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Re:

>i am tired of getting all this crap email that has nothing to do with me
>cause i am not one of the "listies" or whatever. why dont ya'll start up
another
>damn letter and constantly write to each other using that, instead of
>filling up my inbox with one line crap email? i dont get it. i really
>dont. why do you need to respond to this list if you;re only going to say
one
>sentence about someone's like or dislike of monk?? does anyone agree or
>am i the grinch?


Well, I agree and disagree.  Sure, I find a lot of the mail boring and
tiring because I'm just not in on a lot of the inside jokes and so forth.
But I've learned to make judicious use of my "Delete" button.  If a thread
starts to go off-topic, I just don't follow it any more.  It only takes a
second to delete.

Another discussion list that I'm involved in "blew-up" last year over the
heavy amount of "off-topic" mail.  In that particular situation, I was all
for off-topic discussion. It seemed, to me, to bear relevance to the stated
topic, even when it strayed far from, and I was enjoying the off-topic posts
even more than the on-topic posts.  Some people were getting really pissed,
though, and leaving the list (of course, in those days it wasn't uncommon
for that list to get over 100 *long* messages a day).

In the end we decided to create a separate list *specifically* for off-topic
posts.  It bummed me out at first, because I felt like we had been "exiled"
from the group, but of course that wasn't the case.  Those of us who wanted
to, joined the OT list, and now when a thread strays too far from the stated
topic, we simply move it to the other list.  It's worked out really well for
everyone.

However, when I was crusading *against* the formation of an OT list, I told
everyone who was bugged to just learn how to use their "delete" key.  So
now, when I find myself in their situation (bored by the number of
irrelevant posts), I have to refrain from being a hypocrite.  I suggest you
do the same.  There's a lot of nonsense floated around here, but there's
also a lot of good discussion that rears it's head every once and a while.
:)

Paul Christian Glenn      |  "Life without music would be an
cirhsein at firinn_org       |  intolerable insult."
http://x-real.firinn.org  |                   - Edward Abbey

Now Reading: "The Man Who Was Thursday" by G.K. Chesterton