Klarinet Archive - Posting 000419.txt from 2004/03

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@------.net>
Subj: [kl] Abusing the list?
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2004 08:27:36 -0500

Richard Bush wrote,
> I do believe that this site, so gratiously hosted by Mark C, is being
> abused by those who will use any venue as their soapbox. Can we please
> show some restraint and keep most of our thoughts on clarinet or music
> related to clarinet?

Up to a point, I think that the off-topic threads enliven the list and give
it a sense of community, and that's why I subscribe to the unmoderated,
Klarinet version. I like to know something about the people behind the
signatures. For me, the most rigorously moderated forums seem populated by
cyber-folks who don't quite seem to exist in real life.

Still, I think Richard has a point. When it becomes clear that there can't
be any meeting of minds on one of these hot-button issues of sex, politics
and religion (the type of disagreement that has already dragged on, in one
forum and another, including war, for thousands of years), I hope that
participants will have the courtesy to use some common sense about when
it's time to remove the discussion to private e-mail, or just "Let the
Wookie win" and back away from some crank who's making a moral imperative
out of repeating the same dogma over and over until it's the last word by
attrition.

The other type of restraint I'd like to see is more mundane: Thou shalt
snip thy relevant quotations! Please, clip, paste and jettison what's
irrelevant or overly-repetitious. Part of the reason these off-topic posts
have bloated the list so badly is because some folks apparently don't
realize or don't give a squeak that by hitting "Reply" and sending without
snipping, they're feeding back ever-expanding message-reply sets followed
by "Unsubscribe" information sets, layered up like sediment at the bottom
of a toxic waste dump.

Lelia Loban
E-mail: lelialoban@------.net
Web site (original music scores as audio or print-out):
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/LeliaLoban