[Reader-users] What does the NFB have to do with it David?

[David Andrews]

Dear Gabe:

While it is not really appropriate or productive to hold this 
discussion on a public list, I will answer you here since you posted 
your message here.

I do not know where you got your information concerning why your name 
was removed from the KNFB Reader Users List last week, but it was not 
political.  You were not removed because you are an ACB member, or 
have that information in your signature.  You were removed because 
you were discussing matters in a way that was not productive or 
beneficial to the operation of the list.

You seem to phrase things in a way that will antagonize people.  I 
don't know if this is intentional or not -- but because we have had 
this same discussion previously, concerning the Jobs list, I have to 
believe it is intentional on your part.

As an example, you don't say "NFB members" you call us "sheep."  You 
don't say the Reader case, you talk about its "pretty little case," 
or something like that.

If you had looked into the archives for the list, you would have seen 
that the topic of other uses for the Reader hardware has come up a 
number of times.  There is interest on the part of the User 
community, and the developers as well I don't think are opposed to 
other possibilities.  However, they have to walk before they 
run.  There are only so many resources and they have been used to 
improve the OCR, add currency identification, read light text on a 
dark background etc.

I can't speak for Kurzweil National Federation of the Blind 
Technologies and their future plans.  They might be willing to 
cooperate with third parties, but not when those parties 
intentionally write things in a manner calculated to antagonize people.

You may say that is not what you did, but I find that hard to 
believe.  Your message below is written in a much more civil manner, 
so I believe you can do it.

It is not the fact that you are an ACB member that got you 
removed.  It is the fact that you waved a red flag in front of people.

You have heard, I am sure, the old saying that you can catch more 
flies with honey than vinegar.

There are limited resources in the blindness community.  However, you 
are the one who has chosen to make this process confrontational.  You 
came on a list and basically told everybody what idiots everybody was 
for not demanding more, for putting up with what you got, for being 
sheep, etc.

Whether or not you are on the list is not really my decision.  I am 
not trying to pass the buck, and do have input into the decision, 
however I primarily run technical aspects of the list.

You seem to be a person who has some energy and ability, however you 
also seem to be fighting the world.  You have been on a number of our 
lists, and from our perspective it looks like you have been daring us 
to throw you off so you can tell everybody how big and bad the NFB 
is.  Maybe this is not a correct perception, but it is the one you 
have created, so you can't simply discount it by saying it is true.

In college I majored in communications, and one of the first things 
we were taught is that it isn't what you said that is important, but 
what others thought you said.

I hope some of this makes sense.  I hope there is a place where 
everybody can work together or at least not tear each other down.  We 
can play a cat and mouse game, you can get a new account and 
subscribe, and I can block that address, and we can do it 
again.  However, it is not a productive use of anybody's time.  It 
could better be spent by trying to improve the KNFB Reader.

David Andrews, List Owner


At 11:25 AM 7/30/2007, you wrote:
>just a real quick msg before I'm kicked off again.
>
>I got word that I was kicked off for political reasons.
>
>ok, fine. I took off the acb tag. now what. you going to find a new
>excuse because I want to explore, I want to bring more to the
>community as well as 26 other developers/engineers. I am the bad one
>to want to provide for the blind as well as you are. but we work
>towards the same goal but just because you can't lead I'm a black
>sheep and I am banned. come on that does make any sense david.
>
>Yes thats right, I have a core team of six, and a support team of 20
>and if i feel like it I have the option to bring on more. its called
>open source my people. and if we can't talk and work this out I'll
>post this on slash dot and start sending articles out to pc world,
>mac world and every other connection I have out there. see, the
>difference is that I look for the mainstream, you want blindness
>related only. do you know how much of a market you have in the
>dislexic community, no. because you haven't tried.
>
>David, this isn't a nfb thing man, this has nothing to do with the
>nfb, as far as I know its a kurzwhile thing with advise from the nfb
>but I am not I repeat I am not doing this for political reasons. so
>stop thinking that.
>
>
>
>I ask you now to reconsider.
>_______________________________________________
>Reader-users mailing list
>Reader-users at nfbnet.org
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/reader-users

David Andrews and white cane Harry.