Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 11:43:56 -0400
Reply-To: "Joe L." <jliasse@toast.net>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Joe L." <jliasse@toast.net>
Subject: The Princess and the Pea (Was: List Anti-SPAM measures)
In-Reply-To: <001201bfd74b$e024f260$961fd1d1@ronbloom>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
I had thought the private email the List Admin and I exchanged was the
end of this silliness but it seems there are those who wish to feed the
fire. I imagine those who claim a right to insult others with impunity or
think insults should be taken without reply shall blame me for keeping the
thread alive. I also would not be surprised if I get a few "If you don't
shut up and take it my buddies will kick you off the list." type of posts. I
suppose it is even possible that I will be kicked off the list for not
tacitly confessing the accused sin by taking the insults in silence but such
are the risks in the atmosphere of extreme hypersensitivity that began this
silliness.
Once upon a time....
Due to the occasional little bit of spam that makes it to the list a
vote was held last week to decide whether or not to close the list. The vote
said leave it open and simply live with the occasional little bit of spam.
Decision made, case closed, subject complete, end of story, move on.
About a week later the **LIST ADMIN**, apparently still concerned with
the spam the rest of us had decided not to worry about, reopened the subject
by telling the list that he was going to start screening every bit of email
that comes from a non-member address in order to prevent that occasional
little bit of spam from getting to the list. I looked upon **his** reopening
of the subject as an expression of genuine concern and willingness to
personally do something about it. I commented thusly:
"While I certainly appreciate your willingness to go through the extra
work I'm not sure your not generating more work for yourself than the
present situation warrants. We are getting very little spam and such as we
do get is easy to identify and delete. Your examination of every email from
a "foreign" address before allowing it to appear on the list seems like a
lot of trouble for you to go through just to save us a few strokes of the
delete key."
I posted ONLY that one single comment. Later several others posted short
agreements. THIS ONE COMMENT and the several short replies have apparently
caused some on the list to look on us as "a bunch of fruits, flakes, and
nuts" and "whiners and snivelers". For **THIS** one guy implied we are
supporting pornography!?!? **THIS** single comment gets us "The time for
opinions is over." (In other words, "Shut up!") from the List Admin himself
who has (by God only knows what thought process) seemingly has taken our
"Gee Tom, don't work so hard" sentiment and turned it into a rebellion
against last weeks vote??!?!?!
I honestly do not know what to make of this. It is not rational. It
seems that the list has been thickly planted with mines. Anyone who posts
anything that cannot be quoted chapter and verse from the Holy Writ of the
Bentley ventures into this minefield and risks an explosion. The exact
location of these mines is known only to a few and seems to change from day
to day depending on the mood of the keepers of the minefield.
Wherever the mood of the moment set the mines that day it seems I and
several others have stepped on one. I by posting that one single innocuous
comment, the others be agreeing with me. I would like to hear from those who
exploded just what it was in that one single innocuous comment that lit
their fuse.
You DO have a rational reason for your reaction, don't you? If so, please
post it as publicly as you have posted your other, err, ahh, "comments".
Justify your explosion; either that or take your place in the Looney Bin
alongside the rest of us "bunch of fruits, flakes, nuts, whiners and
snivelers".
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of Ron Bloomquist
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2000 12:32 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: List Anti-SPAM measures
Hi Tom,
You wrote:
"The time for opinions is over."
<snip>
Right on!!
I must say, the "list" as a group, drives me nuts. What a bunch of fruits,
flakes, and nuts.
Makes me wonder how democracy can even work. The whiners and snivelers
always show up after the voting is over.
Dictatorship is so much easier!!
The only reason I hang in with this list is because every now and then some
real wisdom shows up. But, I guess, like they say... You gotta sort a lot
of gravel to find a gem.
Maybe I am still in shock after the five month process it took to design a
vanagon sticker. What a fiasco that turned into after such a simple,
straight forward, beginning. I must admit though... the end product turned
out quite cool! Now, if we could only get the damn things.
Anyway, onward and hang in there Tom, you do good work.
Ron
