Re: Me, getting ticked off

[P3D Marvin Jones <72657.3276@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > The fact that there have been scores of
> > messages commenting on various aspects of Virtual Boy over the past couple
of
> > weeks is testament to the fact that it is not "of little interest to
> > most of us 
> > on this list." 
> 
> It only takes a handful of people to generate a lot of traffic.  I
> don't think the VB mail was coming from a majority of the 700 or so
> subscribers of this list.

I've been reading this list for a couple of years, and I have NEVER seen mail
coming from "a majority of the 700 or so subscribers." And I don't think it
would be too far from true to suggest that in that couple of years, there has
probably hardly ever been any single message posted here that is of interest to
all, or even a majority of, those subscribers. If the only subjects permitted to
be discussed were those that had the approval of a quorum, the list would wither
up and die.

> > The purpose of this list is to discuss ALL THINGS STEREOGRAPHIC,
> > and not merely a narrow range of subjects that happen to be of
> > specific interest 
> > to any member arrogant enough to assume that his tastes are
> > everyone's tastes.
> 
> So now I'm assumed to be arrogant because I voiced an opinion about
> what is or isn't relevant to this list?

As I read the note, you did't merely "voice an opinion about what is or isn't
relevant to this list." you instructed that all further discussion about the
stereographic game system Virtual Boy cease because it was "not relevant to the
collecting or  taking of 3D photographs," which you obviously consider the only
topics that should be discussed here, since any other stereo-related topic is
"of little interest to most of us on this list."

THAT'S the one that REALLY set me off, left me steaming for several hours, and
finally prompted me to vent. Yes, I DO consider it arrogant for you or anyone
else to presume to speak for and arbitrate the tastes of the majority of a
diverse group of 800 people. I DO consider it arrogant to dictate just which
stereo-related subjects are to be "relevant" in a general-purpose stereo
discussion group, and which should be declared off-limits--declared off-limits
not because you aren't PERSONALLY interested, of course, but because they don't
appeal to a sufficient number of the 800 other people who have presumably
empowered you to speak for them.

Many people were obviously very interested in this stereo-related game, because
they generated dozens of messages about it over a couple of weeks--probably as
much or more "traffic" than any other subject currently under discussion. Some
found this discussion extremely useful in fulfilling a long-term wish to obtain
one of these units and some of its games at a reasonable price, and in helping
to decide which of those games held the greatest stereo interest. Okay, those
messages were generated by only a dozen or a dozen-and-a-half people. That's
about the same number who routinely discuss esoteric questions of optical
physics in specific lens configurations, or generating Pulfrich images while
driving the freeway, or how to flatten out curved Keystone views of
nineteenth-century China, or processing techniques of an obscure black and white
infrared film from the Ukraine, or the significance of a peculiar notch on a
1937 private-release View-Master set of spelunking photos, or algorithms for
creating Magic-Eye stereograms on the home PC.

As I said before, this is a group set up for the discussion of any and all
topics relating to stereography, whether or not all 800 people on the list (and
their single self-appointed spokesman) find every single topic scintillating
reading (in fact they are guaranteed not to!). President Clinton's foreign
policy or the social significance of Billy Ray Cyrus are probably off-topic for
a 3D group, but a discussion of the only currently available video game that
produces true stereographic imagery is certainly not!


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