Wow so angry. Come back and lets discuss what offends you. Words don't offend me. What offends me is: The girl, 25 who was leaving the day camp taking 5 kids home going 107mph on back roads and plowing into a garbage truck killing everyone, now that offends me.

And it took you almost three years to realize this?

hhp

Mr. Nicolai,

stay and enjoy the show. Nothing is ever learned without some degee of discomfort. Haven't you ever watch Italian lovers quarrelling in a restaurant?

Relax, man. Hrant can be arrogant and steps on a lot of toes in defending his positions on type and politics, but so what? At least he doesn't deny it. Every forum has a few provocative people. Hrant is head and shoulders above the standard, he knows his stuff and he's one of the few willing to consistently post in the critique section. True, he picks fights with other strong personalities such as Nick, but so what? Leaving just means the voices you don't like will grow stronger. And ditto what Norbert said. You've been a regular member for nearly 3 years and this is your fourth post, why even bother announcing you are leaving? Why not just email the admins and ask them to nix your account? Or just stop visiting?

Fontsoldat, I'm sorry you feel that way. You're not alone. All I could hope for is that you'd express your opinions in spite of or even because of Hrant.

...he picks fights with other strong personalities such as Nick, but so what?

This is not a "so what" scenario. It sucks and Hrant knows it.

Leaving just means the voices you don’t like will grow stronger.

This is the absolute truth, and it's why I hope you'll stick around and contribute, rather than just lurking and remaining disappointed.

I don't pick fights. I don't generally care what Nick thinks. I'd go crazy if I cared about every opinion of every single person. What I do care about is type. And I've gone out of my way to help Typophile in opposition to what my -perceived- character would dictate, time and again. What sucks is jellyfish. Joe, instead of jumping on a self-validating venting bandwagon, go and comment on the guy's pi font.

hhp

And Joe, you might take a moment from your 5-year frothing and re-read what Fontsoldat wrote: he was bashing the whole "community". What, am I an evil mass cyberhypnotist now?

You, Jared and everybody else here are enablers of a great community. Be proud of that. Nobody should get angry because they can't control the nature of the beast - that just weakens you. Control is over-rated.

hhp

"This is not a “so what” scenario. It sucks and Hrant knows it."

What the f*ck does that even mean?

The question is who contributes more to this community than Mr. Papazian? For the life of me I really can't understand why people are so bothered by Hrant. Is it insecurity, or what?

If you don't like it, leave. It's that simple. I have enjoyed Hrants commentary, as well as Nick's comments.

In reading fontsoldat's (Mathias') critique thread, I wonder if there's a misunderstanding caused by a language barrier. If so, it's an unfortunate misunderstanding since Hrant and Norbert both give positive encouragement for an interesting set of dingbats.

Mathias, if you're reading this, you should know that Hrant and Norbert's compliments are sincere. I don't question Hrant's sincerity, even though I sometimes question his approach.

Hrant, don't be surprised that I mentioned you by name. I'm responding to Mathias' grief and grod's reply. Of course you are not the whole community, but it's an easy mistake since you're the most outspoken.

Joe, reading over my post I realize it could be misinterpreted. Hrant, no offense was meant, I appreciate the time you've taken to help me as I try to learn this crazy craft/art of type design and I almost always learn something new from your comments across the board.

Joe et al. I was merely acknowledging that his outspokenness is frustrating to some and discouraging to others. The critique section would be near dead without his input.

Control is over-rated.

but self-control is under-rated. *jab*

Wow, look at Paul run! :-D ;-P

BTW Fontsoldat, the absurdity of your announcement is somewhat... I don't know. ;-) If you wanna leave, leave, it's not like you're being held hostage. I'd rather you stayed, but hey, it's your choice.

Why are we even answering this little arrogant post?

Héctor

I agree basically. But there is a reason, a simple one - we like typophile or we wouldn't be here. We would all probably like it to be even better. But what 'better' is isn't always something we agree on. Party on dudes!

bye!

Don't let the doorknob hit you in the a** on the way out.

That's pretty arrogant to insist on cancelling a free membership. ;o)

Typophile is a community. Community implies an effort made by a group of people to create something which is larger than themselves. This in turn implies that we need to all get along or it isn't going to work. If someone wants to leave, as sad as it might be, we need to allow them that option without being rude about it. Be the bigger person. How can we possibly know everything? I've noticed that communicating online (ichat, email) removes the most important part of communication -- body language.

Hmm. On the other hand, if one is rude one deserves what one gets.

(sorry I'm obviously of two minds today.)

In any case, I think we should still crit the guy's font.* No particular person has to be listening for the discussion to be useful to others. Also, it's probably the best way of bringing him back, which would be nice.

* http://typophile.com/node/12721

hhp

Actually, I quite like his font visually. I am not sure how I would use it but there is quite a nice use of negative space interactiion there.

ChrisL

Whatever happened to the critique section? I guess it is yet another thing on the list our poor overworked volunteers are working on.
Perhaps he didn't get much of a crit because we could not see the post?

ChrisL

Post was seen. I didn't have time to get to it. I suppose I will start at least posting something short so it stays on the first page of the tracker.

"Perhaps he didn’t get much of a crit... "

maybe. but why to say ( i read his posts; i didn't see anything wrong):

"this is a bloody lame, ignorant and arrogant (ranking on top: mr. hrant paparazzi, or what´s his name) community" ?

btw, i didn't get much of a crit — that's fine. i can't force people; and i'm not going to say bloody lame etc etc.

Hrant may have said some mean things in the past, but its certainly not fair to have a free for all. I don't know if anyone deserves that. Making an announcement is also counterproductive and does nothing but validate the behavior you're complaining about.

btw, i didn’t get much of a crit — that’s fine. i can’t force people; and i’m not going to say bloody lame etc etc.
With such an indignant icon as well :)

I saw the original post as well, but my attitude was that since I didn't have a positive (or negative) critique I decided it was better not to muddy the waters.
Tim