Hello, everybody! As Mark Twain said, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated!"
I sincerely want to thank EVERYONE who expressed their concern and left me messages over the last several days as I was absent when needed. I am still coping with some health issues that limit my energy and often monopolize my attention. However, in this specific case, I just happened to get really busy at precisely the wrong time... I was fully caught up with the list as recently as early on the 23rd. It is now the 27th. When did all hell start to break loose? The 23rd and 24th... <sigh> I got so involved with a project for my family that I failed to even *think* about the list for several days. Today I checked in, deleted about ***Five THOUSAND*** SPAM messages from my in-box, and caught up with both the list and private correspondence. (Wayne: Before you say it, mate, it's actually helpful for me to LET all that SPAM come through in order to avoid false- positives in the spam filters getting in the way of some members' ability to participate in the list or to contact me. It's a price of doing business, I'm afraid! <grin>) Okay, so what's happened? It started innocently enough! Poor Leslie, for reasons I understand PERFECTLY well, asked a totally off-topic question about what kind of cord to use to lift or turn a turkey in the oven... That's all! (By the way, Leslie, my wife has a contraption of wire and chain that is designed for that operation. You lay it in the pan under the bird before cooking and it's there when you're ready to lift it out of the pan afterward. Google 'chain turkey lifter.' You can let your son know, for future reference! <wink!> ) Several folks helped her, exactly as she and I would both expect to happen with this great group of people, and in the process a few folks started trading tips on slow-cooking various meats. Anyone who's been here any length of time knows I don't object to a little OT chit-chat and noise, and that I accept and even encourage health-related questions not directly related to CS, so long as they're treated more briefly and don't overwhelm the discussion for long periods of time. However... If you're looking to turn things into a big mess, just get us started on a debate over politics (animal rights, anyone?) or religion (vegetarianism vs. eating meat)... I joke... a little. <sigh> Finally after no fewer than twenty off topic posts on cooking dead animals, Indi posted her story about releasing a live turkey doomed to be raffled off for the holiday, many years ago. When confronted over the political/ethical aspects of this by Teri, she explained, 'telling that story was simply my gentle little way of saying, "we don't all want advice on how to prepare corpses in our inbox". No offense, but this is the silver-list...' Okay, let's do a little analysis: The rules allow *some* OT chit-chat. The rules ask you to contact me, the list owner, if you feel that anyone's behavior is offensive. In those rules, I specifically discourage members from playing "List Cop" by posting complaints about other members. Dealing with all of that is supposed to be my job. The rules also prohibit politics, religion, and any other obviously controversial topic that can be reasonably expected to trigger an argument. List rules? We have rules? Yep. They're at the web site that's linked to in the footer at the bottom of every message from the list: www.silverlist.org Now maybe you haven't heard from the list owner in many weeks? Maybe he's not really paying attention? Does that mean it's okay to post just a little "hint" or two that you don't like what's going on? Does it mean you should jump on another member's remarks because of their controversial overtones? Does that mean that everybody who's ever been annoyed with anybody else can pile on and say anything they damn well think, and snap back with whatever they like? Are you tired of rhetorical questions yet? Let me tell you why you have heard so little from me lately: Yes, I'm dealing with health issues and a bunch of family obligations. However, in case you haven't noticed, it has been MONTHS since the main list has *needed* any serious intervention from me. You have all been doing an outstanding job of staying reasonably on track, taking care of new people and each other, and steering clear of discord. I had to beat down a brushfire on the OT list around Christmas time, and again in January, but beyond that I can't remember the last time I had to step in at all seriously on the main list... I just checked. It was early November of last year. Think about what that means? Thank you, folks! You did that! I really do depend on you to govern yourselves as much as possible (and not each other...). Despite Steve's assumption that I "caught" a couple of his posts, I don't actually review the messages before they go out. (His probably got snagged by the very low, 18k message size limit.) No, I'd rather let the conversation flow at a natural pace and prune topics and coach behavior issues as they develop. Indi, ma'am, I don't agree that you've been a victim of anything other than having posted predictably provocative remarks and having people fall into the trap you set for them. You ought to have known better and/or resisted the temptation to bait them. I *need* you to know better and resist that temptation. That, and know that I consider off-list conduct as well as public behavior in my decisions regarding members' continued participation. Back-channel backstabbing is no more acceptable than public aggression. All of you are my guests. I expect you to treat each other with respect. As silly as it may seem to the rest of you, talking about cooking all those tasty roasts and turkeys and chickens is going to be at least annoying, if not upsetting or offensive to the non-meat-eaters that are inevitably part of this diverse a group. There are more of them than just Indi. I expect *them* to be willing to ignore and tolerate such remarks and not jump all over you at the first provocation, but we each need to be sensitive to everybody who *might* be listening to what we say and keep our OT comments brief and inoffensive enough to not provoke. And when somebody else runs up the black flag, do NOT respond in-kind, please! Responding to remarks on prohibited topics with either a) more prohibited remarks, or b) complaints about the prohibited remarks, will only add your name to the list of those violating the rules, and the spirit, of the group. If I don't respond right away to your efforts to alert me to what's going on, please know that I will, as soon as I can, and I *will* deal with what's going on. Nobody who took part in the argument was blameless. It took intolerance and insensitivity on both sides to keep it going. I needed to be here sooner, and wasn't. I'm sorry. Let's stop now, and I'll happily listen to anyone who wants to contact me privately, now that I am back. Be well, Mike Devour silver-list owner [Mike Devour, Citizen, Patriot, Libertarian] [[email protected] ] [Speaking only for myself... ] -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
