Typophile - Hello, I must be going - Comments

First of all, and last of

James Arboghast — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 06:56:25 -0700

First of all, and last of all—-cut the cards!

This isn’t really a discussion thread. It’s a goodbye for the time being thread. The best thing to do now is stop posting on it. That’s all well-wishing we need for the time being.

Eben: *He can correct me if I am putting false words in his mouth when he gets back, but I I think I am very probably on safe ground here.

Very safe ground Eben. Everyone on this thread owes it to themselves to listen to what Eben is saying and take it on-board. I mean it. Let Joe’s comments stand and stop making personal remarks about him. I was uncivil and made many personal remarks about people here the other day in an attempt to draw attention to incivility and the problems that hubris creates. That was the wrong way to go about it. You may not agree with Joe but berating him for his remarks is just more incivility and does nothing to create an environment of trust and good faith.

An uncivil environment is a poor environment to discuss typography in. Yes, we all believe our view is the definitive one, but we must be as broad-minded and tolerant as possible to stay civil.

Keep in mind why you joined the community in the first place.

I’m outta here.

j a m e s

James - I wish you many

Stephen Coles — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:58:10 -0700

James - I wish you many productive and fulfilling days ahead.

1) james has been harsh and

Ch — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:25:35 -0700

1) james has been harsh and owned up to the fallibility of it all, which takes guts. i’ve known wacked-out medical pain in my day and it’s a real mood killer.

2) joeclark’s presumptive “we” and amazingly unsympathetic little rant.
speak for yourself, sir, and consider an apology.

what font says “sigh” ?

ok. Sorry. Actually, Joe is

russellm — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:08:11 -0700

ok. Sorry.

Actually, Joe is a decent, caring and highly committed guy and I like & respect him. I didn’t mean for the post I’ve just edited to bash him, but to explain that something from Joe that Patty took exception to wasn’t, in my opinion, meant to cause offense. Obviously I missed the mark.

I also like and respect James. I didn’t mean for my contributions to this thread to take anything away from what he has to say, I had hoped to sort of disarm Joe’s negative remarks a little bit with my first post here.

-=®=-

In order to deal out the

jupiterboy — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 19:39:21 -0700

In order to deal out the shame you need to establish yourself in a Beta role. Maybe Joe, as an aspiring alpha, is out of the bounds. And now I’ve highjacked another thread and crossed Eben’s advise. Glad I’m not really a wolf.

Thomas, Patty, Russelll, I

Eben Sorkin — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:55:28 -0700

Thomas, Patty, Russelll,

I know I can’t prevent you or anyone from giving Joe what for except to make some points which either will or won’t make sense to you.

Some of this might sound like my trying to “teach your grandma to suck eggs”. But isn’t meant as condescension. Instead I am trying to see if I can (re)establish common/shared ideas about this.

a) It’s James’ thread not Joe’s and the more you ( or anyone ) pounds away at Joe the more it becomes about Joe albeit in a negative way. To me this seems unfortunate. This was in part the reason I asked James to make his own thread - this thread.

b) A very related point is that information which is too random/mixed becomes less valuable to the users of Typophile. Granted this isn’t a Type heavy thread, (it’s personal) but the point is applicable to Typophile threads in general.

This why the guidelines say Don’t hijack other threads:
Don’t post irrelevant queries within another thread; create a new thread. You can post a new topic by scrolling to the bottom of one of the main forum pages and clicking on the “Post a new topic” link.

b) James himself* is an advocate of avoiding extending conflicts bad feelings on Typophile or elsewhere. One way of extending these bad feelings is to reply to negativity with ire even if you are fully justified.

d) That Typophile is a bit too full of “pounding” is in part why James is taking a break.

Typophile will be the kind of place we make collectively it.

Agree or disagree but please make a new thread about it if you want to reply to me. It’s valid to link to that new thread here.

*He can correct me if I am putting false words in his mouth when he gets back, but I I think I am very probably on safe ground here.

Eben, Sure there is a need

Thomas Phinney — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:53:15 -0700

Eben,

Sure there is a need to pound Joe. He seemed to be claiming to speak for the entire Typophile community in insulting James as to what “we” “don’t need or want.”

James A has irked me on a couple of occasions, but here he is making a public apology for something, and sharing some personal information. I appreciate both of those choices, and I see them as reflecting humility and humanity rather than egotism. I certainly don’t appreciate somebody else seeming to think they can speak for the entire Typophile community in putting James down for doing this.

But then again, maybe this just means I’m part of the cabal? :) (Just teasing, really.)

Cheers,

Eben, Joe Clark has managed

pattyfab — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 11:19:57 -0700

Eben, Joe Clark has managed to rub some of us the wrong way in other contexts. He asked me for a favor recently and then proceeded to condescend to me and lecture me on email etiquette. It was by far the most unpleasant exchange I have ever had with a fellow Typophile. And now he insults a respected typophile who is going through hard times.

