Northern California Burns!

[imported_Tom Aiello]

Lots of people are concerned about how jumpers in Northern California are conducting themselves.

I’m going to say a few things here. They’re going to piss some people off.

1) I was the one who spent six terror filled, felony arrest worthy hours working out an elevator. If anyone has a right to get mad, it’s me (or maybe Yexotay, who was the only one of you with the testicular fortitude to come out and be lookout).
2) When some of my friends had trouble on that elevator, trying to run it without contacting me, I immediately forgave and forgot.
3) Every object on earth gets burnt sooner or later. It just happens. Someone makes a mistake, or someone just has bad luck.
4) Northern California has so many active jumpers--and visitors who know where things are--that there is no way the regular objects can avoid heat. Stop complaining and get used to it.
5) If we all get as pissy as seventh grade girls, all that will happen is we won’t talk, and we’ll make things worse by not cooperating.
6) The immature backbiting and sniping that normally mature people spew out on this board makes me sick.

I have jumped with most every one of you. I like most every one of you. I owe most every one of you.

Why can’t we be the same cool, accepting, and forgiving adults in cyberspace as we are in real life?

--Tom Aiello
tbaiello@mac.com

P.S. Whoever posted that ##### about "if you were cool, you'd meet the guy with the key" was being an ass. Sharing was taught in kindergarten, not for moral reasons, but because cooperation is efficient. Having people climb a tower that you have a key to is a dumb, immature practical joke, worthy of a spoiled fourth grader. All it will do is make your precious elevator more likely to burn because more people will spend more time on the tower.

P.P.S. Sorry for the uncharacteristic on-line profanity and rage. I'm just a wee bit irritated. Please forgive me in advance--it's been a bad, bad month for all of us.

[guest]

yo tom. although we've never met, i say thanks for speaking your peace and telling it like it is!
c-ya

[d-dog]

>P.S. Whoever posted that ##### about "if you
>were cool, you'd meet the guy with the key" was
>being an ass. Sharing was taught in
>kindergarten, not for moral reasons, but because
>cooperation is efficient. Having people climb a
>tower that you have a key to is a dumb, immature
>practical joke, worthy of a spoiled fourth
>grader. All it will do is make your precious
>elevator more likely to burn because more people
>will spend more time on the tower.

I disagree. As someone who's done the time and taken the risk to procure one key myself (to date) and opened several other local objects, I don't feel an ethical need to share unhindered, unescorted access with anyone who demands it. The more a key is shared, the more people are jumping - people are lazy and don't like to climb or work out a key themselves (in the case of a B). The more an object is jumped, the sooner it gets burned (as you said yourself). Worse, all it takes is for a key to get into the hands of one patently irresponsible jumper and burning is all but certainly going to be the result.

I know of no As that have remained unburned once numerous copies of keys have been circulated. Perhaps there are examples of which I am not aware. Conversely, I know of only a few examples of burning on As where keys were closely managed. Random coincidence? Not likely.

Look, respect is reciprocal. Here in the PNW, we'll drop everything we're doing and give a local tour to any visitors who drop in to say hello. That is, IF they show the respect to contact us and work within our parameters on objects. If we say something is too hot to jump during the day, or in certain conditions, we mean it. We're local, we know the objects better than anyone in the world.

If you were to decide to go out and jump an object outside of our suggestions and knowledge, whether you burned it or not I'd rescind my offer to show you around elsewhere. You could always stumble about and try to find sites from scractch, but my experience is that disrespectful people rarely take time and energy to develop objects. If you were warned not to burn a cherished object and did in fact burn it for us locals, then you'd best be looking over your shoulder for a long time to come.

Anyway, the point is that very, very few visitors are disrespectful to us - and we are always respectful to those who are respectful to us. Works great. However, trust and respect are earned and someone turning up on my doorstep (local or otherwise) asking for keys without demonstrating basic etiquette would be politely declined. We'll take you out and treat you to a jump if you are up to it, but you have to earn the keys through your actions and respect of our objects and our local community.

Yes, I understand that our wonderful PNW is a far cry from overflowing Norcal, so in that sense maybe I'm off base. However, assuming that keys are automatically community property seems to ignore the reality of the give-and-take of self-management and community-based standards development.

Peace,

D-d0g
ddog@wrinko.com
www.wrinko.com

[imported_Tom Aiello]

Whoa, Doug. Maybe you misunderstood me. No one ever said anything about unhindered, unescorted access.

I gave keys to no one. Not even Yex, who risked his own butt to get them.

What I took offense to was the "if you were cool" attitude. That belongs in grade school.

I did show several people how to operate the equipment on the (good, I think) premise that everyone on the load had to know how to put the 'vator to bed in the event that one (of my mandatory three, if you wanted to ride) lookouts called abort.

Look at it this way. It's not like if I rolled up and popped CP four times at middday. It'd be more like if Slim did it. What's your position then?

I just hate these family squabbles. Especially at times (like now) when we all have way more important things on our minds.

--Tom Aiello
tbaiello@mac.com

[guest]

yexotay,
we are trying to unlock a rather large A here in the southeast. Could you post a email or number so I could talk to you in further detail about alternative methods

Base 626

[guest]

Hey dude,
Email me if you are serious, I can help
saffirepilot@aol.com
BASE 700

[A]

joelbroadbent@hotmail.com

[guest]

showing your true colors.
A f(cken suck a$$.
Go on then get f(cken mean.

[guest]

Mean to me is not violence or hate. This is petty and yes I jumped right in the middle of it. Say what you will and I will too.

[guest]

One more thing. I might be the weakest link in many peoples lives. I am learning as I said before and maybe it is to embrace silence and treat the base world with more respect, I don't know. I think that I am learning that everything is taken out of context here.

[guest]

I think you said it once "keep your friends close and your enemies even closer."

[d-dog]

Understood and accepted. And I agree that petty squabbles come off as being even more tinny-sounding than usual nowadays.

Peace,

D-d0g
ddog@wrinko.com
www.wrinko.com