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From: Richard R. Ryburn (no email)
Date: Fri Mar 02 2001 - 15:58:58 EST
There has been discussion of censorship, etc.
I run a mailing list. Actually, several.
Controlling content on a mailing list is not censorship. A list has an
owner. Like your house does. If someone visited you in your home and used
language that offended you, it would be your right to tell them to stop. It
is not, however, the right of another guest in your house to tell you to
tell them to stop... request it, yes, but tell you, no.
Let it be pointed out that I find some of this as offensive as anyone else,
but I would not post _to the list_ a message starting "Dear List Owner:". If
you want to make a request to the list owner, address it to him, not the
list.
I originally subscribed to this list in 1994, I believe it was, and was off
for awhile due to lack of time. I still find it to be very useful much of
the time.
I don't have anybody filtered to go to the bit bucket. As a matter of fact,
I haven't deleted any messages since I resubscribed a year ago. I find them
to be useful resources.
If I automatically deleted someone, I may miss that one useful nugget that
I've been looking for since November.
If the list owner finds that there is anyone that does not make more of a
contribution to the list that difficulties, it is his privilege to remove
that person. If we think someone should be, then we can email the owner
_privately_ and make that suggestion. He doesn't have to take it, tho, and
it is certainly not our place to publicly chastise the list owner if we
don't like how he runs _his_ list.
What _does_ offend me is lack of basic courtesy, and it's not language I'm
talking about here.
For those of you who don't realize it, many people can not read email
formatted as HTML. Period. Other people would prefer not to. A plain text
email without attachment, for example, can NOT carry a virus. Also, it
increases the typical message size by about 700%. Yes, that number is
correct. Since we can assume that at least some of the people on this list
actually DO live aboard, we can also assume that some of the people on this
list have a slow connection to get email, or one that they pay by the
minute.
Right now it doesn't matter to me. I'm on a high-speed connection, and even
the windiest HTML email only takes a very brief time to download. However,
several times various list members have posted this request, and IIRC the
list owner has even make the same request.
The other thing that unnecessarily increases download times is excessive
quoting.
I have received message with five people quoted, with _eight_ of the
advertising blurbs contained in quotes. Trim. Quote what's necessary. It's
the polite thing to do.
And yes, I do have other things to do than read the mails on this list. I'm
a network administrator and programmer, the webmaster for an international
non-profit, have a family and two cats. I receive about 400 emails a day.
But, amazingly, I still find time to be polite online, and try,
ocassionally, to share what knowledge I have acquired over the course of 35
years of sailing, on this list, and others.
I've been on the internet since it was the ARPAnet, in 1975. I've been
exchanging information using it more or less consistently since then. None
of this is new. We have a wonderful medium. We can find information we would
never have seen, meet wonderful people we would never have know, and,
occasionally, even hear that one wondrous thing that makes us actually
change our mind about something.
If I play nice, maybe everyone else will. If not, I can still play nice.
Ric Ryburn
Currently Boatless in Virginia, but not for long
"The only difference between a genius and a fool is which one is looking." -
Me
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