P3D Re: Mailing lists

[roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (John W Roberts)]

>Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 09:41:37 -0700
>From: Peter Davis <pd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: P3D Re: Mailing lists

>I don't see why you have to characterize me and others as "inconsiderate"
>or wanting to "force everybody to receive their posts".  All I said was
>that I preferred the old way of having one list, because there was more
>discussion and more interaction.  I learned a LOT from reading posts which
>I might have missed had I excluded them based on the subject line.  I
>believe many others also read, and even responded to, "tangential" posts,
>and sometimes learned new things or found new interests.  In any case, I've
>never had any problem deleting messages which are not of interest.

There's nothing wrong with subscribing to all the lists, and many
people do so. Those people *will* receive everything you post, regardless
of which list you post to. Some people are not subscribed to some of the
lists, for a variety of reasons, including that they do not wish to receive
messages on these topics. The most significant difference between the current
setup and one in which the peripheral lists are shut down is that in the
latter case, the people who do not wish to receive posts on particular topics
will receive them anyway.

Now of course there are different interpretations of what qualifies as
being "inconsiderate". I have personally known a number of people who
seriously believe in the "I don't mind if you chew gum in public, so why
should you mind if I blow cigarette smoke in your face" school of thought.
Perhaps this isn't quite so extreme an example, but it should be remembered
that these spinoff lists were not created frivolously or on the spur of the
moment - a lot of thought went into their creation, and a lot of people
strongly believed in the need to do so.

I did not mean to imply that any specific person in the current discussion
was deliberately trying to be inconsiderate, and in fact you did not
specifically advocate going back to a single list - you just said you liked
the single list better.

>I could just as easily characterize you as "dictatorial" or "narrow minded"
>because you want to pigeon hole all the topics, and force everybody to
>decide where their postings belong.  But I won't.

I was actually pretty skeptical of the creation of the other lists, and did
not support any of them. But having seen them in use, I think they have
improved the discussion of 3D.

>I don't understand your concern here.  I haven't seen any evidence that
>people want to deliberately annoy others or flout the rules.  I haven't
>seen any cross-posting to inappropriate lists, etc.  What makes you think
>there are such people?

There have been several incidents. I'd rather not try to list them here.

John R


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