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ADMIN: Why's the listowner such a jerk (the saga continues)
Subject:ADMIN: Why's the listowner such a jerk (the saga continues) From:"Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- RAYCOMM -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 7 Oct 1998 10:33:25 -0600
Gang,
I thought I'd share with you another iteration of the
Why's the Listowner Such a Jerk saga.
A fairly long-term list member just tried to post to the
list and couldn't. His/her posting privileges had been suspended
for posting a WAY off topic one-liner that I'd specifically
said shouldn't be addressed on the list.
After the original belligerent message "WHY can't I post
to the list--check your records and you'll find...", we've
had three more exchanges. The gist? In order to have
suspended posting privileges restored, for anyone, I
must have assurance that the poster will make a good
faith effort to follow the rules. That's all.
In this case, the list member in question has stood
on his/her record of other on-topic postings, has pointed
out that other people have posted much worse things,
has speculated about my "anger" and the "personal issues"
that I might be dealing with that would cause me to be
so nasty and rude to her. However, he/she has not
gone so far as to say that he/she would try to follow
the rules, thus I haven't restored the privileges.
Why? If you think about what would happen to this list if
1% of the subscribers post off-topic messages
each day, or if 1% of the subscribers send attachments
and encoded garbage to the list each day, or if 1% of
the subscribers send content-free ("I agree") one-liners
to the list each day, you'll see why it's necessary to be
quite firm with the rules of this forum. (1% of this list
is about 38 people.)
Some people are very good-natured about off-topic
issues--I've developed some interesting online friendships
with people I "met" through "your off-topic posting" messages--
but others can be remarkably defensive and rude about
them. In general, being rude, insulting, or speculating
about my personal issues aren't good ways to communicate
about off-topic messages.
Food for thought...but not for discussion on the list.
Contact me offline with comments.
Eric
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Eric J. Ray RayComm, Inc. http://www.raycomm.com/ ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com
*Award-winning author of several popular computer books
*Syndicated columnist: Rays on Computing
*Technology Department Editor, _Technical Communication_
