Scott,
This will be my last post on the matter. I've commented far more than I wanted to. I agree that there have been some interesting OT conversations, but now that a list has been set up for them, those who enjoy them can subscribe and send/get them, as well as the regular texascaver.com messages. Those who don't enjoy them can simply stick with texascavers.com. It seems a very simple and effective solution to not stifle OT discussions but place them where they will be appreciated and not where they are viewed by many as spam.. To subscribe, just send a note to [email protected]. George From: Scott Nicholson [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 6:39 PM To: George Veni; [email protected] Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Thoughts on OT postings Just my two cents...probably won't matter too much except to me. :-) I was an active caver awhile back...not so active in the past several years due to family & career constraints. What I enjoy about cavetex is the radically dynamic nature of the conversations I read on the list. What makes this listserv so cool is depth & breadth of the knowledge base of its members...the OT discussions are, frankly, interesting & entertaining & occasionally informative. It would be a shame to stop the ALL OT discussions...they are generally the most actively participated in discussions on the forum. The delete button works very well for me when I choose to skip a post here & there. In conclusion, isn't this forum as much about cavers as it is caves? Scott Nicholson Broker/Waterboy The Discovery Team (512) 94-SCOTT {947-2688} Keller Williams Realty ----- Original Message ---- From: George Veni <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 4:01:54 PM Subject: RE: [Texascavers] Thoughts on OT postings Louise, I think all that is required is common sense and not any strict authoritarian edicts. The rules say "cave related" so, for example: Plastic bags: Discussing new uses in caving is cave related. Discussing their molecular structure and mileage if converted to oil isn't. Global warming: Is it or is it not happening and what are the general implications isn't cave related. Discussing what effects it might have on caves or what the climate record from research in caves shows about past climates is cave related. Of course, with some topics like this where strong opinions may lurk, it is important to keep the tone reasonable and non-flammable. Hybrid cars: Their mileage and value in general isn't cave related. If a hybrid off-road vehicle is built that is suitable for caving, then a review of its caving performance is appropriate. We just need to ask ourselves if what we want to post is related to caves and caving. It should be pretty simple. If it is, post on TexasCavers.com <http://texascavers.com/> . If not, then post it to [email protected] (after subscribing at [email protected]). George From: Louise Power [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 11:11 AM To: George Veni; [email protected] Subject: RE: [Texascavers] Thoughts on OT postings George, I understand your point and as a newbie I, myself, was guilty of a certain amount of this (although I now try to respond directly rather than to the whole list most of the time). However, I would like to know what you consider cave related. I would think certain topics under global warming would be directly cave related; I asked about truck tents one time because I always camped when I went caving and wanted some information on best tents; I just responded to the posting on the Sonora pics because I thought I could offer some suggestions on how to make better prints (based on 20 years of desktop publishing). So could you please clarify for me what you do and don't consider cave related. These topics seem to run their courses over a short period of time, but I do think that some of them--especially the ones concerning religion and politics (guilty)--should be answered off list to the person directly. This last one on religion was started innocently enough by the mention of a journal article. I guess we need a little more direction on what is and what isn't pertinent. Oh yes, and plastic bags, when they were new and cavers were still using carbide, we used them all the time to carry our spent carbide out of the cave environment. Louise
