FW: Where is everybody?

["Sue Heim, San Diego" <SueH -at- VISIO -dot- COM>]

I sent my response to Stuart directly, and then thought maybe I oughta
share it with the list, since I know there are others like me out there
in cyberspace... <grin>
...sue

>-----Original Message-----
>From:  Sue Heim, San Diego
>Sent:  Thursday, July 24, 1997 11:15 AM
>To:    'Stuart Burnfield'
>Subject:       RE: Where is everybody?
>
>You know, lots of us are still around. It's just that we don't get
>involved in those "war" types of discussions (degree vs no; dress code;
>Win vs Mac; 1pg vs 2 pg resumes; and on and on ad nauseum <grin>).
>
>And lots of us *do* still hang around the list, and when we feel the
>urge to respond, we do so privately to the person requesting help (or
>whatever).
>
>Just a thought...
>...sue (who has been on this list for over three years now, in case
>you're look for old-timers; or is it four years?)
>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>Sue Heim
>Senior Online Engineer
>Visio Corporation - San Diego
>619/596-5990 x326
>mailto:SueH -at- visio -dot- com
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:  Stuart Burnfield [SMTP:slb -at- FS -dot- COM -dot- AU]
>Sent:  Thursday, July 24, 1997 2:25 AM
>To:    TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject:       Re: Where is everybody?
>
>Natalie Griffith <ngriffith -at- TNC -dot- ORG> said:
>> Can somebody tell me what happened to the former population of this list?
>>
>> I have been inactive for a lengthy relocation/transition period, and now
>> that I'm hooked up again I find none of the old regular voices I have
>> been conversing with over the past nearly two years, much less traffic
>> overall, and much less "meaty" topics.
>
>In my early days on techwr-l (mid-1995) I saved many messages. "Oh
>brave
>new world, that has such people in't" I thought. "Tis new to thee", you
>may well reply, and you'd be right. Until then I'd met in person
>exactly
>zero technical writers. techwr-l was my letter of introduction to
>several
>hundred active writers, many of whom were doing what I wanted to do and
>who knew things I wanted to learn.
>
>Bev Parks got me started. She sidled up to me one day on the playground
>at alt.usage.english, said "Psst, kid! Check these out" and opened her
>trench coat to reveal a cool set of threads: peer review, style guides,
>paperless docs, customer satisfaction, minimal manuals, JoAnn Hackos's
>book, audience analysis. True, this good stuff was often cut with much
>lower quality material: in my first week, Dr Seuss, and someone's
>cc:Mail
>server which bounced *every* message back to the list. But by then it
>was too late; I was hooked.
>
>Grepping through my Mail/docs/useful folder, I see many familiar names
>from those first few weeks: Robert Plamondon, Arlen Walker, Geoff Hart,
>Mark Levinson, Win Day, Sue Gallagher, Misti Delaney and Becca Price
>(back then they shared an e-mail account, but for a long time I thought
>it was a split-personality thing), Kat Nagel, Elna Tymes, Matt Ion,
>Sandra Charker.
>
>Other names I rarely see any more: Dick Dimock, Emily Skarzenski, Rose
>Wilcox, Bonni Graham, Gwen Barnes, Betsy Maaks, and others. There were
>giants in those days.
>
>I suspect there's just as much meat on the list now as then. Perhaps
>our
>tastes have changed.
>
>> What happened? Or am I in the wrong list?
>
>'The Stepford List': everything *looks* normal enough, but something
>isn't quite right. . .
>
>Regards
>---
>Stuart Burnfield
>Functional Software Pty Ltd
>mailto:slb -at- fs -dot- com -dot- au
>
>
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