Fiona Kendall-Lane

[coral]

Jason

I strongly object to being called an 'idiot'. You do not know anything about me.

Fiona was called names and accused of being a liar. You can only 'accuse' someone of being a liar if you yourself know the truth - perhaps you were the bully!

Coral

[Archaic]

Hello Jason.

I've always believed it's possible to disagree with another person's point of view, yet still remain courteous.

Best regards,
Archaic

[jason_c]

Jason

I strongly object to being called an 'idiot'. You do not know anything about me.

Fiona was called names and accused of being a liar. You can only 'accuse' someone of being a liar if you yourself know the truth - perhaps you were the bully!

Coral

You said she was bullied away from casebook. She was pulled upon a few posts she made. Her other posts were interesting stuff, wether they were true i have no idea. I did question her over the silly claims she made about who JtR was.

I said you were an idiot IF you believe she was bullied. Bullying being a serious allegation and quite objectionable.

[sdreid]

Is she one of those who said she knew who the Ripper was but refused to reveal the name after taunting us with that? If so, then I understand why that would anger some people. To me, that sort of thing looks more like a power trip than anything related to useful information.

[ChrisGeorge]

Hello Jason.

I've always believed it's possible to disagree with another person's point of view, yet still remain courteous.

Best regards,
Archaic

Hear, hear, Archaic. That has always been my Maxim. And I don't use my Maxim gun lightly.

[Carol]

What a very great pity the lady in question felt she had to leave Casebook. It was before my 'time' here and I would really love to have the chance to meet her on these boards. I'm a history fanatic (have been since the age of 7) and I've found over the years that I must find out as much as possible in order to make my own decision about past events. PLEASE COME BACK TO CASEBOOK, FIONA, as there are many 'newbies' here who would be VERY GRATEFUL! There are people on the boards 'with brainz ze zize of a pea' but we'll look after you and be firm, but polite, with them. Promise! give us your answer, do!

Also - I hope you had a lovely BIRTHDAY, Coral, on the 6th!

Love
Carol

[Carol]

Hello Jason.

I've always believed it's possible to disagree with another person's point of view, yet still remain courteous.

Best regards,
Archaic

Well said, Archaic! Couldn't have put it better myself!

Love
Carol

[Phil Carter]

Hello Chris, Archaic,

Yes agree.. but I am sorry to say some people actually think, in their childish way, that to goad a person as far as they can to get the opposite reaction, discourteousness, is some sort of major achievement. Rubbing their hands with glee sort of thing.

What some people do not take into account is that although cyberland is a (mostly) non-visual place, the way one is spoken to and how one speaks does matter. And like real life, some people have softer shells than others. So one or two comments made in anger can upset a person for a long time. Others can take more of a battering before they snap.

I would tentatively suggest that anyone new coming along with such ripe information, may not have been expecting such a response either. However, in my book, there just isn't an excuse for giving the person the feeling that they are bullied, whether it is actually what was meant or not.

But then again, a post like this will be enough for someone to say something either as a joke, a mickey-take or a chance for a free whack. Thankfully there are only a few that think that sort of behaviour is funny or indeed acceptable.

We are on a world wide public forum. The regulars on here know that there are many younger generation people from all over reading our every word. We at least, should know better than to present ourselves as any form, slight or not, comparable with literary thugs.

Which will probably be the cue for another mickey take, or "thought-of-as" funny or smart **** comment.

Thank heavens it happens less frequently than it used to. Otherwise it would just bring the reputation of the whole genre into disrepute.

That's just an observer's opinion. Put politely and quietly.


kindly

Phil

[coral]

One thing that did aanoy me at the time was when a 'newbie' started goading Fiona. I questioned the fact that it was only his/her first posting and that they really had no right to take such a stance.

The reply I received was something along the lines of - 'I've been on these boards for years. Just thought I would sign up with a new user name just to stir things up!' What a charming person.

Coral

Thanks for the birthday wishes, Carol

[Phil Carter]

Hello Coral,

Please pass on my best wishes, as you have in the past, to the lady.

kindly

Phil

[Suzi]

One thing that did aanoy me at the time was when a 'newbie' started goading Fiona. I questioned the fact that it was only his/her first posting and that they really had no right to take such a stance.

The reply I received was something along the lines of - 'I've been on these boards for years. Just thought I would sign up with a new user name just to stir things up!' What a charming person.

Coral

Thanks for the birthday wishes, Carol

Exactly Coral what a Horlicks this all was!- I sadly missed this meeting and regret it to this day!- what a shame that some of the newbie 'space cadets' here can scare off genuine people with genuine interest and more to the point lucid and sentient information on the boards!

