<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><DIV>On Apr 30, 2007, at 12:57 PM, Ben Stallings wrote:</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Someone said my name.....</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">And as for the confusion among Dan and Caveman and their coyote<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">associate, perhaps the Crisses can offer them some advice on how to<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">present a united front to the world.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>:-)</FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px"><BR></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px">Oh my.</P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px">A long time ago on another mailing list FAR FAR away, I/we went in search of a collective name. I could almost blame names for some of my internal confusion:</P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px">I was born "Christina". My godmother wanted the name "Chris" and my mother wanted the name "Tina". They combined the two to make everyone happy. My father wanted a boy, so he doesn't count on this one.</P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px">During early formative stages, my mother called me Chris, and my godmother called me Tina -- go figure!! I have no idea why they swapped.</P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px">Early childhood abuse took place in the home in which my name was "Tina". It is no wonder that the person that goes by that name in my head is messed up and still quite young. In search of an identity I could be comfortable under, I went through every derivative of "Christina" I could find (Chrissy, Christine, Chrystal, etc.). I was 13 when a young friend of mine misspelled my name on a Dungeons & Dragons character sheet and I became "Criss" -- he thought everyone spelled their name "Criss" because he was a Kiss fan (aka Peter Criss). But I liked it, and that name stuck, and I still use it to this day. About 2-3 years after "Criss" I figured out I was multiple -- back in 1985-6.</P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px">When exploring my multiplicity as a group entity, circa 1998-9, we were on many mailing lists and when speaking in first-person-singular I used names such as "Tina of Criss" but that wasn't quite right. I went in search of a collective-group name, and took suggestions from the other members of the list. "The Crisses" came from that search, and it stuck, and it was good. Now it would be "Tina of The Crisses" which we find much more comforting. I now use "The Crisses" and "Crisses" interchangeably. "Criss" is a public mask -- a group attempt to portray a single unified identity to the world, and it's mainly self-protective. "Crisses" is my out-of-the-closet name, the exact opposite in many ways of "Criss" -- the "out" and flamboyant multiple that I generally prefer to be.</P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px">I came to PmWiki around 2003 as part of the project for Kinhost.org, where I'm "The Crisses" and so I'm here entirely out of the closet as a multiple.</P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px">I have some difficulty when discussing "ZAP" (or Acme) and it's author, Dan. I don't know who to refer people to on the list :) When someone comes by and asks me about some functionality, I refer them to "The Editor" "Dan" or "Caveman" on the mailing list. :) </P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px">I have been merciful and used one name on this list ;) I don't have much in the way of advice for Dan, The Editor, Caveman or W. E. Coyote, except that people should probably get a sense of humor. "What is a name? A rose by any other name..." It's a label. As long as you're not changing the label to mislead or pull off some shady business, it continues to simply be a label. The banks don't care if I use the name "Criss" as long as it all points to the same social security number as "Christina". I use names to try to give people a clear picture of me and my identity, and some people actually care "Which Crisses" they're talking to.</P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px">I have not been reading anything about the public debacle about Dan/Wile E. Coyote -- when I read the web page, I thought it was funny in a sad way. I took it as a big public sticking-out-of-the-tongue or tongue-in-cheek humor in spite of obvious adversity. My only reservation is that this is an international and multi-cultural community, and the humor might not come off as well to people who were not exposed to Warner-Brothers cartoons from the time they got out of diapers: </P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px">Wile E. Coyote is a cartoon figure who often used products from the "Acme" company in his pursuit of the Road Runner -- his main target for dinner. The Acme products ALWAYS blew up or failed, much to Wile E.'s disappointment (and often humiliation or pain), and the target -- the tasty and emaciated Road Runner -- always threw it in the coyote's face and got away. I dabble in psychology, dream interpretation, and symbolisms: I took this to be Dan's humorous way of saying that Dan is getting burned for creating ZAP. I see from what Ben has to say about what's going on in the PmWiki world, that this is not far from the mark. By making this bold allusion, Dan has publicly said that Acme ZAP is a plausible solution that is turning into a painful problem for him. To the people who are giving him hassles over it: that's not a very nice way to say "thank you" for someone trying to contribute to the community.</P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px">On Dan's behalf: OUCH!</P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS; min-height: 16.0px"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></P><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">Instead of "lightening up," I think it might be enough if we could all<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">just acknowledge that Dan has done an awful lot of work in a very short<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">time to produce a useful product (and unlike his detractors, I can say<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">that I've used it and am actively using it, and it is, in fact, very<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">useful)<BR></FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I was an early-adopter of ZAP -- I used it in its first "FAST" incarnation, and have been using it since. I have NOT upgraded all the sites I've used it on: it worked, I left it alone, and used the newer products on any new projects that came to me.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>My primary use of ZAP has been to save data to wiki pages. I'm now holding back waiting for PM to finish putting that functionality into the core, and I'm using ZAP for flexible email form processing, which I find absolutely invaluable. I'm trying out features in ZAP slowly, and there are features that PmWiki does not have, and likely will not have anytime soon, that help take PmWiki from wiki-with-attitude to wiki-as-cms.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Here's my honest opinion of ZAP: It's a little too confusing. It's getting less and less confusing as the documentation and the application improves. If it were not for DAN's dedicated and patient support for ZAP, I would not be able to use it. I spontaneously come out of the blue with problems implementing ZAP, and he works through the issues with me. If that level of need for support is too much for anyone, then ZAP is probably not for them -- yet.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Could it be better documented? Yes, absolutely. So could PmWiki and almost every piece of open-source software I've ever used. Is it documented? Yes. Does it have a support team? Yes. Does it work? Absolutely. Is it safe? [If you want REAL safety, get off the web.] It's pretty darned safe. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>When Dan first started talking about FAST->ZAP he was so excited he couldn't type in English, and he kept talking about what it could or would do, but never told us how or gave sample code. BUT the amazing thing is that he delivered exactly what he was babbling about. He thought outside the box that PmWiki had drawn and handed us a free-form tool to do many things, and rather simply, that we weren't even considering before then. I think he deserves the "PmWiki Plug-In of the Year" award for 2006. ZAP is amazing. Now we just need Dan to sit still long enough to document it better, and for the people who DO "get it" to help him out by submitting useful "recipes" for ZAP or helping with the documentation.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Unfortunately it takes a lot to "get it" at first.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Regardless, a million Kudos for him stepping up and LEARNING PHP to hand us something different and useful. He was not a programmer. Maybe that's why he was able to do this.</DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">So thank you, Dan.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>For most of us, confusion is a temporary state.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">--Ben S.</FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV>I agree. Thank you Ben & Dan :)</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Crisses</DIV></BODY></HTML>