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RE:

You are absolutely right. The delete button has been working over time
here. It would be really swell if all the little teasing and personal
joking could be done privately, not publicly here. I know it's a *list*
and that's the price we pay trying to get something interesting in the
way of discussion. I want to know how any/all of you got into OtR. I
want to know what your opinions are about music, literature, art and
life in general. Everybody has something important to say, so please say
it. Just leave the other crap out of it. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Christian Glenn [mailto:cirhsein at firinn_org]
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 1999 9:45 AM
To: Prucher, Julius [DAC/ELG]
Cc: OTR List
Subject: 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
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