Greets From Your Host

Hello there, Danfans, my name is Les Weaver and I am the administrator of the Official Steely Dan Website. It's been a real pleasure getting the site into the shape it's in today, much hard work and lots of satisfactions, and of course a great honor and joy for me to be working with Donald Fagen and/or Walter Becker on an important project such as this one. But before I get too self-congratulatory, let me take care of some official business:

1. Mssrs Fagen and Becker have asked me to apologize for the following:

a. The screwup on the chat page on the occasion of the first fan-organized chat on 5/5, which caused the Steely Dan channel to disappear from the server. This was, strictly speaking, not a crucial error, in that some of the fans were eventually able to find an open channel on the server which they could use for their chat, at least until the "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" fans began using it for their chat - it was their channel, after all - and I guess a lot of people weren't clever enough to figure out what was happening or what to do about it, and so they gave up and decided to do check out the newsgroups instead, or whatever. (When something goes wrong with the chat page, everyone should check on the Banyan Tree Guestbook to find out what is up and what to do next - okay?) Let me add in my own defense that the actual screwup happened over at Pathfinder, they were in fact the culprits in this particular cock-up, but it has been mentioned to me several times that as far as the page goes, "the buck stops here", with me that is, so I take full responsibility for what happened.

b. Some people evidently feel that the frequency with which new content is added to the page is not adequate for the voracious appetites of the fans who cruise the page regularly, nor is it sufficient to do justice to the prolific output of those who contribute to the page on a regular basis. It may be the case that my professional obligations to my gainful employer, Anodyne Technologies, have on some occasions kept me from fulfilling my webtender duties in a timely fashion, or at least quickly enough to suit some people. I can only say how sorry I am that this has occurred, point out that I am not paid for my services here, that this webtender thing is a much bigger job than was originally envisioned by myself or Mssrs Fagen or Becker, that the fans and contributors are becoming more demanding all the time, and that, in my opinion, it is just as well that there be some delay between the late-night e-mailing in of some inflammatory and possibly libellous feature piece from an enthusiastic and almost certainly inebriated contributor, and its actual posting on what is after all THE INTERNET, a public forum, by a wary and beleaugured webtender who is after all only thinking of what's best for all concerned, not wanting to be a party to some ugly scandal and hoping perhaps that the sudden onset of antemeridian sobriety may yield editorial changes in the interests of propriety, in the interest of keeping us all out of trouble or jail or whatever - that's all I have to say on this matter, and I'm sorry if what I did that one time, all right a couple of times, was so very wrong. I won't do it again, I promise, and even if I have or did, no one noticed anyway, right? I know Donald Fagen would agree with me on this one, if he were aware of what's going on.

c. Here's another thing that ticks me off - when there are complaints about something offensive on the page or about the sophomoric and smart-alecky tone of this or that item - say the wiseass answers to the fan mail - or when there are complaints about how nobody ever wins the contests or about the "haphazard " construction of the site - all that gets dumped on me, whether it's my fault or not. That is not fair.

d. The structure of the site - yes, there are some regrettable inconsistencies in how the site is put together, things could always have been done better, more efficiently, made a little more sense, be better thought-out, whatever - but the main thing is that the site is up and running, looks pretty good overall, gets changed as often as it does, and is beloved by the fans who see it, even if there are little glitches now and then. I have done my best to make the site a big success, up to and including taking time off from work to get things finished in a big hurry sometimes. That's all I can say about that.

e. Would it be too soon to call for a moratorium on the following:
-nasty letters about the Dancam;

-hate mail re the Gorge Cancellation;

-snide remarks about "Black Friday" not being on the A.I.A. CD;

-the use of the phrases "TicketBastard" and "DanScam"

-calls for my dismissal?

is it too soon for such a moratorium to be called? jeez I hope not.

So thanks for your confidence, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, and for a chance to make things right; and here's hoping that you and the fans are having as much fun here on the Official Steely Dan website as I am!

your Webtender, Les Weaver

5/31/96