From: BillK (bill@wkidston.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: Mon Apr 30 2001 - 12:57:16 MDT
Now that the dust has settled a bit, can I put forward the suggestion that
what we saw was an example of a side-effect of the technology being used?
This thread indicates that both Brian and jm have 'always-on' connection to
the Web. While this is a 'good thing' for making full use of the Web, it can
be a disadvantage when used for mailing lists. IMHO the Extropian mailing
list should be treated with respect as a mailing list and not treated as
though it was an AOL chat room with lots of one-liner repartee.
Oops! Now I've got to go and wash my mouth out with soapy water :-(.
I get the daily digest version of the list which lands once a day in one
great wodge on my computer, rocking it from side to side as it loses
momentum. When I read through the list, the effect is like that described in
the novel 'The Forever War' by Joe Haldeman. The point being that it is very
difficult to fight an inter-galactic war when the participants are limited
by light speed and there are huge intervals of time between incident and
response.
When I read the daily digest, I am forced to think about what I read, wonder
about responding, then ten minutes further on in my reading, find that
several people have responded far better than I could have hoped to respond.
(You know who you are!).
When some response offends me I have a quick froth at the mouth, start
jotting down furious notes in reply and carry on reading. On a good day I
froth so much that I have to go and have a cold shower after finishing
reading. By the time I get round to thinking about responding, my furious
notes are very out-of-date and seem like so much nonsense that I heave a
sigh of relief that I didn't send them off and make a fool of myself in
public.
So, please count to ten before responding - and never send the first draft!
BillK
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