Goodbye to the community

[NatureFish]

This is my last post to this community as your Groundspeak Volunteer Reviewer.

Due to recent controversies and wild scurrilous rumors, compounded by a mistake of judgement on my part, I have been relieved of my role as a Volunteer Reviewer.

Please do not flame Groundspeak, they had no choice, as I violated one of their most closely held rules for Reviewers and this is the price one pays.

I had a great time working with the wonderful folks in Arkansas and made some friends as well.

I do not know who will replace me, but ask that you give him or her as warm a welcome as I was given.

Those of you with emails sent to me to discuss geocaches and geocaching issues please wait till your new Reviewer is announced and address them to him.

Reviewing caches in Arkansas was a blast, and I hope that my actions benefitted this community.

Moderators, please close this NatureFish account immediately, I will open another under my player account, TheAlabamaRambler, to stay in touch with my Arkansas friends.

Thank you all.
Ed Manley
edmanley@bham.rr.com
205-914-6814

[flannelman]

Hate to see ya go fish. It's been great working with ya. Hope to see ya caching here soon.

[Team_Pink]

This stinks!

I am glad I got to meet you and I hope to see you at an event or on the trail one of these days. Thanks for making yourself so available and so easy to work with as a reviewer. Your shoes will be hard to fill.

[Spice]

I only began geocaching in the last couple of months, but I have heard many good things about NatureFish. I too hope to meet you on the geocaching trail some day and thanks for all of your work in the geocaching community.

paris1time

[cachecrazies]

What an unhappy surprise this was!!

We'll really miss you and your great reviewing! We're also glad we got to meet you in person. Thank you for hosting the Alabama/Arkansas event and we enjoyed seeing you again at the Clarksville event in April.

We're glad you'll be staying in touch as the Alabama Rambler and sure we'll see you again!

[MaxCacher]

Sorry to see Ed go, he was a great help to the reviewing team, am back reviewing Arkansas again

please send questions and emails to MaxCacher@aol.com

Max Cacher
Geocaching.com Volunteer Cache Reviewer // Moderator

[Geezer_Veazey]

Ed, I'm sorry you won't be reviewing any more but I'm glad you will stay in touch. You've been an inspiration to me. Every time I think I'll go caching and then think no, I won't go today because my feet hurt, it seems I always think of you. God Bless You.

Guy

[nonnipoppy]

Now that just ain't right.

I write this with a heavy heart hoping that the pious members of the Almighty Church Of The Holier Than Thou are finally happy.

Ed here in Clarksville you are a well respected man and we feel that a travesty has been done. May God smile on all that you do.

Please stay in touch.......poppy

[OldRiverRunner]

Ed,

Thanks for setting up the Petit Jean event and thanks for all your great work in helping us in here in The Natural State in our geocaching endeavors. It has been an honor to meet you and work with you. Please continue to be active in our state's geocaching events. You may no longer be my reviewer, but I will always consider you to be my friend.

ORR

[arkansas_stickerdude]

Ed you have inspired me, and I will never forget everything you have done for Arkansas and me. With all the STUFF going on in the other forums this GAME is starting to make me mad. I will not attend another MEGA event until all the gripping and moaning stops. Ed again I hope to make it your way very soon and I HATE TO HEAR the crap you have had to go through. Just like everyone else here I concider you a GREAT PERSON THAT HAS OVERCOME MORE THAN THE AVERAGE PERSON AND A GREAT FRIEND. Keep in touch.

Whoa, what did you do that got you canned? I heard about some stink over the record run, but I can't see how that affected your position as a reveiwer.

[demonicangel]

Don't let their stink ruin your fun of the game. Just take it in stride and use this time to go out and find some caches and do it the way YOU want to.

Even though you won't be a reviewer anymore, I still hope you attend some of the meetings around here. Angel and I both plan to make a trip back home for Poppy's events every year so I really hope to see ya there.

[TheAlabamaRambler]

Thanks for all the kind words!

I have met many friends in this community (as NatureFish) and will remain active in it as a player.

The circumstances of NatureFish's demise are short but convoluted: you really can go from hero to zero in this game in a few days - suffice it to say that I did something I should not have done - and that infraction was compounded by becoming embroiled in a couple of really nasty controversies, and I don't have the political skill to handle attacks well.

Anyhoo, I loved this game and the people who play it before I was invited to become a Reviewer and still do.

I will be around
Ed

[Gaddiel]

Just now got around to reading this post, and wanted to add my name to the list. Ed, we all appreciate the work you've done as a volunteer approver. I don't know the specifics of what happened and I don't care. I just want to say thanks for all of the help you've given me and the rest of the geocachers in Arkansas.

Also, I'd like to thank you for being a voice of reason on these forums. You've always been willing to help anyone who needs it. It was great meeting you at the event, and I look forward to seeing you around here in the future.

