redford@JEREMY.DEC (John Redford) (03/17/86)
Lately I have been receiving several SPACE digests a day. The volume of mail has become quite remarkable, especially since it was relatively light before the Challenger disaster. Unfortunately, the volume has expanded without the content keeping pace. Most messages seem to be extended replies to questions that are really quite far from the subject of space. I'm as guilty of this as anyone; I never should have gotten into the discussion of the cultural importance of Homer and Euclid. So this is a plea for moderation. Much as I would like to spend all my time on the network, I do have other things to do. Please, please, please, let's keep it to the point. If you want to comment on someone else's message, then paraphrase and summarize it rather than quoting it in full. If there have already been 50 messages on the responsibility of the Morton-Thiokol's engineers, then don't add another. If you want to talk about science fiction, or the importance of Euclid, or the damaging effects of population growth, then do it on other lists or with other individuals. And finally, the level of personal abuse that we've seen in the last few weeks is shocking. Language that would provoke fights if used face-to-face seems to be a regular debating tactic. Tone it down, folks! Insults only lead to counter-insults, giving us still more megabytes to wade through. John Redford DEC-Hudson PS If you don't like this message, send the reply to me and not to the world.