GarettMaggartOnLine -- Identifying Self
Feb. 22nd, 2006 01:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ariannaWow, go off for a week and a half to cruise the Mexican Riviera, and all hell seems to break loose! That'll teach me to try to escape the 'cold and wet is my world' life in the Pacific Northwest!
For the GM_Online behind the scenes story from one of the team's creators, read more.
I was already, literally, at sea when we received approval on our proposal to provide web-based support to Garett. When I received word of that approval, well, I burst into tears, actually, so grateful was I to think that I'd have a chance to do something that would be of service to him. Sigh. ::shakes my head:: Foolish soul that I am, I had no expectation of the uproar that would shortly follow. I haven't seen all the correspondence on this subject and probably never will, as I'm not a member of some of the lists where it's occurred but, via ship to shore and shore to ship telephone and web communications, I've seen and heard enough to understand that we've had quite a bit of drama going on for the past few days.
Thanks, Aly, for bringing a good deal of clarification, and to others, particularly StarWatcher, who thought that just maybe we weren't all evil manipulators, and were willing to see what unfolded before casting bricks. The big question is 'why be anonymous' so, in the course of this note, I'll answer that question and explain how this team came into being and why.
First, let me clarify that in no way was our initiative to provide active support to both Garett and the fandom meant to denigrate the great work done by Shar in the past on her website. However, the site wasn't updated from November 2004 (until very recently, I gather) and no explanations were forthcoming despite numerous enquiries (including some expressing concern for her) both to the site and on lists, to determine if the site had been abandoned or if something had happened to Shar.
Nevertheless, before any proposal went to Garett's managers to provide a new, actively maintained site, emails were sent to Shar's webpage addy, specifically emails which offered to help her maintain the site (with no expectation of any formal acknowledgement publicly for doing so), and later to offer to pay for the domain names. Both offers were made because of rumours that Shar was ill and facing financial challenges -- and both offers were sincere, simply to help maintain an active presence for Garett online. None of the emails were answered -- well, until recently in public diatribes. Since obtaining the go-ahead on our proposal to Garett, I understand that an offer was made to Shar to buy the domains, not out of meanness, but still from the perspective that there'd been no update or other response at that point, and we simply wanted to give the ownership of domains that bear his name to Garett.
Flog us if you will, but we thought up until the point that Shar resurfaced recently that maybe the site had been abandoned. And we thought that was a shame, as it is a very good site, or had been, and Garett deserves active support.
At this point, 'we' means me, a web designer and a graphic artist.
In the absence of any indication that Shar intended to keep the site current, or any explanation (not to suggest she owed one, only that one was not forthcoming) that she only posted when and what the office or Garett gave her directly, we felt the only way to proceed was to offer a proposal for another website to Garett. We presumed that if Shar's site was going to continue as the official site, that our proposal would be declined.
Shar has since renewed her ownership of the domains in question, and has begun communicating again, both on her site and in the fandom personally, so all the offers we'd made to help and support her are now moot. I can only assure you that, however brusque you may have read the tone of some of our team's communications, we've done nothing with any malicious intent, and you can either believe me about that or not. Personally, I'm not sure hoping to be able to give him ownership of sites that bear his name is such a terrible crime.
Further, I expect we misunderstood the go-ahead from Garett to mean that he was approving our proposal to provide an active web presence as also approving our offer as the new 'official' site. While we are awaiting clarification on this, I personally suspect that he and his managers have decided that having a number of sites, rather than one, can only provide better coverage -- hence the confusion of more than one site owner thinking there was or is an 'official' relationship. Again, personally, I don't think it matters so long as we all ensure we first clear what we're posting on the sites with the office for accuracy. It's ultimately up to the managers and Garett how many individuals they wish to work with in providing him with solid web presence.
Specifially, our proposal offered to create and maintain a website to ensure up to date information about Garett on the web. We also thought that having a coordinated, multilingual and multinational web presence would be helpful to him, so we invited the participation of others, who expressed interest in working with us in aligning the respective international sites. All of us offered this support purely from the perspective of giving him a service that we hoped would reflect our respect for him and our gratitude to him for the impact he has had in our lives -- specifically, for the joy we've had in the fandom and in the friends we've made that have enriched our own lives, and that we would not have experienced except for his talents and skill as an actor. Providing this support was a way of giving back to him, a way of saying 'thank you' and, hopefully, a way of assisting him in bringing his dreams into reality.
In addition to supporting Garett, we thought we might also be able to provide a place or places for the fandom to 'play', so we created the LJ site, the email addy for contact and intend to create a mirror website for fannish things -- like photos or Moonridge trip reports -- aside from the more professional webpage that would formally represent Garett as an actor seeking work.
Yeah, yeah, I know. You want to know who 'we' are. Well, unfortunately, we really do need approval from Garett's managers before we can abrogate the agreement of anonymity that we made with him.
