Thanks to Andrew Hine for his thoughtful and often amusing posts.
I'd like to use the above comment as an OPPORTUNITY to post some thoughts to the entire group. I am responding to Andrew's comments, not to single him out, but to draw upon the example which he unwittingly provided.
Quote from Andrew Hines post about quality of Pioneer Press:
We're well past the 3,000 "get even" number of Iraqi civilian casualties - how dumb are we going to look when we've lost 3,000 American troops?! OK, off on a tangent...
In an appropriate and on-topic discussion about the quality of reporting in our local paper, the Pioneer Press, its possible for tangential comments to appear in our forum. While, we should try to avoid steering the discussion in directions that are "off-topic" for the St. Paul Issues Forum, its somewhat inevitable that these comments will slip into the discussion from time to time.
Here are some thoughts for everyone:
1) Please, try to avoid making tangential comments which are likely to draw our discussion off-topic. If, upon rereading your post - you suspect that you've unintentionally introduced a new and inappropriate topic to our forum, then please be responsible and edit your message.
:-)
2) If, and when, you spot an off-topic message in our forum, please do not use this as an opportunity to carry the off-topic message further - regardless of how important you think the off-topic message is. RATHER - consider one of the following strategies:
a) Ingnore the message
b) Respond to individual privately (move the off-topic discussion
off-line). Feel free to CC me, if you wish.
c) Move the discussion to a more appropriate E-Democracy forum.Thanks to Andrew for providing this learning opportunity ;-) Sorry, for picking on him!
Thanks to everyone for the very interesting discussions that we have been having lately. The last week or two has had some real quality information and opinions emerge from our forum.
Please send questions or comments about this post to me privately. Or call me at home: 651-643-0722
Best wishes,
-- Tim Erickson List Manager St. Paul Issues Forum http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/ Hamline Midway Resident 651-643-0722 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
St. Paul Links - http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/links.html
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