I say pound away!

Re: Joe Clark’s comments.

Eben Sorkin — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:46:16 -0700

Re: Joe Clark’s comments. It’s okay for him to have an opinion even if you don’t agree. There is no need to pound him.

“I could eat alphabet soup

Chipman223 — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 22:27:43 -0700

“I could eat alphabet soup and crap out a better font than that”

... Wish all we aspiring typographers could say the same. Best of luck in all, and thanks for all the insight.

I’m a mimbo in a tux

SuperUltraFabulous — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 01:21:22 -0700

I’m a mimbo in a tux too!!!

I personally know what it means to experience extreme tooth pain- hope you feel better soon. And Typophile is a real time waster too. My ass is so flat from sitting in front of my mac (and I was born with a flat ass anyway)- its gonna start caving in- a concave ass imagine that!

Resist the temptation to check back. Its the same ’ol stuff and fonts are material things anyway. Take a break and enjoy your friend that is battling cancer for as long as he can hang in there.

All my best,

Mikey :-)

Joe Clark... You are as scathing as you are relevant. Try harder next time.

Mr. James, even the

AGL — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:06:21 -0700

Mr. James, even the strangers wish you the best. Be well! Relax... (if you dare).

Andre

Joe Clark, that was

Chris G — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:43:01 -0700

Joe Clark, that was detestable.

(Anyone who wrote “I could

David R — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:41:28 -0700

(Anyone who wrote “I could eat alphabet soup and crap out a better font than that” would be missed.)

>> hahaha, excellent.

take care james, and if you can find the time, at least, to let us know about your health from time to time, that would be greatly appreciated by some, including me.

-ps- i’m always happy to learn some stuff. today, i learn that the guy who’s organizing the typeface of toronto subway is a jerk. bad luck for canada.

Best wishes as always,

rcc — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:06:26 -0700

Best wishes as always, James. And hurry back, dang it. You’ll be missed. (Anyone who wrote “I could eat alphabet soup and crap out a better font than that” would be missed.)

Cheers,
Richard

Hello, I must be going

James Arboghast — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:26:07 -0700

I’m posting a new thread to prevent further disruption of the thread on embeddable web fonts. My posts on that one were disruptive and harsh, and I apologize to Typophile’s members and moderators for that.

My sincere apologies to Sii for subjecting him to prolonged scrutiny. I can see now that I overreacted. Let’s forgive each other and put it all behind us.

I will be taking a break from Typophile over the next four months. I’ve got so much work on my hands I can’t spare the time, and it pays to be pragmatic when grappling with the slippery dynamics of online fora. Life can be very strange at times. I’ve had eight of my teeth extracted in the past six weeks. That’s six weeks of swollen gums and throbbing pain as the gums heal. I’ll have dentures fitted around about May. A musician friend of mine is dying from cancer right now and it’s making me miserable. Life can be very strange.

Before I depart, I want to thank the following people:

* Tiffany for her good grace, marvellous judgement and big heart
* Eben for his practical outlook and solid moderating skills
* Stewf for his coolness and ongoing support of my type career
* Dan Reynolds for his very existence—-you’re a beautiful person Dan and I like you
* Nick Shinn, John Hudson, William and Hrant for their immense knowledge and experience
* Ricardo and Chris Lozos for their generosity and wonderful humour
* Linda and Patty for their great artistry and professionalism
* James Puckett for his dynamism and obvious potential
* Ben Mitchell and Jelmar for being great sponges and teaching me how better to teach type design
* Darrel, Haley, Zara, Yves, Russell, Tim Daley, Paul Hunt, Sharon, Richard Kegler, Joshua and every other regular here—-you’re all wonderful people whose hearts are in the right place
* Everybody else I’ve conversed with, whether we’ve agreed or disagreed, that’s not the point. The point is it’s all good. You are all good people who expand my mind and strengthen my heart
* Most of all to Joe for making it all possible.

I’ll leave you with the words to the chorus from the Stone Temple Pilots song Still Remains, written by Scott Weiland. It’s very significant for me right now because I don’t know how long the repaired arteries inside my head are going to last. I’m experiencing head pains every time I cough lately. That’s a bad sign, and if one of ’em bursts I’ll probably die. I’m not kidding, nor am I making it up to get sympathy. Life can be very strange.

Pick a song and sing a yellow nectarine
Take a bath I’ll drink the water that you leave
If you should die before me ask if you can bring a friend
Pick a flower hold your breath and drift away

While I’m away, please keep in mind one thing: It’s the spirit of the rules that counts, not the letter.

j a m e s