----- Original Message ----- From: "Reggie Bautista" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Brin-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 5:41 PM Subject: Re: Good Governance
> > I have encouraged other lurkers and semi-lurkers to post their opinions > also, but many are afraid of being flamed or just like their anonymity, so > I'm not sure how effective my arguments to them will be. Let me use this as an opportunity. As one of the top ten big mouths on the list, I've always wondered about people who read the list but don't post. I find discussing things with folks here a lot of fun. But, I have a bit of trouble understanding why people enjoy just reading what we write. I realize that I tend to like support for arguments. For example, when there was a discussion of the time between new moons, I went and looked. When Jeroen argued that he was sure that the Israeli media was full of anti-Palestinian propaganda similar to anti-Semitic propaganda found in Palestinian media I suggested he go look. Eileen suggested this is intellectual snobbery. She suggested earlier (March 12th) that my posting on Kant and QM was "a pseudointellectual rant" that drove lurkers deeper into silence. Thinking that I didn't want to hurt the list, I slowed my posting to a near stop, posting only twice in April. (This compared to 14 posts in the first 12 days of March.) Instead of finding that everyone else jumped into the space provided, I found that posting dropped to low of 264 posts in April (compared to 391 in the first 12 days of March). But, I still wonder if I can make the list more hospitable to new posters without giving up what I like about it. I know I won't let opinions like "slavery had nothing to do with the War Between the States" go unchallenged. (I chose this example because I've heard this, but not on the list). But, at the same time I'm more than willing to find new ways to be polite about this so I can encourage long time listeners to become first time callers. :-) Any suggestions or wisdom from your extensive network? Dan M.
