An alternative interpretation is that your position makes you blind to the shortcomings in the effort. If USMS really plans to make a good faith effort at improving their approach to open water, they would do well to view my comments here as reasoned criticism, not "pouting," and will realize that I'm far from alone in my views.
Fair enough, though one could argue that since I am not as passionate about OW then I am more objective in evaluating the *level* of their efforts. I readily admit I don't have the expertise to evaluate their efforts on their merits. I do not believe that the people involved in the decision were nearly as inexperienced as I, however.
I would add that (IMO of course) Ken Classen set a good bar for constructive criticism in his last post with respect to tone and being respectful of the hard work that many have put into this.
I echo Rob's comments about the scope of forum posts: do not assume that TPTB will read these comments. It can be a nice place to debate issues and refine positions interactively, but ultimately you can't assume that the people here on the forum are representative of either USMS administration or the membership as a whole. (I would venture to say that the same is true for the Marathon Swimming forum.)
An alternative interpretation is that your position makes you blind to the shortcomings in the effort. If USMS really plans to make a good faith effort at improving their approach to open water, they would do well to view my comments here as reasoned criticism, not "pouting," and will realize that I'm far from alone in my views.
Fair enough, though one could argue that since I am not as passionate about OW then I am more objective in evaluating the *level* of their efforts. I readily admit I don't have the expertise to evaluate their efforts on their merits. I do not believe that the people involved in the decision were nearly as inexperienced as I, however.
I would add that (IMO of course) Ken Classen set a good bar for constructive criticism in his last post with respect to tone and being respectful of the hard work that many have put into this.
I echo Rob's comments about the scope of forum posts: do not assume that TPTB will read these comments. It can be a nice place to debate issues and refine positions interactively, but ultimately you can't assume that the people here on the forum are representative of either USMS administration or the membership as a whole. (I would venture to say that the same is true for the Marathon Swimming forum.)
