schaef, your posting does an outstanding job making your point, which I agree with completely... except for possibly just one thing: that being the one truism here, that Steve could do much more to satisfy us by telling us more. It is certainly true that it would satisfy me more if he were to communicate with us more, but Steve used to post here on this forum and I have read the responses he received. He was called a liar and everything he wrote was rejected. Some people, on this forum, if they don't hear what they want to hear, will attack.
Steve, as an owner of TATF, has to weigh his actions. It harms TATF to allow bad statements to stand, but does it truly help TATF when its president is publicly called a liar and in the process even more negative posts are made about TATF? In a lose-lose situation, the best response that can be made is to minimize losses. I believe Steve made a rational decision when he walked away from this forum. I can see that no change has occurred here since, so I see no reason for Steve to believe anything will be different this time than last if he were to return here.
I have personally just experienced here a most unpleasant series of exchanges with belmontx. It is difficult for others that haven't personally experienced it to recognize or appreciate the significance of the masterful manipulation he uses. When I read over the posts Steve made here, and belmontx's replies to them, I saw belmontx used the same manipulations against Steve as he has used against me. Manipulations are subtle. Oftentimes, they cannot be detected out of context or without close scrutiny of what has been said.
For example, belmontx replied to one of my posts in a negative way some while ago. When I read it, sentence by sentence, it seemed to make sense; so much so that even I was doubting the validity of what I had written myself! But then, I went back and read the post I made to which he had replied. Only then did I realize that he didn't address a single issue I had written. He ignored many of the points I made. He twisted my words, took things out of context, put words in my mouth, etc. The only way to determine there was anything wrong with what he wrote was to analyze it, sentence by sentence, comparing it to what I had written, sentence by sentence, and by checking his facts, one by one. All very time consuming, and hardly the sort of thing any casual reader could be expected to do. So, then, why not defend myself by pointing out his deceptions, point by point? It requires a very lengthy analysis, doing so would make me appear to be insane to the casual reader, and when it's all done, he will reply by ignoring everything written and asking the same questions and making the same points again, while throwing in an insult to inflame the situation and distract others from what he's doing. He is truly a masterful manipulator.
I can tell you that it has taken me a considerable amount of time to compose some of the messages I have made here, just to be called a liar. Jan Veenstra recently walked away from this forum following an attack against him. Would it truly serve our interests, as tree owners, to have Steve spending his time fielding similar attacks, and then being called a liar in public?
The situation here is not good, and some people seem to be doing whatever they can to make it worse. Before I expect Steve to make a reappearance, he may need to be reasonably convinced that doing so will not just make matters even worse. And that's something that's in our hands.
