Daniel (and a large mob of others) I have followed with considerable interest, amusement, and now increasing irritation, the various emails on the changes introduced by Daniel.
Like many others who work for governments, large corporations, universities etc, I have been through a couple of organisational restructures. You know the scenario: "we will increase productivity by changing from A to B" (and, "did we neglect to mention that we are sacking 20% of the workforce?"). On a lesser scale, all of us have been in situations where it has been necessary to change some system or approach or software (or spouse!). Maybe the change wasn't necessary, maybe our boss / politicians forced the change on us. It doesn't really matter. What matters is our response. My observation is that it is rarely the new system that is the cause of the angst, it is the change itself. Put another way, the amount of angst / anger at changing from A to B is identical with angst / anger at changing from B to A. If I really want to listen to whingeing, all I have to do is go to any of the myriad useless meetings I am required to attend at work. This list is a wonderful forum for exchanging ideas on sundials. Daniel doesn't get paid to moderate the list, he doesn't get too much in the way of thanks for his efforts, and I am not sure what his university gets in the way of benefit other than clogged bandwidth. Here in Dubbo (32o 15'S 148o 37'E) it is a glorious sunny morning. I expect it to be another absolutely wonderful autumn day. It's great to be alive, I wouldn't be dead for quids! And it's great to be able to share the discourse on the sundial list. OK, so the Reply function has changed a bit, but will the world as I / you know it come to an end as a consequence? How about we give the new system the trial requested by Daniel for a couple of weeks, and then see how we feel? In the meantime, how about a self-imposed moratorium on whingeing about the change until Daniel opens the window for some informed discussion? BTW: if your organisation ever suggests changing from Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express to Lotus Notes as its email software, get ready for MAJOR angst! Cheers, John "Externals are not under my control; moral choice is under my control. Where am I to look for the good and the evil? Within me, in that which is my own." Epictetus (ca AD 50-120) Discourses Book II.5 ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2002 12:18 AM Subject: Re: message from the listowner: > > Please reconsider this change if at all possible. I keep tripping > > Dear all, > > of course I can change the reply style back to what was before. I > changed > the style because some people on the list asked me to do so. The current > style is widely used on other mailing lists. There are pros and cons for > both styles. On the one hand useful information on a topic might only be > sent to the questioner, on the other hand the list can get a lot of > messages > only to be intended for the questioners (e.g. native language and/or > personal comments). > > Anyway, a change between these styles needs some time to get used to it. > > My idea now is to try out for - let's say - two weeks with this new > style. > Then I will send out a questionnaire and we can make a majority > decision. > > By the way, traffic could be reduced by quoting only relevant text > passages. > > Thank you for your contributions to this list! > > Regards - > > - Daniel Roth, sundial mailing list > - > -