Sure you had a great Birthday and hope you and Neil are well...see you in Oct??

Suz xx

[Archaic]

Some Personal Thoughts For Your Consideration

Hello everyone.

The incident with Fiona Kendall Lane happened before I became a member of Casebook. The threads in question seem to have been lost in the crash, so what we have left are individual memories of being offended for various reasons and a he said/she said situation. I wish the threads could be recovered so that whatever historical information they contained could be gleaned from them, though I suspect thread recovery might also reignite old arguments which are better left floating somewhere in cyberspace.

As has been mentioned, non-members reading Casebook do make certain judgments about the atmosphere here and about individual members whose posts they read. That’s just a simple fact. It behooves us to consider the impression we give to others, both for reasons of common courtesy and for reasons directly relating to the project of our individual and collective research.

I read the message boards for 2 whole years before joining because I was put off by the rudeness I observed among a very small minority of posters. I had never participated in any kind of online forum before, even My Space or Facebook, so I was extremely cautious- I had absolutely no idea what kind of people might frequent a website based upon a Victorian serial killer! I'm very glad that I did finally join Casebook, because I've learned a great deal and made many wonderful friends all over the world. But I have to admit that with my first few tentative posts I half-expected to be torn to pieces by some over-zealous, hyper-critical member. I’m happy to say that didn't happen; people were actually quite kind and welcoming, for which I am grateful.

I suspect that the fact that I observed, read and educated myself as to the facts and the atmosphere or potential atmosphere of the boards before trying to participate made a difference. I can see how someone new to Ripperology and new to the message boards might be completely unprepared for the confrontational atmosphere that flares up from time to time, where members seek to shoot each other down. I think it's hard for many of us who are so interested in Jack the Ripper to remember that most of the world doesn't share our degree of enthusiasm. We are passionate about history, we care very much about discovering who the Ripper really was, we want to understand the lives of the victims, and we're eager to analyze any idea, theory, suspect, document, etc. that comes along. But others don't necessarily possess that mindset, and we shouldn't expect them to.

There must be many families out there who have a "Great-Grandpa/Grandma/Auntie knew Mary Kelly/George Hutchinson/ Polly Nichols/a neighbor/a policeman/heard or saw something interesting, etc." story. But if they spend even a few hours looking at Casebook before posting, they are liable to realize that they aren't prepared to play Jack-the-Ripper-hardball and it might be wiser to keep a low profile. Some may continue to observe in silence, but most will probably decide it isn’t worth subjecting themselves to the third degree and will just give up on the topic. I think that's a very unfortunate state of affairs, and I’m sure everyone can see that the end result will be that we all lose out on potentially useful formation.

Try to put yourself in the shoes of a well-intentioned newcomer simply wanting to share an old family story, or to get more information regarding it, who suddenly discovers they have naively stepped right into a hornet’s nest! Do we expect them to stand still while being stung? It’s not really reasonable to expect a newcomer to immediately present official “credentials” or personal i.d. just because they decided to post something on Casebook. How many Casebook members have ever done anything to "prove their identity" before participating? How many operate under aliases? I have no idea, but I choose to give people the benefit of the doubt in order to facilitate discussion. I understand that time-wasters, sock-puppets and fantasists do come along every so often, and that must be very tedious for long-term members in particular. Those individuals are usually given the bum's rush.

But I hope members will consider the fact that by running off a newcomer there's a risk that we will forfeit our only chance to hear some interesting and potentially important bit of information.

Even if for the sake of argument we assume that 90% of a newcomer’s family story is garbled through no fault of their own, simply from being passed down for 120 years... what if the remaining 10% is accurate? What if it contains a nugget of truth that might have led us to other nuggets of truth?

Wouldn't you gladly forgive the 90% honestly mistaken information for the sake of the 10% accurate information? (I certainly would.)

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I truly appreciate it. I didn't intend for it to be so long, but this is a topic I feel strongly about.
Best regards,
Archaic

[Archaic]

Hi Coral, happy belated birthday!

Hi Suzi. I'm off to go look up the meaning of the word "Horlicks".

Cheers,
Archaic

[Archaic]

"Horlicks" is a popular malted milk drink that also substitutes for an expletive???

OK, now I'm really confused.

Archaic

[jason_c]

Is she one of those who said she knew who the Ripper was but refused to reveal the name after taunting us with that? If so, then I understand why that would anger some people. To me, that sort of thing looks more like a power trip than anything related to useful information.

There have been a few of these over the years. And Fiona Kendall whatshername was one of them.