Re: [Leica] Off topic posts

["Roland Smith" <roland@dnai.com>]

How about bees?  They are lighter.
- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brian Reid" <reid@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2000 9:39 AM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Off topic posts 


> A little bit of political discussion, especially when it is informed
> and not vituperative, can improve the quality of an email community.
> The current situation in US national politics is not likely to generate
> informed intelligent discussion, and has not been doing so. I have no
> problem at all with a low level of messages about political theories,
> political principles, and so forth. As long as most of the discussion
> is about photography, it's fine to have some discussion about things
> that photographers care about. But in the 25 years that I've been
> moderating Internet email communities (yes, I started in 1975), I've
> found that politics, religion, and abortion discussions, during times of
> national angst about those topics, will drive away many of the most
> valuable contributors to such communities. 
> 
> If you let too much highly-emotional off-topic traffic in, you tend to
> lose older people who have seen it all so many times before and who
> just don't want to go around that topic again. 
> 
> OT: speaking as a physics major with an engineering PhD, I can assure
> you that keeping 500 pounds of canaries in the air does not change
> the load on the undercarriage of a truck. 'tis a bird blivet no matter
> how you arrange it.
>