jeffma (03/14/83)
Michael Turner has posted the following comments about my contributions
on the net. Since he has seen fit to post it rather than send me personal
mail, I shall respond in kind. First, his remarks:
********
From: teklabs!tektronix!ucbcad!ucbesvax!turner
Newsgroups: net.misc
Title: Re: Dowsing Evidence Deja Vu; (a long re - (nf)
Will you stop? Please? No more infinite-length, justified-but-
uncentered articles on dowsing. CENTER the text, indent for paragraph
beginnings, and put in a table of contents and chapter titles. I'm
sure it will sell quite well in drugstores, if you would only send
it to the right publishers.
No, I Don't Have A Hangover,
Michael Turner
********
There seem to be three points brought out here:
a. Michael Turner doesn't like the way these articles are
formatted. This is the first complaint I've seen on that issue;
but I'll be happy to accomodate a reasonable request. I have,
perhaps selfishly, been arranging my articles on the basis of
personal preference.
b. Michael Turner doesn't like the length of these articles.
A funny thing about pseudo-science; it's easy to spread a lot of
bull in a little space. Unfortunately, a rational reply tends to
take a lot more time and a lot more words. This is why creationism
for example, is so easy to spread around, and why it's so difficult
to generate easily readable responses. If net.misc is limited to
short diarrhetic bursts, I'm afraid the content will shift
accordingly. I am certainly amenable to such a limit, but rather
than contributing on the "dribs and drabs" level I think I'll leave
the "Reader's Digest" condensed articles to others.
c. The final remarks about publishers and drugstores are a
little harder to interpret, but I think I get the drift. The
impression that Michael Turner would rather not see anything of this
sort on the net is pretty obvious.
I apologize to readers for airing this laundry on the net, but I
think Michael Turner raises some good points (albeit in a distasteful way).
Rather than letting "No, I Don't Have a Hangover" Turner single-handedly
dictate the way net contributions are made, however, I would suggest that
each and every concerned reader state their opinion, PUBLICLY, right
here on the net. I've gotten a lot of favorable responses to my
contributions (thanks), but if most net readers are bored with them I'll
stop. Perhaps it should be mentioned that the article on dowsing evidence
was requested by a considerable number of readers, some sarcastically but
most in complete sincerity. If some sort of policy needs to be
established concerning maximum article length, then let's see some discussion.
Intellectual dogfights are one thing, but sophomoric temper-tantrums
leave me quite cold (even nice short ones, properly formatted).
I would appreciate some (intelligent) feedback on this issue.
Whoops, already over 50 lines....
Jeff Mayhew
Tektronixwdr (03/15/83)
I approve of the format and content of your long articles. an abstract at the beginning would help people some, though.
larson (03/18/83)
#R:teklabs:-182100:sri-unix:1300010:000:151 sri-unix!larson Mar 17 22:32:00 1983 I especially liked the message. I remailed it to a friend who does not (to my knowledge) read netnews. An abstract would be a nice addition. Alan
russ (03/19/83)
#R:teklabs:-182100:kirk:22600012:000:260 kirk!russ Mar 18 09:05:00 1983 I liked the article, don't care about paragraph indenting, centering, etc. I would appreciate shorter paragraphs in general, as this makes skimming easier. Of course this is a matter of style and taste, so do what you want. Russ Nelson ...hp-pcd!hp-cvd!russ