Why the anonymity? Simply because we had heard that he was wary of individuals making such offers with the agenda of simply getting to know him or to have the cachet or self-aggrandizement of claiming personal connections to him. Accordingly, as part of our proposal, we offered to undertake this support anonymously, so he could be assured that the site reflected upon him and him only. Some members of the group do have personal connection with him, others like me have only the usual fan relationship in that I've been lucky enough to participate at Moonridge gatherings and at the Cascade Con, and I frankly don't expect any more personal contact to arise from this webbased relationship. Who we are, beyond informing him of who was making the offer, really isn't relevant to providing support -- or so we innocently thought.
It's unfortunate that, in this fandom at least, anonymity has come to mean something suspect or trollish, something to be challenged and castigated, as opposed to being seen as perhaps humble, not wanting personal aggrandisement, which was how we'd intended it to be. I guess we're guilty of being naive and of thinking that we'd be given a chance to be of service before being summarily judged and found wanting.
However, that anonymity IS part and parcel of what we offered in our proposal, so turning around to blithely announce our names in the community violates that proposal and his agreement that we proceed. By identifying myself, I may now have to resign from the team for having violated that commitment to him. We'll see what guidance we receive from his manager on this issue.
Given that anonymity is one of the central aspects of the proposal we made to Garett and which he has accepted, I have strongly advised my colleagues in our small team to remain incognito unless or until we receive a go ahead from Garett or his managers to set aside that guaranteed commitment to him. Whether or not Aly and I will be able to remain on the team at this point will be determined by Garett and his representatives -- but we have no technical input; site owners, web designers and graphic artists are critical to setting up and maintaining the sites, so if they abrogate the agreement with Garett and his managers, violate their trust in this, then the project is dead in the water. Hence, their continued anonymity.
For the record, I don't know Deb Warner, have never to my knowledge corresponded with her or met her, came into the fandom after the DUG fiasco, and have nothing to do with whatever projects she's working on at this time. So, any concerns that our team is currently affilitated with Deb's initiatives can be laid to rest. HOWEVER, if we were to receive guidance from Garett or his managers to support a project that he'd engaged in that also involved Debra, then we'd accede to his wishes. After all, it's his website and he decides what he wants on it. Should such an instance ever arise, we'd be clear on the site and in our LJ community so that readers would know who was involved in what.
So, frankly, it's up to you if trust or don't trust the coming websites, the LJ community we've set up, and the team. Up to you to determine whether you've enough faith in Aly (and some of you have indicated you do) or me to believe we'd not do anything to harm Garett and only wish to support him and this fandom, however we can. It's up to you whether you use the services and support of the site being created or the LJ community to post your photos or reports in the future, and up to you if you access the sites or not.
If you have further questions, please let me know and I'll do my best to respond on behalf of the team.
Respectfully,
Arianna
For the GM_Online behind the scenes story from one of the team's creators, read more.
I was already, literally, at sea when we received approval on our proposal to provide web-based support to Garett. When I received word of that approval, well, I burst into tears, actually, so grateful was I to think that I'd have a chance to do something that would be of service to him. Sigh. ::shakes my head:: Foolish soul that I am, I had no expectation of the uproar that would shortly follow. I haven't seen all the correspondence on this subject and probably never will, as I'm not a member of some of the lists where it's occurred but, via ship to shore and shore to ship telephone and web communications, I've seen and heard enough to understand that we've had quite a bit of drama going on for the past few days.
Thanks, Aly, for bringing a good deal of clarification, and to others, particularly StarWatcher, who thought that just maybe we weren't all evil manipulators, and were willing to see what unfolded before casting bricks. The big question is 'why be anonymous' so, in the course of this note, I'll answer that question and explain how this team came into being and why.
First, let me clarify that in no way was our initiative to provide active support to both Garett and the fandom meant to denigrate the great work done by Shar in the past on her website. However, the site wasn't updated from November 2004 (until very recently, I gather) and no explanations were forthcoming despite numerous enquiries (including some expressing concern for her) both to the site and on lists, to determine if the site had been abandoned or if something had happened to Shar.
Nevertheless, before any proposal went to Garett's managers to provide a new, actively maintained site, emails were sent to Shar's webpage addy, specifically emails which offered to help her maintain the site (with no expectation of any formal acknowledgement publicly for doing so), and later to offer to pay for the domain names. Both offers were made because of rumours that Shar was ill and facing financial challenges -- and both offers were sincere, simply to help maintain an active presence for Garett online. None of the emails were answered -- well, until recently in public diatribes. Since obtaining the go-ahead on our proposal to Garett, I understand that an offer was made to Shar to buy the domains, not out of meanness, but still from the perspective that there'd been no update or other response at that point, and we simply wanted to give the ownership of domains that bear his name to Garett.
Flog us if you will, but we thought up until the point that Shar resurfaced recently that maybe the site had been abandoned. And we thought that was a shame, as it is a very good site, or had been, and Garett deserves active support.
At this point, 'we' means me, a web designer and a graphic artist.
In the absence of any indication that Shar intended to keep the site current, or any explanation (not to suggest she owed one, only that one was not forthcoming) that she only posted when and what the office or Garett gave her directly, we felt the only way to proceed was to offer a proposal for another website to Garett. We presumed that if Shar's site was going to continue as the official site, that our proposal would be declined.
