Reputation
The Register said "no one will doubt that he was not backward in coming forward, the fact remains that he was a witty, well-read, traveled and caring man. In short, a good human being." David Langford wrote in Ansible that he was a "knowledgeable and opinionated... fan who posted copiously on Usenet as Gharlane of Eddore."
He is known to have posted as Gharlane from gharlane@nextnet.csus.edu and gharlane@ccshp1.ccs.csus.edu. Up until 1992 he often posted as "potter@csusac.ecs.csus.edu (Carl Kolchak)". Gharlane made his first appearance Sep 25 1992 in a posting to rec.arts.sf.written about the movie Sneakers. On May 7, 1993 he announced his Lensman FAQ in rec.arts.sf.written.
His pseudonyms in print publications included E. K. Grant and Gordon F. Shumway.
Fantasy author Tom Holt has dedicated two books to him. Alexander at the World's End (1999) is dedicated to "Gharlane My Imaginary Friend." Falling Sideways (2002) is dedicated "In memory of David Grant Potter (1947-2001) --And thanks for all the fish."
In 2001, after Gharlane's death, Holt wrote: "A request for information usually produced an immediate and definitive answer. As for his opinions, he fired them like cannon-shells; they were incendiary, capable of piercing the toughest armor, and they scattered their shrapnel right across the group, often starting flames that would flicker on for weeks after the original salvo. A point-blank broadside from the Eddorian was devastating. Return fire seemed to glance harmlessly off him, or else it overshot the mark and sailed harmlessly into the distance. he lives on in the minds he opened, the people who came to fight and stayed to debate, listen and learn. Correspondences that started with anger and outrage from some victim of Eddorian grapeshot mellowed into long, fruitful correspondence. Hundreds of people swapped mails with him, part of a network of friendship that reached right across the world. The centre of that network is silent now, we can no longer draw from it the information, wisdom and joy we've become accustomed to. But Gharlane survives in each member of that network as a perspective, a way of seeing things, an ability to notice things of value that previously were overlooked or not recognised for what they are. We are no longer one, but at least we're many."
Read more about this topic: Gharlane Of Eddore (pen Name)
Famous quotes containing the word reputation:
“The reputation of generosity is to be purchased pretty cheap; it does not depend so much upon a man’s general expense, as it does upon his giving handsomely where it is proper to give at all. A man, for instance, who should give a servant four shillings, would pass for covetous, while he who gave him a crown, would be reckoned generous; so that the difference of those two opposite characters, turns upon one shilling.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“The relatives of a suicide hold it against him that out of consideration for their reputation he did not remain alive.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The reputation of a man is like his shadow; it sometimes follows and sometimes precedes him, sometimes longer and sometimes shorter than his natural size.”
—French Proverb. Quoted in Dictionary of Similes, ed. Frank J. Wilstach (1916)