As I have watched this discussion it would seem to me that one of the inherent problems in the hobby is that we are sending pieces of ourselves, those little boxes we have invested our time, talent and heart in, out into the world. Sometimes the locations are at a far distance from us. As soon as that box is placed and the clues posted, we all lose a fair amount of control over the box. There are those who choose to only disseminate their clues by word of mouth and do not post them to the site, thereby limiting and controlling the situation to a point. But even in those situations, those clues can be passed by word of mouth in ways the placer had not intended. I guess what I am trying to say is that with this many people (just how many is it?) involved in the sport, and growing exponentially, it is a given that many will not have as much say over how their boxes are treated as they might wish. Boxes get vandalized, clues are inadvertantly divulged, boxes are not rehidden well.
Unless you have to come to my door and ask to stamp in to my letterbox, I cannot control the future of my letterbox. We can share the "etiquette" of letterboxing, but we cannot force people to abide by it.
I have one other comment. As with any group I have been involved with I really bristle at the term "newbie". To my thinking it is totally pejorative and serves no purpose other than as a put down. In scanning the very first posts on the list I see only one name that still appears from time to time now - that being Randy Hall. So unless you can claim to be either Randy or the Orient Express, Vermont Viking, or Moorland Wizard - we are all newbies.
And by the way, within one month of beginning the talk list there had already been two "discussions" over differing opinions. One ended in a seeming concensus that no one would ever want to see "cyber boxes" be part of the letterboxing experience!
Memlili
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
The Continuing Discussion
2 messages in this thread |
Started on 2003-08-13
The Continuing Discussion
From: Mary Ellen Martel (memlili54@yahoo.com) |
Date: 2003-08-13 04:08:26 UTC-07:00
Re: The Continuing Discussion
From: Brian, Ryan & Lori (bconnoll@marksonrosenthal.com) |
Date: 2003-08-13 13:47:27 UTC
--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, Mary Ellen Martel
wrote:
As with any group I have been involved with I really bristle at the
term "newbie". To my thinking it is totally pejorative and serves no
purpose other than as a put down.
I'm glad someone else feels this way about the term . When I first
heard it in the military it absolutly was a negative term . You where
a " newbie " to some people till you got " short " . Meaning you
where getting ready to leave . Which seems to be the trend here .
Brian
TeamGreenDragon
As with any group I have been involved with I really bristle at the
term "newbie". To my thinking it is totally pejorative and serves no
purpose other than as a put down.
I'm glad someone else feels this way about the term . When I first
heard it in the military it absolutly was a negative term . You where
a " newbie " to some people till you got " short " . Meaning you
where getting ready to leave . Which seems to be the trend here .
Brian
TeamGreenDragon