Wayne

[mountainborn]

Ed, you have contributed so much to this sport. I have followed this mess with revulsion. All it takes any more is for someone to take a stance or state an opinion on a public forum, then the rabid dogs attack them. I deem that your decision was well within the scope of your job, and, that simpering wimps who are afraid to make decisions at that level, attacked out of envy.
I look forward to seeing you on here !
Thanks to THEALABAMARAMBLER for having the spine it takes to forge new routes into the future of geocaching.

[Woodwalker9]

Ed,
You are certainly going to be missed as our reviewer. We always considered you more than just our reviewer, but our friend. I hope you will stay involved through this forum and hope to see you soon at the next Arkansas event. We wish you only the best.

[BACKPACKNJACK]

I don’t know the details either but thank goodness that only reviewers get fired for making mistakes because if us hiders and seekers got fired for making mistakes I’m sure there would be no hiders left to hide and no seekers left to seek.

We have bestowed 00 raises (in the words of the great mathematician Jethro Bodine “Double Naught”) to the great geocachers of Arkansas before for their great efforts but I would like to nominate you for the first ever (maybe not the last), much better than 00, raise to “Double Naught 2 (Also)” 002. That's a double double?? [:)]

Along with a Thank You this is just about all we have to offer so I hope you except both in appreciation for all your hard volunteer work trying to keep the game sane and make it better.


Does anyone second the motion to double his pay X2?
BPNJ

PS. Welcome back to the much less work but still a lot of fun , side of caching.

[mcdoodles]

We meet TheAlamabaRambler at GW4. He is one of the nicest people we meet over the weekend. I am pretty sure we know what he did to get into hot water. But this is getting stupid. Do they really want to turn their backs on the caching community after all we have done for this game? They mention warning then banishment. We have yet to receive a warning, yet our cache got archived. We actually had 4 caches at our campsite. Only a handful of people found all of them. Most only found one or two of them. We were doing a test to see how many could be found. BTW did any of you sign the logbook in the wooden bulletin board? Yes that too was us doing a test. We have a FULL log book from that one. We were going to only allow logging of the two that got the most hits. "Curiosity Killed The Cat" and "The Texas Micro" were there to show diffrent kinds of hides not to get us banned from our game.

EDIT- Double talk

[9key]

Sorry to see you go, Ed, and it was nice meeting you. Believe me, you won't miss reviewing caches. I sure don't. :roll:

[mbell72901]

Sorry to hear all the news Ed, but I know the world will still keep spinning. Enjoyed meeting you at Clarksville. Also enjoyed caching with you and you were there on my #400 find in Clarksville. Will stay in touch, hope you do also.
73 de K5JMB
mbell72901
Mike

[LadyEngineer]

Finding out that you will no longer be our reviewer is very sad. I know not the reason or circumstances but I know that the man that put on the Arkansas meets Alabama event and who came to the Clarksville event in April is a wonderful example of a what makes geocaching so much fun. Any time we take friends caching and they complain of heat, rain, terrain, or whatever, I think of you know that they can do it and will be just fine.

Anytime your in the state know that there are any number of phones you can ring, where on the other end of the line is a person that would jump at the chance to cache with you.

Peace be with you,

LadyEngineer

[grandkid44]

Noninpoppy and mountainborn say it all . I did'nt have a clue there was any controversy or problem . Nature Fish , you are a gracious , generous person in accepting responsibility for what-ever happened. We all know that no one person is at fault in a misunderstanding . Having met you , your response to this is what I would have predicted ; mature and forthright . You , my friend , meet the definition of being a , "man". My life has been enriched knowing you .

[cachemates]

Ed,
I don't know what happened for you to get dismissed, all I know, you were a good reviewer for Arkansas and for us personally. You helped me on more than one cache.
Having met you at the Petit Jean event and going with you on a very tough terrian cache I know this certainly won't stop you.
Those of you who know where the Rock House Cave, and Turtle Rocks are at Petit Jean gives you an idea what a tough cacher Ed is. We went for one of ORR's caches near the overlook. We took the long way, Ed took the short way and he made it almost as fast as we did. I was simply amazed at what he did. Just imagine doing that on one leg and crutches. I realized then that Ed is not Handicapped at all.
Hope you can make the Mountain Clan Event. You know from experience that Grandkid 38 cooks a mean corned beef and cabbage. It may be to hot in August for dutch oven cooking, but you know Grandkid will come up with something.
Hope to see you there.

[sayitagain]

Ed,
It has indeed been a pleasure meeting you and working with you and you have certainly been an inspiration to all of us. Please don't let this get you down. As I was reading some of the nit picki posts about the DRR and seeing where they came from I am glad I am a southern geocacher. Keep in touch and I would be proud to go caching with you anytime, any place. Sayitagain

[TheAlabamaRambler]

Thank you, I can't tell you how much your kind words mean!

I am sure that I will see y'all soon!

On the way to GW4 I replaced Big Red (my custom Dually Suburban gas hog) with a cool '06 Tahoe Nonipoppy so graciously hooked me up with, and will be using it to come see my GeoPals.

After traveling the world pretty extensively for 50+ years I don't think I would ever leave my little town here in Alabama, but if I am ever tempted to move Arkansas will be at the top of the places-to-live list!

Ed