--On Thursday, February 08, 2001 8:32 AM -0800 Chuq Von Rospach
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 2/8/01 6:10 AM, "Tom Neff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> (My favorite was Chuq's "this list is a rotting sinkhole," etc,
>
> No, not at all. If it was, I wouldn't be here. And while that occasionally
> is a tempting concept (and I'm sure a number of you would encourage
> it...), this place isn't a rotting sinkhole...
I think that should be our official motto.
"List-Managers@greatcircle: We're Not A Rotting Sinkhole!"
>> Paradoxically, because this list isn't "marketed" or widely advertised,
>> you have to be in possession of something like a clue to find and join
>> it, therefore it is not flooded with misdirected, peabrain or irrelevant
>> postings. Almost everybody here is too busy running lists to play
>> children's games or otherwise waste energy. We come here when there's a
>> real problem or issue, we deal, we get back to work.
>
> I guess it all comes down to what you want to be. This list doesn't want
> to take a leadership role in this stuff.
That, in turn, depends on how you define "this stuff." Reading on...
> That's fine -- but at times, the
> folks on this list then complain because stuff isn't run the way they
> want it run. If you want it run the way you think it ought to be run, go
> out and teach. But that's not what the list's interest is.
If I read this right, it refers to the fact that we have relatively little
patience for advocacy, sticking mostly to pragmatic advice and
troubleshooting. It's true that we don't spend much time (or haven't
lately) arguing how list software OUGHT to work, how list providers OUGHT
to behave, etc. Some people just eat that stuff up, but I suspect that
most of us have other stuff to worry about. This is List-Managers, not
List-Dreamers or List-Activists or List-Philosophers, after all: what we
really have in common is that there are lists to be run, work to be done.
Again, I am not saying that the list is perfect today, but the areas I'd
prefer to see improved are (a) penetration into the pool of working list
managers, and (b) development of community resources that would make
joining us more useful for more managers. I don't think that the existing
roster needs to be more argumentative. I do think there is an opportunity
for leadership through service and a wider sense of community.
