At 08:01 PM 3/17/99 -0600, you wrote:
>My first reaction to all this banter about staying on subject (or what an
>individual considers to be the subject, not necessarily mine or the
>majority)
 
 
I never realized that it was that difficult to figure out that flying pigs,
and arguments about the relative superiority of Mac vs. PCs are not on
topic to the conch-L mailing list.
 
 
>But that attitude is wrong.  You and I belong here as much as anyone.  I
>don't get a lot out of the highly scientific discussion of conchologists,
>malachologists, biologists, but I do scan their messages and am sure I pick
>up something new from time to time.  I am confident that the more
>academic-minded also learn something from me.  In this world we all have to
>get along with less than agreeable people.  I avoid them face-to-face, but
>the delete button works fine for me on the Internet.
 
 
"Just hit the delete key" is the answer spammers give when you object to
their filling your email box full of get rich quick scams and ads for
pornography sites.  It's not valid in that case, and it's not valid here.
Conch-L gets 50-60 posts and day and if you're away from your computer for
a couple of days you have several hundred posts to sort through when you
return.  You can't "just hit delete" you first have to read a line or two
to find out whether the post has anything to do with shells/malacology or
is, instead, from someone who imagines that we're all dying to hear that
the buzzards have returned to Hinkley, Ohio.  Only then can you "just hit
delete."  After you've repeated that procedure for several hundred
messages, you find you've wasted a lot of time.
 
 
>Let them rant and
>rave, but don't let them dominate or intimidate you.  Everyone has personal
>preferences, and just because discussions of flying pigs offend some people,
>don't let them decide what you are going to get from the listserve.  All
>have a right to speak their mind.  Let them; ignore if you don't agree.
 
 
Any windsurfers in this group?  How about bicyclers?  Bridge players?
Crossword puzzlers?  Should those of us who also enjoy those activities
discuss them here as well?  *Anyone want to talk about the Crossword Puzzle
Tournament in Stamford, CT, this past weekend?  *Does anyone know if the
'99 Ultegra index shift levers have the rattle problem that the previous
years' model did? Those who aren't interested those subjects can just hit
delete.
 
 
>In a nutshell, if you find something offensive, ignore it.
 
 
The problem isn't "offensive" the problem is "off-topic."  The mailing list
is named "Conch-L" not "All Things Considered."
 
 
> It will shortly die if it provokes no response.
 
 
But in the meantime it wastes time.  It takes time to wade through 50
postings and weed out the 20 that have little or nothing to do with
conchology/malacology.
 
*Note (for the sarcasm impaired) my questions about crossword puzzle
tournaments and shift levers are rhetorical.