
long time, and finding people who will join and actually put pen to
paper expeditiously.  If Michelle were interested back in August to
follow the difficulties here out of curiousity or something along
those lines, then this would cause me considerable concern.

Like I have said many times, this is not personal.  But what I'm
perhaps seeing is that Michelle declined repeated invitations to join
this group over the course of about two years IIRC (Penny made at
least one all-hands call for MEG volunteers and I made several on
MEG), but became interested at a rather awkward time.  I'd love to get
more information about what exactly was going on there, and I think it
quite appropriate to ask for this information given that we are
evaluating her candidacy.


Tom wrote (on Grey Wolf):

>I agree that he has difficulties with English and that his posts
>aren't always entirely coherent.  <snip evaluation>

You know, I'm leaning thumbs down here.  Like I said, I am really
hoping we'll bring in strong writers, as that is our main need
(although in the back of my mind I have the feeling that Wolf is a
techie and might make a good Webmaster for the FPs).  If he's not a
techie, then the question remains whether his writing would be up to
scratch.  I suspect it would not be, based on my experience with
Grey's writing.

Well, perhaps we could edit his stuff and improve it?  I am reluctant
to endorse anyone whose stuff we must improve before it is posted. 
Some people can be very territorial about their writing and can
bristle when their work is changed.  A few items submitted for HA were
not up to scratch, and finding a way to edit them without offending
the author was not easy -- and HA entries are much shorter than FPs.

Also, when someone uploads something for review, it really is best to
upload it as quickly as possible to keep things rolling rather than
engage in extensive 38-way editing.  We've never had much of a problem
with the quality of the writing of anyone here, and I'd like that not
to change.  

<brightly>

But if he does come here, he has now read all of my, er, candid
negative comments on MEG about his elf candidacy.  I'm thinking his
winter coat must be kinda thick by now!  :-D

Tom (on Carolyn and Kelley):

>I AM NOT for Carolyn and Kelley if the only reason they want to be
>members is because of Carolyn's proposed project, because I do not
>think that we should be taking on any additional projects at this
>time.

I agree with Tom's analysis of the issue (although I only snipped this
little bit of Tom's post).  I *really* don't want us to take on a huge
side job like this, but if they want to write FPs instead, I would
defer because I'm not really all that familiar with the posts of
either one of them.  (Is Carolyn the alchemy person who coined
Stoned!Harry, or is this someone different?  I may have more to add if
she's the Stoned!Harry originator.)

Cindy