From: Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Date: Tue Dec 02 1997 - 07:14:28 MST
Jeff Fabijanic wrote:
>
> >Is the Rotary a cult? is the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies a
> >cult? Is 4-H a cult? Is the specialty-certified service station I take my
> >car to a cult? How about the letters-to-the-Editor column of Scientific
> >American?
>
> Individuals without the funds to pay yearly 4-H dues are usually given a
> rider. And anyone is allowed and invited to write to the letters column of
> Scientific American. They don't limit the discussion to sub'ed members.
>
> I run several mailing lists for the user groups/professional orgs I am
> involved with. If done properly, it takes almost no effort after the
> initial setup/tweaking.
I agree. While I've been delaying my subscription/membership this year
due to vagaries in time/employment, etc... I am rather appalled at the
elitist attitude some list subscribers are taking with regards to the
list. So we have some newbies now and then, so we get spammed once in a
while. If I were the powers that be, I'd keep the main list open and
have higher level specialized lists for those who don't want to have
their in boxes polluted by the tracks of ignorant plebes. Its not the
cost that implies the "cult" flavor, its the isolationist attitude.
Those who don't want to be bothered with helping enlighten newbies to
extropianism shouldn't have kept their subscription when the list went
public.
Here's an interim suggestion: Have a free subscription period, of say 3,
6 or 12 months. Then have a subscription rate for further membership to
the list.
Max should have booted me a long time ago, to be fair. (The check is in
the mail). ;)
For those that complain about too much noise and too little substance,
you should be pushing the list owners to police relevancy/ongoing
stupidity more effectively. Subscribers should also police themselves.
If you think someone is not on topic, first a) check the FAQ yourself,
then b) email the relevant text in the FAQ to the offender.
Many people here who are ardent libertarians seem to be rather welfarish
in their attitude toward noise/signal on the list. If you think someone
is an ingnorant nincompoop, use personal email to go into long and
sufficient detail to educate the novice as to his or her error. THose
who are too stubbornly newbie for it to have any effect on usually dig
themselves deep enough for some real fun once they get into rude enough
territory. If you are not taking personal responsibility for fixing up
the signal to noise on the list, then its your fault. I find the threat
of high subscription rates simply the moral equivalent of trade
restrictions. Hardly libertarian.
-- TANSTAAFL!!! Michael Lorrey ------------------------------------------------------------ mailto:retroman@together.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive MikeySoft: Graphic Design/Animation/Publishing/Engineering ------------------------------------------------------------ How many fnords did you see before breakfast today?
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