Mar 18 2008

I know I shouldn’t

…but, like the proverbial trainwreck, it’s compulsive. And leaves one with a nasty taste in one’s mouth.

OrbitTrap is, still, going out of its way to make mountains out of molehills and proving itself a master of misinterpretation, spin and delusion. It’s all very well people ignoring them but alternative views can, and should, be visible. Which is not likely to happen actually at OT as long as they continue to moderate all posts and not publish ones expressing contrary opinions, or simply ban the people who disagree with them.

So I’m going to bore the pants off you all in the near future with my views on the calendar and BMFAC but you could do a lot worse than read the comprehensive posts Ken’s already made at Escape to Infinity.

In the meantime, this is what I posted a few minutes ago which is presently in moderation limbo. Any bets on whether it gets published or not?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: if you are so very concerned with the manner in which fractal art is presented to the general public, and with the type of art which is presented, then DO something positive about it yourselves instead of whinging about one publication.

There are enough people who use deviantART or Zazzle or any one of many printing services to create and publish their own calendars: you could do that. Offer them for sale, publicise it via this blog and sit back and wait for your silent readership to knock you over in the rush to buy.

Posted in Fractal Art, Grumping

by Gill

4 comments

March 19, 2008 - 8:37 pm

ID - I’m shocked! Are you trying to deny these poor addicts the cut-and-thrust of the eternal one-sided whinge? I do hope there’s going to be a BMFAC 2008: they’ve kept their foetid little flame alight for a year now, by sheltering it from the tempest. Some fresh material, though, will no doubt help it to burn brightly once more. And yet… is there not a Zen koan concerning whether the tree that falls in an empty forest makes a sound? The only sensible response to OT is to unsubscribe from the feed, never visit and allow the flame to die quietly, unseen, as the teacup-storm finally blethers itself out of existence.

March 20, 2008 - 8:13 pm

Ken - Ideally, you are correct. It would be best if no one visited them and their feed and visitor numbers plummeted. However, there are too many curious voyeurs (I say that because you won’t see any comments anymore, so by definition readers there are voyeurs), that will drive by to see what the latest nonsense being posted is.

A perfectly reasonable response is to ignore them. The other perfectly reasonable response is to meet them head on. That is what I chose to do, first in comments and now independently. There was another famous trouble maker that used to be on the UF list. He would routinely criticize UF and users on the UF list. It was only by taking him on that he has now virtually disappeared from the fractal scene. So, sometimes you have to engage the bully to get him to stop. In the current case, the bullies have created a safe haven for themselves and can pat themselves on the back and be proud with all their “silent” support.

March 22, 2008 - 3:04 pm

Gill - I agree, Ian, that ideally they would be left alone to fester in some dark corner of cyberspace where they can continue to spew their bile & nonsense unheard. But I also agree with Ken that as long as they have a high profile and as long as they continue to slag off people’s reputations and ethics, then opposing views should also be made public.

March 25, 2008 - 9:35 am

ID - These situations are always difficult. But as you cannot meet them head-on, then their little empire remains the pristine showcase of their opinion. I am inclined to quote this nugget from Philip K. Dick’s ‘Valis’:

“To fight the Empire is to be infected by its derangement. This is a paradox: whoever defeats a segment of the Empire becomes the Empire; it proliferates like a virus, imposing its form on its enemies. Thereby it becomes its enemies.”

I think the tone at OT defines the agenda: no-one with a discerning mind can be swayed by that kind of rubbish. Those that are would be anyway. It is no doubt an attractor for the opinionated and the pathologically disillusioned. Yet it has a kind of negative attraction for others, which it feeds on. Remove this totally, and it will eventually slip into obscurity. Time, and patience…

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