On Jevons Paradox

[rsmarken]

@Archivist

Rick, this comment is a bit late, but it seems to me that you choose to forget your role in this.

The special issue of ABS that you edited was published in Sept/Oct 1990. I remember you telling me when I came along in the early 90s that as editor you ran short of space, cut Bill Williams’ paper in half and inserted your own brief ending. All without telling him.

I cut and edited almost every paper in that issue, some more than others. As I recall, the ones I cut most were those by Hershberger, McPhail & Tucker and Williams. The one’s I edited most heavily were those by Williams and Ford.

I spoke to nearly every author that I was going to cut and/ or edit, telling them that I was going to do that and asking whether they would accept my changes sight unseen. (I didn’t speak to Runkel or Powers because their papers were short and sweet).

And as I recall, every one, including Williams, said yes. I had to do it that way because I was on a deadline. As you may recall, the only way to get papers back to the authors for their approval at that time (~1990) was to send them by snail mail and wait for their return. I had no time to do this so I had to make the cuts and edits without giving the authors final review.

I don’t remember every call but I do remember one in particular. I called Frans in the Netherlands and asked if it was ok if I made some cuts and edits to his and Hettie’s paper without sending it to him for approval. I was glad that he said yes because his paper was great, well written but a bit too long if I was going to fit in all the papers. And I’m pretty sure I asked for the same approval from everyone I called and got it.

@Archivist

This was discussed from time to time on CSGnet. You refused to apologize for ten years. When you finally found yourself pressured enough to “profusely apologized to him” it did not come across as sincere, did it? Now you play the victim. And you want Bruce to explain to you what was the matter. Seems pathetic to me.

I apologized because I thought (and still think) it is possible (though unlikely) that I neglected to tell Bill Williams that I was going to make the cuts and the edits without his review. What more can I do than apologize?

And I’m not playing the victim; I clearly am the victim of your very dysfunctional discourse – the kind of discourse that you had so hypocritically disapproved of in another thread. This post of yours is just pure, unadulterated ad hominum hate mail. What am I supposed to do now? Fight back by telling everyone Bill Powers’ opinion of you (and your understanding of PCT) that he shared with me when he stayed with me in LA and I took him to visit you? But that would be so dysfunctional.

I can only assume that you do this(posting hate mail about me) because you want to discredit me as an expert in PCT. So I suggest that maybe it’s time to take Tim Carey’s advice and just let go of your hatred of me and start discussing what this group is purportedly about: PCT. You could start with an evaluation of this post from Eetu. I see some misconceptions in it about what constitutes a disturbance in PCT. I’d be interested in hearing what you think.