Phantom Exclusivity
"Sorry, I'm just a test rider I don't condone the trails there enough to put any manual labor into them. Beam me up scotty... aw, you're right, I probably wouldn't fit into your little club."
- Tim S on Sept 17 posting on a now-closed MORC forum thread
I've stopped being surprised when someone comes from out-of-the blue to complain about something that hasn't happened yet, won't happen and didn't even happen in the past. Take Tim here. He moseyed on into the MORC MTB discussion forums, found the heated debate on the future of the Theodore Wirth off-road cycling trails.
Tim focused in on the Brownie Lake section of the current, unofficial trails and immediately started having an argument with … well, we’re not sure whom yet. Not only did Tim spout the same ignorant garbage about how the trails are fine and aren’t eroding except for what a local retail company did, but he went on to assume that he had no say in the future of the trails.
According to him, the plans were laid down for the future of Brownie Lake and the Theo Wirth trails long ago and MORC and MOCA are just playing into some big, political machine and blah blah blah … I know, the whole thing reads like a freshman poli sci major’s first D- paper with a note from the professor asking “Did you read the material?”
All that I’d heard before and all of us who work on the trails are blue in the face from telling people they’ve got it wrong. We’re not dumbing down the trails. We want to keep Brownie as much the same as it is now as we can, only non-eroding. The trails will be closed if we don’t do something about it. Everyone is invited to volunteer time, sweat and everything else into the trail design, but few do. It’s like that all falls on deaf ears.
But, then he said the above quote. Obviously, he seemed to decide right away that we were some exclusive club that you had to be cool enough to be part of. Before we ever heard of this guy, he’d heard of us and decided we were not only pawns of a large, oppressive bureaucratic machine but we were a tight-nit clique of popular kids. Every day at lunch we’re sitting at the choice table laughing it up and enjoying ourselves while he sits in the corner by himself, eating his cornbread and drinking his chocolate milk in solitude. One day he’d show us. He’ll grow up and be rich and famous and we’ll all wish we’d been his friend back when.
Of course I know where he gets this feeling. There are pages upon pages of threads on the MORC forums of us talking sense into people who come to us with similar attitudes. It’s very easy to think we’re close-minded groupthinkers who can’t take criticism.
Are we at fault for this? Should we be nicer to people and say things like “We appreciate your feedback and understand your concerns …” and then try to calmly rationalize with them? We’ve been there and done that.
I’ve lashed out at my fair share of newcomers who treat us as adversaries immediately partially out of my own frustration but mostly out of purposeful intent. It’s tough love. Every time I say something calm, reasoned and placating to these people they immediately label me as part of that big, oppressive system they mistakenly think they’re fighting against. They want someone to shout and fight back at them, but expect a lot of dismissive, pretend friend talk, so I give them what they want not what they expect.
Every time I reply with “You’re a fucking moron!” they’ll probably just get more pissed … but at least we don't sound like bureaucrats.
- Tim S on Sept 17 posting on a now-closed MORC forum thread
I've stopped being surprised when someone comes from out-of-the blue to complain about something that hasn't happened yet, won't happen and didn't even happen in the past. Take Tim here. He moseyed on into the MORC MTB discussion forums, found the heated debate on the future of the Theodore Wirth off-road cycling trails.
Tim focused in on the Brownie Lake section of the current, unofficial trails and immediately started having an argument with … well, we’re not sure whom yet. Not only did Tim spout the same ignorant garbage about how the trails are fine and aren’t eroding except for what a local retail company did, but he went on to assume that he had no say in the future of the trails.
According to him, the plans were laid down for the future of Brownie Lake and the Theo Wirth trails long ago and MORC and MOCA are just playing into some big, political machine and blah blah blah … I know, the whole thing reads like a freshman poli sci major’s first D- paper with a note from the professor asking “Did you read the material?”
All that I’d heard before and all of us who work on the trails are blue in the face from telling people they’ve got it wrong. We’re not dumbing down the trails. We want to keep Brownie as much the same as it is now as we can, only non-eroding. The trails will be closed if we don’t do something about it. Everyone is invited to volunteer time, sweat and everything else into the trail design, but few do. It’s like that all falls on deaf ears.
But, then he said the above quote. Obviously, he seemed to decide right away that we were some exclusive club that you had to be cool enough to be part of. Before we ever heard of this guy, he’d heard of us and decided we were not only pawns of a large, oppressive bureaucratic machine but we were a tight-nit clique of popular kids. Every day at lunch we’re sitting at the choice table laughing it up and enjoying ourselves while he sits in the corner by himself, eating his cornbread and drinking his chocolate milk in solitude. One day he’d show us. He’ll grow up and be rich and famous and we’ll all wish we’d been his friend back when.
Of course I know where he gets this feeling. There are pages upon pages of threads on the MORC forums of us talking sense into people who come to us with similar attitudes. It’s very easy to think we’re close-minded groupthinkers who can’t take criticism.
Are we at fault for this? Should we be nicer to people and say things like “We appreciate your feedback and understand your concerns …” and then try to calmly rationalize with them? We’ve been there and done that.
I’ve lashed out at my fair share of newcomers who treat us as adversaries immediately partially out of my own frustration but mostly out of purposeful intent. It’s tough love. Every time I say something calm, reasoned and placating to these people they immediately label me as part of that big, oppressive system they mistakenly think they’re fighting against. They want someone to shout and fight back at them, but expect a lot of dismissive, pretend friend talk, so I give them what they want not what they expect.
Every time I reply with “You’re a fucking moron!” they’ll probably just get more pissed … but at least we don't sound like bureaucrats.
posted by Chris Druckenmiller | 11:18 AM
1 Comments:
Chris, your blog is great! It is amusing to see what type of random things you all deal w/ at MOCA. Unfortunately since MOCA is spearheading the effort to keep Theo Wirth open they are also the first place someone will point his or her finger when change happens. Even with all of the logic behind why things have been changed most people are uninformed or have heard second hand information that is wrong. Keep up the good work at MOCA, I appreciate having a trail with in a 15 minute ride from my house.
Your blog might not be going over well with everyone based on MORC forums. The issue seems to be the direct connection between MOCA and your blog. This blog is an outlet for your frustration which I am sure a lot of people involved with MOCA feel, but not everyone wants to say. A simple solution would be to separate your blog from MOCA. Just make it Chris’ Blog and leave the MOCA part out. Also, it might help if you don’t post the name and city of the person who writes dumb stuff in the forums. If you have a real amusing quote from someone use his or her initials or say in your blog “…let’s refer to him/ her as Donald.” Those that know the forums will know who you are talking about. This way you can voice you opinion and frustration w/ out worrying about it being labeled as MOCA's or MORC's opinion.
I hope I have not over stepped my boundaries w/ my advice. I just really enjoyed your blog and would like to see more. If not feel free to delete this comment… no feelings hurt.
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