Shar has since renewed her ownership of the domains in question, and has begun communicating again, both on her site and in the fandom personally, so all the offers we'd made to help and support her are now moot. I can only assure you that, however brusque you may have read the tone of some of our team's communications, we've done nothing with any malicious intent, and you can either believe me about that or not. Personally, I'm not sure hoping to be able to give him ownership of sites that bear his name is such a terrible crime.
Further, I expect we misunderstood the go-ahead from Garett to mean that he was approving our proposal to provide an active web presence as also approving our offer as the new 'official' site. While we are awaiting clarification on this, I personally suspect that he and his managers have decided that having a number of sites, rather than one, can only provide better coverage -- hence the confusion of more than one site owner thinking there was or is an 'official' relationship. Again, personally, I don't think it matters so long as we all ensure we first clear what we're posting on the sites with the office for accuracy. It's ultimately up to the managers and Garett how many individuals they wish to work with in providing him with solid web presence.
Specifially, our proposal offered to create and maintain a website to ensure up to date information about Garett on the web. We also thought that having a coordinated, multilingual and multinational web presence would be helpful to him, so we invited the participation of others, who expressed interest in working with us in aligning the respective international sites. All of us offered this support purely from the perspective of giving him a service that we hoped would reflect our respect for him and our gratitude to him for the impact he has had in our lives -- specifically, for the joy we've had in the fandom and in the friends we've made that have enriched our own lives, and that we would not have experienced except for his talents and skill as an actor. Providing this support was a way of giving back to him, a way of saying 'thank you' and, hopefully, a way of assisting him in bringing his dreams into reality.
In addition to supporting Garett, we thought we might also be able to provide a place or places for the fandom to 'play', so we created the LJ site, the email addy for contact and intend to create a mirror website for fannish things -- like photos or Moonridge trip reports -- aside from the more professional webpage that would formally represent Garett as an actor seeking work.
Yeah, yeah, I know. You want to know who 'we' are. Well, unfortunately, we really do need approval from Garett's managers before we can abrogate the agreement of anonymity that we made with him.
Why the anonymity? Simply because we had heard that he was wary of individuals making such offers with the agenda of simply getting to know him or to have the cachet or self-aggrandizement of claiming personal connections to him. Accordingly, as part of our proposal, we offered to undertake this support anonymously, so he could be assured that the site reflected upon him and him only. Some members of the group do have personal connection with him, others like me have only the usual fan relationship in that I've been lucky enough to participate at Moonridge gatherings and at the Cascade Con, and I frankly don't expect any more personal contact to arise from this webbased relationship. Who we are, beyond informing him of who was making the offer, really isn't relevant to providing support -- or so we innocently thought.
It's unfortunate that, in this fandom at least, anonymity has come to mean something suspect or trollish, something to be challenged and castigated, as opposed to being seen as perhaps humble, not wanting personal aggrandisement, which was how we'd intended it to be. I guess we're guilty of being naive and of thinking that we'd be given a chance to be of service before being summarily judged and found wanting.
However, that anonymity IS part and parcel of what we offered in our proposal, so turning around to blithely announce our names in the community violates that proposal and his agreement that we proceed. By identifying myself, I may now have to resign from the team for having violated that commitment to him. We'll see what guidance we receive from his manager on this issue.
Given that anonymity is one of the central aspects of the proposal we made to Garett and which he has accepted, I have strongly advised my colleagues in our small team to remain incognito unless or until we receive a go ahead from Garett or his managers to set aside that guaranteed commitment to him. Whether or not Aly and I will be able to remain on the team at this point will be determined by Garett and his representatives -- but we have no technical input; site owners, web designers and graphic artists are critical to setting up and maintaining the sites, so if they abrogate the agreement with Garett and his managers, violate their trust in this, then the project is dead in the water. Hence, their continued anonymity.
For the record, I don't know Deb Warner, have never to my knowledge corresponded with her or met her, came into the fandom after the DUG fiasco, and have nothing to do with whatever projects she's working on at this time. So, any concerns that our team is currently affilitated with Deb's initiatives can be laid to rest. HOWEVER, if we were to receive guidance from Garett or his managers to support a project that he'd engaged in that also involved Debra, then we'd accede to his wishes. After all, it's his website and he decides what he wants on it. Should such an instance ever arise, we'd be clear on the site and in our LJ community so that readers would know who was involved in what.
So, frankly, it's up to you if trust or don't trust the coming websites, the LJ community we've set up, and the team. Up to you to determine whether you've enough faith in Aly (and some of you have indicated you do) or me to believe we'd not do anything to harm Garett and only wish to support him and this fandom, however we can. It's up to you whether you use the services and support of the site being created or the LJ community to post your photos or reports in the future, and up to you if you access the sites or not.
If you have further questions, please let me know and I'll do my best to respond on behalf of the team.
Respectfully,
Arianna
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-22 11:10 pm (UTC)