Trevor,
Just WHO is off-topic with your post? (I know I am with this reply.. but...)
FYI, I have been deleting all the messages with "Subject: 4WD MGBs and
Messerschmidts, et al" because I had no interest in the topic. "Subject:
Frank Zappa" has ceased to hold my interest as well. So, one click of the
mouse and the message is GONE... Unopened. Unread.
However, I saw your name on this one.
Here you are complaining about off-topic posts whilst having written just
that! Long message = Lotsa' bandwidth. If people have an MG
problem/question they're gonna' post it. If not, they're gonna' chat about
the weather or cats or Frank Zappa or some other thing. We're all friends
here. We don't sit in silence, hands folded, until called upon by a higher
power.
I, too, subscribe to several lists. I scan the names of the posters and the
subjects on the other lists and delete those messages that don't interest
me. I read most of the mail on the MG list unless it's about something that
interests me not. I'd rather delete the mail that doesn't peak my interest
than to only receive one big technical message per day. Interaction amongst
us is the only way we'll "know" most of the posters.
Without replying, I (like Larry Hoy) can scan 70-80 messages in 20 minutes
or less. I respect your right to subscribe to as many lists as will fit on
your hard drive. However, when you get buried with mail, don't come
hollering around here -- unsubscribe from this or another list until you
can manage the volume, or deal with it! We're not here to solve problems
you seem to have created for yourself.
I don't know why you seem to insist that WE are causing a problem for YOU.
If you weren't so nosey you wouldn't read every single message only to find
out that you didn't want to read it in the first place. 'Sure seems odd to
me....
I recall your chastising me for limiting your "rights to free speech" --
which I was not doing, BTW.
So can you tell me what you're suggesting here with your megaphone analogy?
Limiting OUR rights to free speech??! [And I do NOT want to get into any
personal/civil rights discussions here or in private... before you launch...]
Have a nice weekend! I need to go get Darlin' to prettify her for Fifth
Friday Brit Car Night here. It'll be a nice night for a run in an MGA...
Carol
[My apologies to the other list members for taking up yet more bandwidth on
this subject. I shall not post on it again.] [And they all said "Whew!]
BTW, on other lists, when the discussions are off-topic, the subjects are
usually prefaced with [NC], meaning "Nonsense Chat" which clues readers to
the fact that off-topic info is in the message. We could try it here. I try
to remember to do so.... Whatever...
At 12:00 PM 8/29/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Randy Rees (Volt Computer) wrote:
>> As for the off the topic subjects , its kind
>> of like having a party, not everyone will talk about the same thing, but
>> everyone sure had fun.
>
> No, there is an enormous difference.
>
> Think of this as a party where everybody wears duct tape
>over their mouths at all times, except there is one
>megaphone.
>
> In order to say something, you pick up the megaphone,
>take off the duct tape and say your piece.
>
> When you chat at a party it doens't have
>to be on topic so much because only a few people
>listen. But here, every little detail gets read
>by everyone. Everyone stops what they are doing
>to listen, and doesn't have a choice.
>
> You know when you go to a car show and there is
>always some idiot leaning over his car saying stuff
>like "Oh I gots me a good trick, I just puts me
>a little dog turd in every fillup. That and a little
>spit and I gets me 300hp".
>
> ...or the guy who walks up to your MGB and says
>"I never liked these italian cars, with the damn
>engine in the back".
>
> There, only the people around him get annoyed. Here,
>everybody on the whole list has to read it. And worse,
>it's usually not even car nonsense, it's pure
>nonsense.
>
> There is also a group that says "Well, it breaks up
>my day". I bet these people only subscribe to
>one maillist. I've said this before, but here it is
>again.
>
> Many people, including me, subscribe to many maillists
>on many topics. Cars, computers, sports, you name it. The
>problem is that YOU might have time to read 100 bogus
>posts about just anything. That might be tolerable or
>maybe even acceptable to some. But when you are on a few
>lists, that becomes 500 bogus posts.
>
> The effect is that you have to drop off some lists that
>you want to follow and feel you could profit from. This
>because everybody thinks "Oh I'll just throw this in
>as chit-chat, nobody minds it's only one more post".
>
>--
>Trevor Boicey
>Ottawa, Canada
>tboicey@brit.ca
>http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
>
>
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