From:	plotd@*********.com (Michael Goldberg)
Subject:	Ratspeak
Date:	Wed Jun 20 22:05:03 2001

Hi --

I'm still working on a way to cover the huge gap of time between parts of
the story. (As well as sorting through the dramatic change in my life in
the past couple of weeks.) If there is a proper way to tell a story on
shadowtk, due to time constraints I seem to have guaranteed no continuity
between any of the parts.

I'm still trying to figure out just how far I need to go back to make the
story have any sense. Suggestions are welcome. Although I suspect that
apart from communication off-list that I have had with Paul, there probably
isn't enough on shadowtk to really make suggestions on how to go about it.

A few notes about Ratspeak since it has been a while since I have posted
from the rodent. (Most of these fall in the "Well ... duh!" category)

1) This is indeed the Ratspeak and not an imposter.
2) Ratspeak's views are usually pretty far apart from my own views.
3) Ratspeak's verbal attacks/critiques on various character's comments
and/or actions are a character's opinions on another character. It has
never been my intention to use Ratspeak as a vehicle for a personal attack
on an author. I respect the amount of time and effort people put into their
characters, and the fact that they want to share these characters with
others.
4) Ratspeak's commenting on things is not a good indication on how other
characters might react to things. Usually the rodent posts while waiting
for other things to finish up. In a very real trivial way, I slammed myself
in the rodent's latest response. (It was the whole time thing, in case you
missed it.) The rodents comments are merely a decker's musings with way too
much free time on its "paws".

Pete, it is good to see you actively posting again. Joseph, welcome to the
list.

Mike

PS. I forgot to mention one other thing. Despite the list's tendencies to
have heroes on it, my assumption has always been that most shadowrunners
don't give a damn about doing the right thing. That is a large part of what
I think makes the players' characters in the SR universe tend to stand out
from the run of the mill shadowrunners. Therefore, it is my assumption that
most of the average readers of the node do not care about the larger social
issues that exist in the SR universe but rather, how can they continue to
exist.

Seeing as most of the characters on this list that have been created deviate
from that norm, I felt it was important to point out my preconception on the
node's denizens. Otherwise, Ratspeak's comments are off on left-field.
(Heck... they may still be that ... //grin//)