01-07-2016, 04:24 PM
Hi,
Someone recently reminded me of this board here, and as I've gone through some threads I've seen a number of posts that call me out explicitly, others than are implicitly engaging with my research or public statements, and then others where I just feel like I should probably meddle uninvited. Some posts are now years old, and I hesitate to suddenly reactivate threads that may contain stale sentiments. But at the same time, I'm interested in getting the record straight on historical claims, and it can't be useful to have pockets of discussions where there really isn't engagement on the harder and more controversial questions sometimes under discussion here.
Before I start I want to make one methodological point, especially as I know there are people on this board who were eyewitnesses to Blackmoor in the 1970s and working closely with Arneson in later years. I go by contemporary documents, and use them to develop a working understanding of events and sequences. I treat claims made after the fact about these events cautiously, and where a date or similar fact in an earlier document contradicts what someone remembers today, I almost always prefer the earlier source, unless there are significant mitigating factors. In some cases, I make distinctions that may seem pedantic - this gets especially tricky when dealing with events or groups that went through multiple names and incarnations, where I get very concerned about distinguishing what something was called and how it worked at some particular time. But to be clear - I wasn't there, I don't pretend to "know" anything myself, as I am really just a conduit for the sources I am channeling. An argument with me is almost always just an argument with my sources. In those few cases where I make inferences or draw conclusions, I appropriately festoon them with hazard tape.
So forgive me if I engage in a bit of thread necromancy - I don't necessarily expect this will result in a ton of continuing engagement, but I would rather create the opportunity than just leave things as I find them here today.
Someone recently reminded me of this board here, and as I've gone through some threads I've seen a number of posts that call me out explicitly, others than are implicitly engaging with my research or public statements, and then others where I just feel like I should probably meddle uninvited. Some posts are now years old, and I hesitate to suddenly reactivate threads that may contain stale sentiments. But at the same time, I'm interested in getting the record straight on historical claims, and it can't be useful to have pockets of discussions where there really isn't engagement on the harder and more controversial questions sometimes under discussion here.
Before I start I want to make one methodological point, especially as I know there are people on this board who were eyewitnesses to Blackmoor in the 1970s and working closely with Arneson in later years. I go by contemporary documents, and use them to develop a working understanding of events and sequences. I treat claims made after the fact about these events cautiously, and where a date or similar fact in an earlier document contradicts what someone remembers today, I almost always prefer the earlier source, unless there are significant mitigating factors. In some cases, I make distinctions that may seem pedantic - this gets especially tricky when dealing with events or groups that went through multiple names and incarnations, where I get very concerned about distinguishing what something was called and how it worked at some particular time. But to be clear - I wasn't there, I don't pretend to "know" anything myself, as I am really just a conduit for the sources I am channeling. An argument with me is almost always just an argument with my sources. In those few cases where I make inferences or draw conclusions, I appropriately festoon them with hazard tape.
So forgive me if I engage in a bit of thread necromancy - I don't necessarily expect this will result in a ton of continuing engagement, but I would rather create the opportunity than just leave things as I find them here today.
