.
It would seem that one of the criteria for the job in the PAS is a willingness to ignore the very many issues raised by "partnering" artefact hunters. From several chance remarks and other factors it is possible to deduce that within the organization, any form of contact with the views of individuals that have views about such "partnering" which differ from those of head office, are strongly discouraged. As I have said before, there is a secret (staff-only) PAS Internet Forum, and what I see at this end can be intepreted in one of two ways, neither of them very flattering to the mindset of the PAS. Either it is set up in such a way that FLOs can read websites such as this blog without being 'seen' by the tracking software of this blog (but two FLOs have broken it), or only two FLOs [the same ones] ever follow up anything they read on that forum about what is said here, and the others consistently shut their ears and eyes to anything that does not fit with their view of the world.
Until last night that is. Somebody sitting late in an FLOs office, I will not say where, but it was not Wales (and not London, who also sit up late), spent over an hour after work trawling quite systematically from one post to another about a restricted series of issues. They came to the first one from a referring link, the rest they followed on their own initiative. If you look at the pattern of what they were looking at, it seemed this person was actually making an effort to understand what the archaeologist whom the PAS dismisses as merely an uncomfortable "troll" is actually writing about and why. It is about the first time I have seen that on such a scale from a computer identifiable as a FLO. Most of the time this happens, it is a university computer (and its somebody researching for a dissertation or essay I suspect).
If this person is reading this, I'd be quite happy to explain offline any questions he or she may have, and in complete confidence, the Bloomsbury Thought Police will never know. I'd also love to hear that this person actually stood up in a PAS staff meeting and said out loud, "yes, but...". Bet they will not though.
Vignette: Fritz Lange 1927, "Metropolis".
It would seem that one of the criteria for the job in the PAS is a willingness to ignore the very many issues raised by "partnering" artefact hunters. From several chance remarks and other factors it is possible to deduce that within the organization, any form of contact with the views of individuals that have views about such "partnering" which differ from those of head office, are strongly discouraged. As I have said before, there is a secret (staff-only) PAS Internet Forum, and what I see at this end can be intepreted in one of two ways, neither of them very flattering to the mindset of the PAS. Either it is set up in such a way that FLOs can read websites such as this blog without being 'seen' by the tracking software of this blog (but two FLOs have broken it), or only two FLOs [the same ones] ever follow up anything they read on that forum about what is said here, and the others consistently shut their ears and eyes to anything that does not fit with their view of the world.Until last night that is. Somebody sitting late in an FLOs office, I will not say where, but it was not Wales (and not London, who also sit up late), spent over an hour after work trawling quite systematically from one post to another about a restricted series of issues. They came to the first one from a referring link, the rest they followed on their own initiative. If you look at the pattern of what they were looking at, it seemed this person was actually making an effort to understand what the archaeologist whom the PAS dismisses as merely an uncomfortable "troll" is actually writing about and why. It is about the first time I have seen that on such a scale from a computer identifiable as a FLO. Most of the time this happens, it is a university computer (and its somebody researching for a dissertation or essay I suspect).
If this person is reading this, I'd be quite happy to explain offline any questions he or she may have, and in complete confidence, the Bloomsbury Thought Police will never know. I'd also love to hear that this person actually stood up in a PAS staff meeting and said out loud, "yes, but...". Bet they will not though.
Vignette: Fritz Lange 1927, "Metropolis".
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