Some advice from a VERY long-ago administrator.
I think I remember my name being in red sometime 10 or so years ago, between Tony and Loz, but I could be wrong. As I mentioned in my last post, I am having some cognitive difficulties. I also seem to remember that the main reason I voluntarily left the Admin position was that I couldn't keep my big mouth closed when it came to issues that really meant something to me. That being said, I originally came here today to give an update on how I am doing with all those weird symptoms I have been having that I posted about last week. Upon reading "THE" KA Book Project post, though, I just had to write this. I haven't fully investigated everything that has been said about this subject, but I really don't have to see anything to know that there is some disagreement going on right now about this issue. Even so, my advice is honest and not meant to make anyone angry. If you choose to read further and then get angry, I am sorry...
My advice to the current administration:
Don’t put up a post titled "THE" KA Book Project and then proceed to say the "NSD Success Stories" are a good starting place.
Don't then add a footnote that oh, by the way, any other success stories are welcome even though the expert who is voluntarily contributing several chapters on "AS mechanisms and treatments" happens to have a very biased view of AS mechanisms and treatments.
If you want to write "A" KickAS Book, this might be appropriate, and I say 'might' if there were adequate disclaimers that the book is based on some members' success stories with certain non-traditional treatment options. An appropriate title for such a book might be, "A Book About KickAS-ers Who Have Had Success With Non-traditional Treatment Options"… a little long, perhaps, but containing the adequate requisite disclaimers previously mentioned.
Now if you persist and decide you, indeed, must write "THE" KickAs Book, then may I suggest an appropriate starting point might be Brian's story. From there you might work your way through the history of how this small dream "ASWeb" of one very determined person became the loving supportive place that so many people who are really suffering have come to depend on through the years that have followed.
You can continue by discussing how two guys from different ends of a country came together to mold "ASWeb" into the first, very fluorescent version of KickAS.org, you might want to even look into the history of that little donkey that adorns the very Admin post that started all this book talk in the first place.
You might then want to chart the growth of the group; I remember trying to just keep up with new members on a map many years ago, and it was amazing to think of all those dots being people who were in the same boat as me. KickAS led me from feeling utterly alone to knowing that others understood, and those 'others' were all over the world.
I guess I was still a little in disbelief, though, even after that map-making project, because I just had to see for myself if the dots were real people after all. That is why I traveled from one end of North America to the other meeting the real people that are "THE" real KickAS story.
Yes, that is the story "THE" KickAS Book needs to tell. It is a story of friends, support, sharing, compassion, and yes sometimes disagreement. But that should be expected, because "THE" KickAS Book is the story of a family.
