I don't think there's any need to throw out the baby with the bath water, here.
> So to hell with the WOB! That said I am poised to offer my very first P+B:
> gd88-09-03 WAV or SHN (your choice) - to the first 3 who email me.
The WOB isn't our enemy. The WOB isn't an evil perpetrated on the people by the MAN.
The WOB isn't really even a tax--the WOB is a lubricant, a tiny tweak that enhances the
ability of the system to distribute live music. Think of it as being one aspect of the
etree
high-availability mechanism...
The WOB has no absolute value, and therefore no absolute cost:
- no rules govern the quantity, quality or perceived value of a WOB offering
- many WOBs go unresponded-to
- or responders never send discs
My notion of WOB difficulties:
- it gets used as a weapon <sigh>
- the name itself puts folks--especially recent etreers and non-netheads--into
the
unfortunate position of feeling they must determine whether or not their words
are a "waste". This can lead to resentment, since most of us believe that if
we're
going to the trouble of saying something, it has value.
Philosophy
With 10,000+ members, etree list traffic represents a significant load--it takes
time
and commitment to sort through and read message traffic, find what you're looking
for,
assist those in need, exchange bon mots...
It seems to me that there are several ways in which this list could grow which
would
degrade both its manageability and signal/noise ratio, and I believe that it is in
everyone's
best interest to minimize the negative impact of growth on our treehouse.
One of the adjustments some etreers have made along these lines is to use the WOB
as a spur to mindfulness-in-posting. For me this means that if I'm posting purely
for myself--
ISO, Help!, pontifyin', or the irresistible urge to say something (I think is)
funny in response
to some other post--I throw in a "WOB" to grease the wheels of commerce.
The Sentimentalist Approach
The WOB isn't a tax on you, it's a gift from you.
Still With Me?
OK then, here's my grease-the-Wheel, keep-your-lamps-trimmed-and-burning,
the-faster-we-go-the-rounder-we-get offering:
Grateful Dead May 1982 Greek Theatre Run Entire, SHN
or
Bill Frisell New Quartet 10-22-99, SHN --because I just can't say enough
good things about Bill Frisell.
I'll take a few as B&P.
Michael
El Cerrito, CA
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