Deepa Mohan wrote:
Alas, alas,alas, it has to be said...I have found some of this
attitude on silk too. I find that if someone lacks social skills or a
command of English, they sometimes feel less than comfortable joining
this list, and say it is an elitist group....and Udhay's reply to that
is, he doesn't dispute it. I do try and dispute it with vigour, but
there ARE times when.....
In any large enough group of people, you will find a variance in
attitudes, tone, and personality. I suppose this list is no exception.
Overall, I do think people here (can't judge lurkers because they, er,
lurk) are opinionated, but that's not necessarily bad. It's a matter of
whether you find a particular attitude in a few individuals (which is to
be expected), or in the majority of the members who post (which might
substantiate your feeling.)
What kind of social skills are you referring to? I know people on this
list who are soft-spoken or even introverted in person but are assertive
and articulate when writing replies by email. All an email discussion
list needs is the ability to hammer out words and click "send". If a
person's lack of social skills discourages him from doing that, I'm not
sure there is anything that can be done.
As for English, that just happens to be the language used on this list,
and it's not such an elitist requirement. Most international mailing
lists use it. Again, what's the alternative?
Admittedly, there are certain topics where I simply tune out because of
lack of interest, and where some posts seem like a lot of gobbledygook
(anything regarding art would do that for me ;), but I just ignore them
and move on.
(Aside: I run an invitation-only discussion list that Udhay is a part
of, and that would probably seem quite a bit more elitist. But that's
because I chose very opinionated people to be members. ;)
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Madhu Menon
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Indiranagar, Bangalore
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