| George John 2005-04-22, 8:35 pm |
| I and others have responded to Sam Sloan's comments about my
professional experience many times over the past five or six years. In
this post I will only mention one.
I will quote from a post made by Eric Schiller (whom Sam Sloan
mentioned above) on rgcp dated Oct 30 1999.
I quote:
"Sam also calls into question George John's technical expertise. I can
personally attest to his competence. He helped me code a quite complex
database application when we were in Arlington for the 1997 Open. Sam
was
there, too, of course.
There is no need to address the substance of Sloan's posting because
there
isn't any. As usual.
Normally I don't bother to post replies, but this unwarranted attack on
Mr. John, who was of great help to us all in hosting the candidates'
statements in the last USCF election, should be refuted.
Many people think that attack letters such as this Sloan posting are
harmless, because eventually someone posts the truth. That's not so.
Except for some hard core members, as catalogued by Mr. Draney, few
people
regularly visit r.g.c.politics. Impressions made on an occasional visit
are not corrected, because the viewers do not return and scrupulously
follow the threads, especially the nasty ones that get quite long."
Of further concern is all the cross-posting by Mr. Sloan. Political
issues
belong in the politics group. By crossposting, Sam makes it harder for
the
victim of his attacks to respond.
Once in a while Sam does get something right, and his reporting in the
1980s brought some important things to light. But his overall disregard
for facts (he has told me he doesn't care if what he write is wrong
because someone will correct it) renders his entire output unreliable
for
any serious journalistic or historical purpose. 'Tis a pity, but that's
the way it is. Sam is the National Enquirer of chess. Read at your own
risk."
End quote.
If others would like me to find more quotes made by others on rgcp in
support of my professional abilities, and in rebuttal of Sam Sloan's
opinions about them, I would be glad to do so.
Regarding my playing chess, I played a game as recently as last Sunday.
Just because a person doesn't play rated games, does not mean they do
not play and enjoy chess. Most of my chess time (all of it is
volunteer) is devoted to chess governance, tournament directing, and
teaching and coaching students. I wish I had more time for rated play,
but I simply don't. I have played over 2000 games on the ICC, nearly
all blitz, but I haven't been able to play there in a while either. So
much to do, so little time.
Best regards,
George John
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