4 May
2015
4 May
'15
7:56 a.m.
[Yes, I'm top-posting after re-threading...unusual for me, that's for
certain, but this isn't the sort of thing I'd normally post and I want my
response to this up top.]
Mr. Brutman,
This thread was pretty well over and done with until your post below. Your
reply is in no way helpful, nor can it be taken as any sort of "peace
offering" with regards to the long-running feud between yourself and Mr.
Stein. I am also not about to allow your comment of "There are people
writing me notes of encouragement too." to stand.
To clarify for others unaware, knowing both parties involved, I contacted
both privately earlier last week and heard both "sides" of the story.
As far as I'm concerned, neither of you are blameless. You both have a
history of goading at each other and the forum link below and many other
public exchanges between the two of you make that quite clear. Heck, the
emails I received independently from the both of you try quite hard to
manipulate the facts and paint yourselves as being victims of each other.
Mr. Stein, you had to know you were going to piss Mr. Brutman off again
with that last forum exchange and get him to ban you. Mr. Brutman, you had
to know banning Mr. Stein was only going to cause this to flare up again.
Neither of you are victims and neither of you are blameless.
As I've previously mentioned to both of you, the two of you either need to
hash this out and squash it, or you need to ignore each other
completely...don't reply to, acknowledge, or even read each others' posts,
pretend the other party doesn't even exist.
While I think it would probably be better if you both could settle your
differences, if there is an inherent personality conflict, the two of you
may have to just settle for ignoring each other completely.
Stop squabbling like a couple of children. [Mooooommmmy, so-and-so put
bugs in my hair!] You are both grown ass men...settle this and act like
it.
On Sun, 3 May 2015, Michael Brutman wrote:
On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 2:05 PM, Mike Stein
<mhs.stein at gmail.com> wrote:
As some of you know, Mike Brutman recently kicked
me off Erik Klein's
excellent Vintage Computer Forum, for no reason other than Mike's ego
and the chip on his shoulder as far as I and the folks who wrote me
unsolicited notes of support can tell:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?45454-5162-serial-po…
Apparently some folks also wrote to Erik on my behalf, but he's chosen
to not reply...
Be that as it may and aside from the embarrassment and Mike's insults,
no problem; more time to spend elsewhere and an excuse to finally get
rid of the PC-related systems, motherboards, cards, disks & drives,
docs etc. that I've been hanging on to for close to 40 years in case
someone might need/want something some day.
But being cut off arbitrarily and without warning or recourse from my
contacts and email archive at VCF might affect some other folks; among
other things, I have here, boxed and ready for shipping to someone on
VCF but no idea to whom, the following items:
Not to add too much to the drama but I don't think this should go unsaid:
1. It saddens me that part of your hobby is being ruined for you. You know
what? It saddens other people that you are ruining things for them too.
So stop with the constant nitpicking and snark, especially when replying to
people you already "have a history" with, and things like this won't
happen. Nobody is winning here.
2. The history is much longer and much deeper than the referenced thread.
Pointing out the tip of the iceberg and commenting on how that should not
have sunk a ship is deceptive. This history goes back four years and it
involves a few other members too. The cycle of flare-up, bans,
discussions, and un-bans has gotten old. And none of it has been done in a
vacuum - Erik is usually involved.
3. You consider my behavior insulting? I consider your behavior insulting
too. There are people writing me notes of encouragement too. None of this
means anything.
4. I've contacted Erik (again) to have him make a decision. He is not
responding, so I assume he is attending to real life. Want back in? Fine,
let's talk in private - mbbrutman at gmail.com. Or wait for Erik.