Mike Vandeman

From ChapmanCentral

Michael J Vandeman, PhD (as in "piled higher and deeper") is an "environmental activist" (or possibly just a mental activist) who hates mountain bikers and will torture what limited evidence exists to try to prove his point. He also posts gleeful reports of the death and injury of mountain bikers. He is laughable, dishonest, and transparent, a canonical usenet kook, and very funny to watch and bait.

Vandeman claims that "I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8 years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)" Clearly he does not count himself as a human, since he is a keen hiker. There is no evidence that his much-touted work has resulted in anything, and it is clear that his views are so far from the mainstream that no reputable journal will publish them. He cites his own "research" but the closest it's got to publication as we understand it, is presentation of some wacko papers to near-empty rooms at conferences (which, as anyone will tell you, is not hard to do).

There is absolutely no chance whatsoever of convincing him of anything whatsoever, since he "thinks" in broadcast-only mode, but you can win an argument with him by one of two tried and tested means:

• Point out where he is palpably wrong, and keep coming back to it however he wriggles and changes the subject, until he loses interest and starts insulting you.
• Ridicule him mercilessly.

Vandeman threads in the past spawned side-discussions of some actual merit. These days, it's pugilism and nothing more. Great fun for the willing participants, but if reading gleeful death reports of other humans gets your goat, or if you can't bear to read a gross misrepresentation of published science without correcting it, you are strongly advised to steer clear of Mike Vandeman and killfile all threads in which he participates.

Background

Mike Vandeman is a militant anti mountain biking zealot. He has decided that mountain biking is a massive threat to habitats, and has set about assembling a dossier of evidence that proves this. Sadly he hasn't a leg to stand on - there does not seem to be anything to distinguish mountain biking from horse riding or hiking as a threat to habitat, and he is a keen hiker. He has failed to comment on off-road motorised recreation (which is identified by several wilderness agencies as a threat), and has yet to find a single official supporter in any of the wilderness management agencies.

Identified threats to habitat include logging, water extraction, off-road motorsport and (of course) wildfires caused, almost exclusively, by hikers and campers. Not one of the official wilderness management agencies sees mountain biking as a threat worth discussing on their website. " Vandeman's twisting of the facts led to him being banned from holding office or claiming to hold office or speak for the Sierra Club.

Modus Operandi

There are two reasons why Vandeman is loathed by mountain bikers on Usenet. First, he has rendered several newsgroups completely worthless. Second, his habit of posting gleeful death reports of mountain bikers. Standard Vandeman threads:

• "Another Mountain Biker Dies" See this thread for the perfect example. Turns out the deceased wasn't riding his bike at the time, but climbing. Threads like this mark Mike out as a true four-letter fellow, not just a harmless kook. Trust me, having trolls gleefully abusing the death of your loved ones for their own ends is 100% unfunny.
• "Another death threat from a typical mountain biker..." see this thread where Vandeman changes the title to "death threat" from "hate mail". There is no death threat. But as is pointed out later in the thread, if someone posted that Mike will die in the next 100 years, he would see that as a death threat.
• "Why Is the Supply of Idiot Mountain Bikers ENDLESS?" - standard bullshit thread usually accompanied by posting of an email sent to his widely-advertised address, including all headers, which is generally considered a gross breach of netiquette. Such emails are usually of the form "why don't you get lost you pointless idiot" or variations thereon. When replying, please change the thread title from mountain bikers to Vandespam.
• "The impact of mountain biking on habitats, a review of the literature." You know what to expect. A classic of policy-based evidence making, cherry picked facts from mostly his own work. This is where he is at his most persistent. Having been completely trounced in the thread Science Proves Mountain Biking Is More Harmful Than Hiking, he posted precisely the same shit at EFFECTS OF OFF-ROAD RECREATION ON MULE DEER AND ELK (essentially this is a paper on mule deer and elk] which shows that, er, mountain biking is not measurably more disruptive than hiking). He refuses to publish the search base or terms for his "literature review", which makes it as worthless as everything else he posts.

As I say, the right way to deal with Vandeman is either a scholarly rebuttal, repeated until it becomes obvious to everyone but him that he has no credibility whatsoever, or howls of derision.

But remember: he is like a street-corner evangelist. He wears the insults as a badge of honour, and if he is derided by millions but listened to by one, he will consider that a vindication of every moment he has spent. You have been warned.