MAINT%DERRZE1.BITNET@UCLACN1.OAC.UCLA.EDU (Rainer M Woitok) (02/22/90)
On Tue, 20 Feb 90 17:28:00 EST you said: > My feeling is that requiring a user to type >the list address (biosph-l@ubvm) is hardly a totalitarian act. Allow me to make two remarks about that point: 1. Perhaps I didn't make my point quite clear (after all, English isn't my mother tongue): what in my humble opinion doesn't coincide with democratic conduct is not the fact that I now have to type the list address if I want to reply but rather the fact that you decided for us whithout even asking. Maybe, I should blame the author of LISTSERV for that, because LISTSERV uses the term "owner" to designate a person which would have been better called "maintainer" or "administrator" or something like that. The term "owner" suggests posession, but I think, it's not YOUR list, but rather it's OUR list, it's the subscribers' list. So much to your terms "totalitarian" (above) and "Stalin" (!!) (below). 2. Maybe some (or even a lot) of the subscribers to BIOSPH-L are using very unsophisticated mailing tools or use sophisticated ones in a rather unsophisticated manner. To those people using RiceMail (the most commonly used Mail User Agent on VM sites within BitNet) or similar mailing tools this change is anoying. If you use a clever mail handler in a clever way, there's normally no need to enter an address at all if you are replying to a mail item. All you do is hitting the reply button. This has (sorry: had) the effect that the incoming mail was nicely logged in the correct notebook or folder, that the headers for the reply mail were generated automagically, and that the original text was included in the reply for your convenience. When I now hit the reply button, incoming mail is logged in the wrong notebook (that one associated with the sending individual, i. e. some sort of default notebook) and the reply address generated is simply wrong (at least in most cases). This really is a hassle, ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE HANDLING PLENTY OF MAIL EVERY DAY, like myself. I. e. Though you want to take some of the burden from people having to deal with umpteen mail items a day, you in fact are making life more cumbersome for exactly those people. >In fact, it was recommended to me as a simple means of avoiding >both impulse-mail and its reaction As I said yesterday, it is a simple means of avoiding plenty of mail altogether, the question is, whether or not we really want such a restrictive means. > - a moderated list, which to >me would be far more restrictive, value-laden, and undemocratic. Though I personally favor an unmoderated list, a moderated list per se would not be undemocratic. If the majority of BIOSPH-L wishes a moderated list and if the moderator is really unbiased (or at least tries hard to be) this would be pretty democratic. >If you feel inconvenienced, that's one thing, and I sympathize. I do, and I thank you for sympathizing. But what do I get from that? Will you reconsider and put the subject to a general vote? >But don't make it look like Stalin is lurking around the corner, What's this guy doing in here? I really can't remember having mentioned him. >as it's highly inappropriate. > >If typing the extra few characters is really a hardship, let me >know. As I have tried to explain above, it's not a problem of typing a few extra characters. Sincerely Rainer .----------------------------------------------------------------------. | Rainer M. Woitok | Phone : (+49-9131) 85-7811,-7031 | | Regionales Rechenzentrum | Fax : (+49-9131) 30 29 41 | | Friedrich-Alexander-Universitaet | Telex : d 629 755 tf erl | | D-8520 Erlangen | e-Mail : MAINT@DERRZE1.BITNET | | West Germany | | '----------------------------------------------------------------------'