I know this has been beat to death over and over, but I have to step in and make a comment here. Etree has exploded over the past few years and now goes out to zillions of people, but the simple fact still remains. Etree is a community. In any community, people make mistakes. People make inappropriate comments. But at some point along the line, each one of us joined this community with only a moderate level of knowledge about its M.O. The majority of us lurk, simply feeding off the vast wealth of information that flows across these lists. There are many members, however, who are vocal and like to post, reply, and yes, even jump down people's throats. If there are people out there who read the FAQs cover to cover the first day they joined the list, all power to you, but you probably don't represent the majority. The vocal minority on this list likes to push us dumb, ignorant f*ckers into the mud. "You are not worthy! You must not post to my list! Your ignorance of the rules flies into the face of my greatness!" Get off the high horse for a minute here and think about what it is really about. It is not some cold forum for the proper exchange of qualified goods. If that is what it has become, fine. Eliminate the list and replace it with "forms". As a government employee, I know the joy of bureaucracy. It makes life so pleasant. "Insert name here>>>>... Insert qualifying question here>>>>... Insert identification code for verification here>>>>..."
For anyone who can't sense my sarcasm, then you need to lighten up a little. My point is that the real purpose of these lists is education. The huddled masses come to our doors, after months on the M*3 seas. A barren wasteland where source and lineage are foreign words. Where recordings appear out of thin air. Where copyrighted material is open game. At the door, they receive the keys to the kingdom. A vast database of knowledge. Hidden within the pages of etree, are more pieces of information than any one person could absorb at once. We all knew when we arrived here, that we had found the motherload. This is where the pure waters flow from the rock. It takes a while to discover how to be a productive member of etree. Some come as leaches to suck the music from others and slither back into their holes. There is nothing wrong with that. But there must always be a percentage of people who give back what they receive. In fact, my experience has been that the vast majority of those in the community, within several months, begin to give back two and three fold. This is why it all works. This giving actually propagates out into the rest of the internet and is why people keep coming to the door. Don't throw them out because they don't know any better. Educate them. Tell them what they have done wrong, and move on. This constant bickering is just a case of one-upmanship by a small percentage of people. If what I say is inappropriate, tell me so. If you are tired of seeing repetitive posts addressing the same issue every few weeks, than you need to realize that there are new people joining us every day. For every time you see a post and say "not again!", there is someone else out there saying "oh really! I didn't know that". That is what it's all about people. As for the legal issues. If you are approached by someone who asks you an inappropriate question, are you then breaking the law by telling them their question is inappropriate? The RIAA will not kill this community if we are upstanding. When someone does something wrong, tell them it is wrong and maybe that is one more person who will follow the riaa's stupid rules. Why on earth would they shut us down for doing that. If a siteop posts that he is serving unmentionables, tell him not to do that. Will the RIAA shut us down for doing that? Etree has a long history of doing the right thing, and everything on these lists is recorded. If you think that a judge would destroy an upstanding community for trying to educate a wrongdoer, you have seriously lost faith in the system. No laws are being broken by asking questions and being told the answer. "That is not allowed here." Plain and simple. End of diatribe- insert flaming, malicious responses aimed at my deepest insecurities here. Thank you. I don't think this was a WOB but I'll take 10 for http://db.etree.org/shninfo_detail.php?shnid=3389 (gd90-03-29). Branford, nuff said! Jeremiah B. Workman U.S. Geological Survey Denver, CO [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ etree.org etree mailing list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://mail.etree.org/mailman/listinfo/etree Need help? Ask <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
