Dan Schwartz suspended for 14 days

Yes Bartus and I were pm'ing yesterday - thought we'd have to slit our wrists, but then I just settled down with a cold one, and all was fine.

Oh crap,

I was just getting ready to sign that Home Equity check for a Hasseblad 39 MP system

NOT!!!!!!

Eric,

Not that its trivial, but I think most of us saw this coming. Sometimes you just have to do the dirty work and clean up the site. BTW...who is going to do the next dissertation on large format housings underwater?

Yes Bartus and I were pm'ing yesterday

Hi Jeff,

Another one bites the dust...or rather the sand of your sandbox ("he would definitely have been thrown out of my sandbox when I was a kid") hehe.

I actually think 'dark helmet' from Spaceballs might be more appropriate....

'May the Schwartz be with you'

Incidentally, im going diving now, in a pool. With a humble D200

I think he was harmless enough, but understand your decision.

What can I say, from a manufacturers point of view it was good laughing matter, its not every day we have that level of pipe dreaming.

I actually squirted Diet Pepsi out my nose the other night reading the 'Medium Format on Snuba' post.

I actually squirted Diet Pepsi out my nose the other night reading the 'Medium Format on Snuba' post.

Gross, I like to expel my Nitrogen in a more fashionable way

Wow, I'm starting to feel better, I'm not seeing every post in a thread edited by author....

And I've shared a room with dmoss on a couple of trips, lets all just be thankful he said Diet Pepsi.....

I apologize for having contributed to the unpleasant environment around here recently. I had hoped that continuous, pointed corrections to Dan's steady stream of mistakes would encourage him to listen more and post less embarassing and potentially harmful comments. It became clear pretty quickly that it wasn't working and, after a brief discussion with other moderators, we agreed that my efforts were counterproductive and I stopped. My argument with Troy was collateral damage. Had it not been for Dan, I doubt Troy and I would have ever had that conversation. I actually had interest in the MF discussion.

My most recent comment was motivated by Dan showing disrepect for many on the board, both implicitly and explicitly, and for a direct abuse of the public forum system by singling out who he "authorized" to respond. A public forum is for everyone to participate, so if Dan wished to converse only with the three members he named, he should have taken the discussion offline. His insults of Giles and others for posting displeasing (though appropriate) comments and his condescending comment toward industry engineers was too much for me. My comment was likely unnecessary, but the suggestion that guys like Jean, Stephen, and Mauricio (to name just a few), who's individual experiences to date are far more than Dan will ever know, are monitoring Dan's comments for product ideas was simply too much for me to let go. A forum filled with that kind of garbage will run off everyone from industry professionals to enthusiasts and beginners.

I have no complaint with anyone who messaged Eric or any of the moderators with complaints regarding my posts, and I would encourage them to send them to me as well in the future. I don't blame anyone for disliking the threads that I helped create. I certainly didn't. I also don't believe that Dan will change. I doubt he's capable of behaving in any way other than how he has already shown.

'May the Schwartz be with you'

thanks Simon There goes my morning coffee... time to get a refill and wipe off my monitor...

One of the problems with the internet and forums, is that individuals can post any garbage they like with impunity, and do not have to take responsibility for their actions. So I think it is important that folks like Dan are called on the carpet so to speak. I think Craig expressed what most of us thought, and I personally appreciate it that Craig did not back down.

thanks Simon There goes my morning coffee... time to get a refill and wipe off my monitor...

Yeah, I had to wipe the wine off my keyboard!

One of the problems with the internet and forums, is that individuals can post any garbage they like with impunity, and do not have to take responsibility for their actions.

Whilst I don't particularly like censorship, I've watched other 'respected' fora devolve into some absurdly pointless photo discussions and have ended up simply not visiting them anymore as filtering out the (sometimes very) useful and interesting information became too difficult. IMHO wetpixel holds a good line, offers some good excellent discussions and provides a wealth of helpful information - I DO happily point many people towards wetpixel and whilst some only extract the info they need at the time, others seem interested and impressed enough to revisit, so this is feedback rather than opinion. In other words, I'd say that wetpixel has good credibility and I suspect that the action taken here has been handled in a way that reinforces this rather than otherwise.

Eric-

Can you ban my brother-in-law from the dinner table today? He's the same way: an expert on everything and no one wants to listen!

Chris

After reading this post, I went through the entire Dan Schwartz Opus. My god, that is some seriously good dope there. Dan reminds me about that Holiday Inn Select ad from a while back ("I'm no expert, but I stayed at Holiday Inn Select").

Almost made me feel better about dropping my Aquatica rig right on top of the 8" dome port and causing my 17-70 lens to come apart about 1/3" of the way down its length. Almost.

Vandit

you mean like that one ...

"did someone talk some sense into you?"

"no, but i did stay at a holiday inn express last night"

I haven't seen those before thats a hilarious analogy!

...my Aquatica rig right on top of the 8" dome port

Vandit, a rig??? you mean you're not putting your camera in a Ewa-Marine Bag? ;-)

Vandit, a rig??? you mean you're not putting your camera in a Ewa-Marine Bag? ;-)

No, no, I am waiting to get a H3D with supermacro setup and bellows. Only then will I house it in an Ewa-Marine housing. And thus Aquatica will lose the revenue they get from my annual "let's destroy the bloody housing" - this impending loss of revenue will force them to lay off Jean Bruneau, who will then start a new career as nude underwater MF model. Shot on a Hassy, of course.

And that reminds me - one time in band camp, I met Ansel Adams and we exchanged 200ft x 150ft images and we were using 2-positron thingamajigs. And this NY Art Director was admiring my 1903 Lithograph and it was all very entertaining.

You know, it really IS hard work going off at a complete tangent. I vote we bring Dan back and have an entire sub-section devoted to him. He still has to get into the whole realm of buoyancy while on 'mix and with twin sets.

Vandit "185 min of bottom time and 10 keepers today"

thanks Simon There goes my morning coffee... time to get a refill and wipe off my monitor...

not sure if this will work, or even if it's allowed...

Edit: didnt embed..

too cool, Simon

I was going through some posts of Dan and I noticed this one. Could that be the reason for his behaviour? Is the trying to compensate for something?

Sorta looks like this item on eBay:

I only kept up with some of his first posts and realized all he was doing was trying to show off and act like he is better then everyone cause he shoots MF and apaprently has a crap load of money. Not that everyone acts like that if the shoot MF, but he wanted everyone to know (everday). Thanks for suspending him. I was tired of seeing his name pop up cause I knew all he was doing was bragging.