from the Listowner (was, Why do you subscribe)

[Eric Ray <ejray -at- OKWAY -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>]

     Long but important message follows. Please read. Eric.

     Tammy Williams said:

>  My primary reasons for subscribing are to see what is going on
>in the field, learn from others, and help others.  From some of the
>comments I have read and some of the debates that occur here, it
>seems to me that some of you subscribe because you like to debate or
>you're bored.  I'm not here to make a judgement call about
>subscribing for these reasons, but I will say, you make it hard for
>some of us.  My department head subscribes to this list.  Many of
>your supervisors probably also subscribe.  If these unrelated debates
>continue, are we going to convince people that this list isn't worth
>subscribing to?  If so, how many people will leave?  How many have
>left?  When people leave they take information with them that might
>help you or me.  Please try to discuss issues related to technical
>communication.  Please stop the bashing, name calling, and unrelated
>debating.  Let's try to help each other learn new things and deal
>with the frustrations of this field and our jobs.
>   Thanks, Tammy (tammy_williams -at- oclc -dot- org)

I agree completely with Tammy's comments. Her reasons for subscribing
are very similar to the reasons I created this list, and reflect
what I see the purpose of this list to be.

I can add that quite a few people have recently left the list, and I can
assume that the increasingly high signal to noise ratio had something
to do with it. In a couple of cases, I know that from personal E-mail.

Please do think about Tammy's comments and try to keep focused on the
purpose of the list. Additionally ...

Sally Marquiqny said:
>Like others, I get major grief at work for the number of mail messages I
>receive.  (This list is the culprit.)  I can't find the time in the day to
>sort through them, so many remain on the system for some time, whether
>they're "junk mail" or not.  Should we vote to create another list for those
>who want to take turns on the soapbox so the rest of us can get down to
>business efficiently? ;)

I do not want to encourage anyone to sign off the
list or to take technical writing issues elsewhere, but if anyone would
like some pointers to more appropriate forums for drug testing, politics,
personal liberties, or other topics, I will be delighted to help out.

Let's please keep it to technical communication!

Eric
ejray -at- okway -dot- okstate -dot- edu
TECHWR-L Listowner