One of the recent postings on off-topic discussions stated, "Some enjoy the OT subjects."
I know that's true, but let's compare some numbers. By my count, there are about a dozen people who contribute the great majority of OT material. I've heard there are close to 200 people registered on TexasCavers.com. That's not a very high number, especially considering that many subscribers don't live in Texas. I believe a big reason is the OT postings. I know at least 2 dozen cavers who over the past five years or so (two cavers within the past 3 weeks) have told me they canceled their subscriptions or refused to subscribe due to all of the OT postings. I can count at least 2-3 dozen additional cavers who have told me they are tempted to unsubscribe because of OT postings, but put up with them to get the rare snippet of caving information. If this is only what I've heard, I suspect the actual numbers are quite higher. Yes, people can click delete, but why should they? Do we embrace spammers and say "It's OK. Just hit delete if you don't want the information"? To subscribe, cavers go to www.texascavers.com <http://www.texascavers.com/> where it states "This list should be used for the exchange of information on Texas caving and related activities." So when cavers subscribe, they expect information that is related to caving, not non-caving information they didn't ask for. Just because a caver does, uses, believes, or is interested in something, doesn't make that cave related. The basic definition of spam is unsolicited, unwanted e-mail, and since most of the postings are OT, many cavers I've heard from consider most postings spam. I'm pretty sure no one signed up for that. The purpose of TexasCavers.com is to "keep cavers informed about the latest developments and current events in Texas and the rest of the caving world." With at least 2 dozen cavers who have already run away due to OT postings, and at least as many considering unsubscribing for the same reason, TexasCavers.com is failing at its purpose. Many cavers are not getting news from TexasCaver.com or sharing their news with it. That is truly a shame. George
