The Voynich Ninja

It may seem strange coming from me, having been involved in the Voynich MS for more years than anyone else here (to the best of my knowledge), but I regularly perceive that the Voynich MS and the theories surrounding it are taken a bit too seriously. 
I don't think it's worth fighting about.

I wasn't going to write anything in the Leo / goat mosaic thread. Neither I nor anyone else has the time to comment on everything.
However, there was a clear request for feedback.

A digression... I regularly get E-mails from people who report some breakthrough in the decoding of the MS, sometimes to the point of a claim of complete translation. In none of these I have ever seen anything that had any chance of being correct.
When pointing out the problems in each case, the reception of this is just not there. The negative feedback is not accepted.
Not rarely, the person is offended, and more often than not, I get the response that, since I can't read the text myself, how can I judge that the proposed solution is wrong. So, then I wonder (but don't write): why ask me in the first place?

In fora like this, getting no response at all, to something that one perceives as important, is certainly frustrating, but this is completely common to all discussion boards about the Voynich MS. Many times, people read it, digest it, but don't have much to add to it. Maybe they don't know whether it makes sense or not, and then not saying anything is quite a reasonable thing.


When honest criticism comes, then this can be negative. This should not be interpreted as a personal insult.
Mail messages tend to be relatively short, so they may seem more direct.
I do strongly object to the statement I read yesterday that I am:

Quote: attempting to maintain the now eight-year campaign to suggest that I am irrational, or inconsistent, or illiterate, or 'out for glory' or any other among the useless and pointless stream of memes

This is imaginary and uncalled for. Simply not true. I do hope that that sort of thing stops here.

Hi Rene, 
in my opinion, that sort of things will never stop. We are facing a mysterious object and some people just can't accept this. They want to believe they have "cracked the code", positively proven that the manuscript says this or that, unequivocally understood everything. Some people are just not humble enough to accept that there are things they don't understand. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they believe that this hobby will make their name famous through the centuries.

Delusions of grandeur, the sense of superiority by natural birth-right, attachment to personal pet-theories make them feel they are in danger every time their ideas are questioned. Feelings of this sort are not uncommon. I think the only way out is getting used to this state of affairs and avoiding wasting too much time because of it: a difficult but potentially useful exercise.

This is generally true for discussions of many things such as politics, history etc. (I think I already expressed this point earlier in this forum.)

And neither the mailbox of Dr. Zandbergen nor our forum is unique in this. Same thing in e.g. the Russian VK group.

I think that explanation of the scientific (or gnoceological, if you like) methodology is the best thing that would help people realize if they are on the right or wrong track. What are the criteria of whether a theory is adequate or not, to begin with? If a person does not have a reply to this question, his/her theories will most probably ever be in the "pet-theory" stage, although a sudden enlightenment is of course possible.

As for criticism, it is a necessary element of research. Without criticism, one will never go forward. It is true that this concept is not always understood. The best way to understand it is to realize that criticism is not an attack of the person, but an attack of the opinions, judgements, conclusions etc. of that person. What is "attacked" is not the person, but the inadequacy of our knowledge.

Not to mention those that are "anti-theory" (of course excluding their own theories from this aversion). A widespread way of thinking.

Please by all means just call me Rene

It is sometimes an art to ignore and divine to listen to the silence.