Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I would like to offer my sincere apologies to John Hall for comments posted to the alt.guitar.rickenbacker forum, on August 10th, I posted a statement using the screen name “Reinhard Gehlen” that referred to Mr. Hall. The statement was in bad taste, the actions I took were a result of poor judgment. In an effort to maintain the high standards of the forums, I will withdraw myself from future use.


Regards,

Kendall James (dedgoat)

kendall.. take a tip from someone for whome has sweated bad taste at times, i am pretty sure that mr hall and every one else on this forum appreciates that we all make mistakes at times in the heat of the moment, before you know it you've pressed the button... and its ok as long as you learn something from it all. so unwithdraw yourself there's a use for you in the future.

Reinhard Gehlen, ehh? Well, he did try to kill Hitler, but a Nazi is a Nazi is a Nazi as they say. Probably not a good idea for a screen name.

The fact that you are 'coming clean' on this matter is a positive thing, Kendall.

It takes a lot of self-discipline not to respond in a knee-jerk fashion when one's buttons are pushed. Kendall, don't forget that none of us is perfect and everyone is entitled to some forgiveness from time to time. Also, I think that your positive contributions have outweighed your negative one(s) by far!

I've gotten e-mails that made me want to launch an immediate counter-attack, but I knew that what was needed instead was to sit back, relax, calm down, and then think rationally how to respond in a tactful manner.

I recall an incident with an eBay item that I outbid someone on in the last few seconds of the auction. The previous high bidder sent me a vituperative e-mail and told me how unfair it all was, etc. I calmed down for about a half an hour before crafting my response, in which I gently stated that I was not a dealer buying the item for resale at a profit, that part of the eBay scenario is the infernal last-minute bidder (an aspect that I, myself, had fallen victim of many times before), and that the bottom line was that I was willing to pay more for the item than he/she was. I received a nice, apologetic reply from the person, who was obviously a good person, but had had the knee-jerk response with regard to the auction and had acted on impulse.

Kendall,
If I were you, I'd just apologise, and be done with it. I don't think there's a need to remove yourself from the forum. (Although, I didn't get to see that post. Was it that bad? Now, if you referred to JH as Hitler, that'll be a totally different story!)