Re[2]: DISCUSS: List Explosion

["David H Ritterskamp" <dhritter@dpcmail.dukepower.com>]

     Tibor Wrote:

Greetings from Tibor.
     
As I expected, the explosion of mail has reduced itself: now, all we get is 
too much mail on the topic of too much mail.  Many lists go through such 
throes.  Now that folks know over-posting smacks of inconsideration to some 
substantive portion of the readership, I suspect all the problems will go 
away.
     
However, just for giggles:
     
       Again, this smacks of censorship...I think the subject headers will 
       work just fine; and if they don't, then we can explore sterner 
       measures.
     
Censorship is control of content: not quantity.
     
Tibor

Um, Tibor, I hate to point this out, but if you'll go back and read the 
original message, you'll discover that whoever the author was (I forget, and 
the "who" is quite academic) was suggesting just that, albeit in reference to 
bandwidth being taken up.  I believe the original text read something to the 
effect of 

-snip-

 Can we limit on-line discussion to things of broader interest, please?  

-snip-

Now, as I've stated, I have absolutely no problem with anyone who doesn't want 
to read the stuff flying past, and have been quite happy to contribute to a 
solution, but I did sort of bristle at the mere _concept_ of "limiting online 
discussion to things of broader interest."  

Funny...that sounds like some sort of attempt at censorship to me, or else a 
chunk of text that should have been well thought over before it was sent.  For 
what, I ask, is censorship, other than one group's attempts to limit 
discussion to things that *they* find of interest?  What would the rest of us 
do, for instance, if the rapier fighters were to dominate the net with 
discussions of nothing except what was of interest to them?  Or the S.W.A.T 
people?  Or the poetry people, OR the people who just like to sit there and 
amuse themselves and other people with witty stuff?  Or WHOEVER?

I didn't start out to offend anybody, but I didn't have any problem with the 
original concept of implementing a way for time-or-space-pressed gentles to 
clear the bandwidth of things they didn't have the inclination to read. 
However, apparently no one but me noticed the wording of the original message, 
although I did reiterate *just that point* in my reply.

I concur with Tibor on one point: we've got too much mail on the subject of 
too much mail.  Several methods of solving the problem have been suggested, 
and I urge the administration (Calli & Kendrick) to implement one of them.  

I would also urge *everyone* to simply let this die down, to IMPLEMENT A 
SYSTEM (The simplest one, IMO, is "INFO", "DISCUSS", "PARTY") and get on with 
life.  Otherwise, I fear this one could get blown WAY out of proportion and 
cause some serious problems.  

To that end, this is the last message I will post to the list dealing with the 
List Explosion, for the nonce.  If it comes up again in a year or two, I'll 
probably just giggle manaically and ignore it.  But I think I've proved my 
original point, about censorship, and it is one I do not mention lightly; but 
no matter how well-intended the original concept was, as I said, that one 
sentence was the ONLY problem I had with the whole thing.

Ceasing to add to this well-worn thread,

Jonathan Blackbow

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