These people are immune to rational thought!

[wgarvin]

So I got caught up in a little drama over at talkchess.

First, Rolf posted this garbage (attacking Bob and blaming him for the Rybka scandal)

Since it's about the 1000th time he's done this--and I was in a grumpy mood--I took umbrage and replied with this.

Then Derek Jones replied to my post, ignoring almost the entire substance of my post and dwelling entirely on three things:
(1) my choice of the phrases "quite strong" and "virtually certain" somehow being inconsistent,
(2) that Vas refusing to defend himself should not be held against him, and
(3) that I was indulging in "typical arrogance of the group" by venting my annoyance with these truth-deniers.

So I replied again, and yes I will acknowledge that my tone was a little shrill.
My mother tried to teach me to be polite to people, but occasionally I slip, as I did here (calling Derek an asshole).

Rolf replied with more drivel, which I chose to ignore.

...continued in 2nd post

[wgarvin]

Then Derek replied with a more reasonable-sounding post, but still calculated to make me angry... It claims Rajlich is not "morally bound" to defend himself. But that is a ludicrous argument because in any sport, if competitors could simply ignore disciplinary preceedings without any consequences, it would make a farce out of the rules of the competition and of the disciplinary procedure.

Rolf replied again with his opinion that the ICGA should write a retraction of their previous judgement, say Vas is innocent, and then the ICGA and Bob Hyatt should somehow compensate Vas and his wife for their "huge material losses".

I mean seriously, what planet do these people come from? And is there any way to send them back there, so I don't have to share my oxygen supply with them any longer??

It's no mystery why Bob spends so much time and energy replying to thousands of pro-Vas/anti-ICGA posts in the Rybka forum and talkchess. He gets frustrated by the ignorance, stupidity and wilful misrepresentation in those posts. He doesn't want them to control the discussion by allowing them to say the same thing over, loudly, enough times that people with less direct knowledge of what really happened, are swayed into believing the truth-deniers' point of view. Many of those posts attack Bob personally, and blame him for the Rybka scandal (when the real cause, obviously, is the actions of Vas). But now they also criticize him for his high volume of posts! He's damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't. Its a miracle he has any time left over to do actual chess programming.

[thorstenczub]

horrible indeed.

rolf and derek are somehow 2 sides of the same medal.

[noctiferus]

Rolf (aka Awrist) is well known...
(I expect Albert Einstein jumping out of his grave, sometime...)

[kranium]

My mother tried to teach me to be polite to people, but occasionally I slip, as I did here (calling Derek an asshole).
Rolf replied with more drivel, which I chose to ignore.

you did nothing wrong...IMHO, and were right on target

the 'modus operandi' over there is for the right-wing 'good-ole-boys' to mock and ridicule anything/anyone they disagree with
(a horrible and repressive atmosphere)
that's why so many have simply fled the scene...never to return

in this manner they largely succeed in driving dissenters away...
preserving their soapbox from which the can spam and brainwash the masses

keep up the good work,
the place needs more people (like you) speaking up and correcting the boatloads of misinformation that site produces

PS-
I'm quite sure that for each 'member' there are hundreds of 'readers only',
and that the majority of these 'observers' recognize CCC's arrogant and repressive culture for what it is...

[BB+]

I do have to like the CPW page on Rolf, particularly the inventive title "computer chess forum activist".

[gaard]

I do have to like the CPW page on Rolf, particularly the inventive title "computer chess forum activist".

I followed the link and some of the rgcc links as well. Apparently Bob and Rolf have been rehashing the same argument re the Deep Blue match of '97 for over a decade. Is it stamina or something else?

[Tony Mokonen]

Is it stamina or something else?

A person would have to have some pretty impressive stamina to have trolled computer chess forums for over 15 years. 15 years of trolling... how pathetically sad is that?