Saturday, March 24, 2018

A Hoagland anniversary

"Gorgeous"
"Pioneering"
"Groundbreaking"
 "Vitally important new discoveries"
"Revelations"
"New insights"
"New information"
"The Ultimate Game Changer"
        Those words were spoken exactly one year ago today, by former museum curator Richard Hoagland, in praise of his own work,note 1 The Hidden History of Mars: A War In Heaven. He was on Howard Hughes' radio show on talkradio.co.uk specifically to plug this book, but as I reported at the time he simply reiterated well-worn claims such as that NASA is really an adjunct of the Department of Defense, and that he personally coined the phrase "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" (neither of which is true.)

        Back in November 2016 he had described the book as "just recently completed," and promised to hand out free copies to the loyal Club 19.5 members who had kept on giving despite that fact that the radio show had been off the air for a month.

One week ago, this announcement appeared on the OSOM web site:
LOOKING FOR BOOK DESIGN HELP 
Some of you know that we, the Enterprise Mission team, are working hard to release an amazing compilation of our research. We are now at the process where we have to convert our Indesign Print Layout to a Kindle/ebook format. This is a complex book, rich with imagery. 
If you are a savvy graphic designer who KNOWS how to do that efficiently and would like to be part of the Enterprise Mission volunteer team, please contact Kynthea, our producer, using the contact form on this website.  Thank you.note 2
        It seems to me that Kindle is not the right format for a richly illustrated book, and it also seems to me that Hoagland is royally abusing his "members" by not only failing to live up to his promises but then coming to them with a plea for uncompensated labor.

        So in 16 months we've gone from "just recently completed" to "HE-E-E-E-LP!" That's not what I call working hard, Kynthea.

=========================/ \========================

[1] Actually, if I read it right, the majority of the content is not even Hoagland's own work but that of his so-called "Imaging Team" of Keith Laney, Keith Morgan, Andrew Currie, The Morgan Curve, Tim Saunders and Robert Harrison. Possibly Kynthea herself, too. Her picture puts me in mind of one of Noel Coward's most famous stage directions: "Enter Madame Arcati, in barbaric jewellery."


[2] Hilariously, the same announcement included a plea for help in redesigning the web site itself. Something that badly needs doing, yes indeed.

3 comments:

Dee said...

Yes, of course.

The Hoagland curse, which is catching up with him and his team, consists of simply cause and effect. Keep on alienating all capable, patient and helpful people and keep replacing them with chaotic, unguided, troubled individuals and one ends up with a growing mess.

From what I can see Hoagland hardly allows himself to be managed or instructed. Many of the technical problems I hear about so far appear to boil down to a lack of focus, patience and likely the unwillingness to follow instructions, to accept some strict guidance. That includes continuing the unrealistic demands to volunteers, the desired scale of publication and operation, without compromising on what reasonable people have probably indicated as being in the realm of possibilities or, simply, what is still considered reasonable.

Here then follows some well intended advice for those around Hoagland and the man himself:

This idea of retaining this "big" radio show, compiling complex book formats and aiming
for some fancy website seem like distractions. The radio show was not a bad idea at all but needs a talented "tough" producer and perhaps also a deeply involved technician. But it's simply proven to be not in Hoagland's personality to maintain such a team and instead he prefers trusted people, people who never oppose meaningfully. So forget about it for now! Just pipe down a bit, publish some bits and pieces in social media and interact, learn, involve others, new blood. That is how it works nowadays. Trying to revive the past successes in shows and books is simply too tough without some huge investment of time and money from a lot of people. So rethink the strategy! Listen to people. Be humble. Of course that makes me smile as it's unlikely at this stage which what is invested emotionally. But who knows!

Dee

expat said...

Excellent comment Dee, thanks a bunch.

Mr Belcher said...

would like to be part of the Enterprise Mission volunteer team, please contact ......in the next paragraph he's asking for a Divi programmer ...again ' would like to be part of the Enterprise M Volunteer team...Ummm so he likes to take money off subscribers, but not pay his 'team' any money. Does he want everyone to work for free? His work is of such importance that people should offer there free time and effort , while 'probably' paying for himself through subscriber money. Sounds fishy.