Date:         Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:45:15 -0600
Reply-To:     joel walker <uncajoel@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         joel walker <uncajoel@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject:      Re: Vanagon List Moderator
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
              reply-type=original

> In addition to volunteering how about normination? The person in
> mind
> is unca Joel. Unca Joel was responsible for a majority of past
> culture
> of this list that attracted a lot of us here before. Anyone engaging
> in Vanagon (or VW) related business is not really appropriate for
> the
> moderator job.

boy!! some people!!

ya finally retire and ALL KINDS of folks come up with "stuff" for you
do to!!
i've repaired/installed/helped-with more computers AFTER i retired
than i did
when i was working! ;) (not really ... but it sounds good when you
rant it out loud). :)

and i deny any responsibility for what the culture was in the past,
present, or future!
on this list or off it! :)

i kinda thought about 'volunteering', but came up with several reasons
NOT to ...

a. i ain't a good manager.
found out in the army that i wasn't too good at it, so i've
avoided that line of work all my life. i'm much better as a number 2
(kinda fits
my personality, some say) or helper, rather than the lead man on some
project.
i tend to be ... shall we say ... too bossy. :( which is not good for
my ulcer or for
them folks being bossed. :(

b. i'm not really savy on mailing lists or servers or that stuff.
my job was just fixing pc's and holding hands with the users and
showing them the basics. the nerds in our department didn't trust me
around servers. ;)
 to them, i was a dinosaur from the main frame era (you remember
them, right? big honking machines that cost million$ and occupied
buildings, not just desktops)
and basically a relic to be ignored and tolerated. so i took care of
the other dinosaurs on campus,
and the nerds liked that part, cause they didn't like dealing with old
professors and such. :)

c. not really sure what a 'moderator' does ...
has to read EVERY stinking message and 'approve' it before it goes
onto the list? hmmm. well ... that sounds like a sucky job. :(
whack someone down if they 'violate' some policy or some such on the
list?
well ... i dunno.
i've always kinda though that we ... we precious few ... of the list
should kinda police ourselves.
but that's hard to do ... cause most folks on the list do NOT post
very much. it is (by my observations and record-keeping) more than
most large lists ... nearly 70 percent of the folks subscribed to the
vanagon list have posted in the last six months. which i think is
kinda amazing.
true, it's usually the same two dozen folks, but there are another
couple of dozen that zing in
for a hit now and then. ;)

d. ask yourself ... do you REALLY want a broken-down old fat man
telling you what to send out in your emails? ;)

unca joel
"if nominated, i will not run. if elected, i will not serve.
but if you pay me, i will take the money!!!"
- a semi-famous politician of the past
;)