prabhu@nas.nasa.gov (Dinesh K. Prabhu) (12/12/90)
Hi Folks,
There are a couple of important things I want to bring to your
attention.
1) I found out yesterday that my site is going to have its annual
shutdown from Dec. 24, 1990 to Dec. 30, 1990. This means that
I wont be able to post any articles (I wont be able to receive
any mail either) from my site. If this is going to be a problem
for you please let me know right away so that I can make an
alternate arrangement. The alternate arrangement being getting
William Mayne to moderate the newsgroup (he had volunteered
earlier). I would prefer this arrangement remain in place even
after Christmas because I'll be gone all of February.
2) I have been pretty much sitting on the sidelines during the
"Lotus Sutra" debate. I have let every article go through to
the newsgroup and I haven't heard any complaints from anybody.
The debate now seems to have the makings of a flame war and I
want to prevent it as much as I can. If the subscribers don't
object to it I would like close the discussion on this topic.
I will, however, permit Keith Evans one final rebuttal on this
issue. If you folks have serious objections to this please let
me know right away. Hopefully we can end the year without rancor.
3) There is one point from this newsgroup's charter that I want
to reiterate. It is not a good idea to use this forum to
proselytize. I have no problem with a person expressing his/her
beliefs but I wont stand by idly if the person starts denigrating
(belittling) others beliefs (points of view). Give this point
some thought.
Regards
Dinesh
(prabhu@amelia.nas.nasa.gov)prabhu@nas.nasa.gov (Dinesh K. Prabhu) (12/14/90)
Hi Folks,
I have gotten in touch with William Mayne and he has agreed to
moderate the newsgroup. As soon as I get his preferred e-mail
address I will inform both Gene Spafford (USENET) and this
newsgroup about the change. This should take a few days and I
hope the transition will be fairly smooth.
I have been getting increasing e-mail about people not seeing
their articles on this newsgroup. I have on occasion reposted
a couple of articles. I am sorry about this but I am no expert
on USENET and its idiosyncracies and reposting the article is
about the only thing I can do. With the newer version of Pnews
(postnews) you should be able to post directly to the newsgroup
and the article should get routed to me since the group is
moderated. This might be a problem with some sites. The safest
alternative is to e-mail the article to me directly at the
following address : prabhu@amelia.nas.nasa.gov . I encourage
all contributors to follow the latter method. I think it is
quicker too. I normally post all articles after 7 PM-ish (PST)
and sometimes much later at night. If your articles reach me
before this time you'll get the best turnaround. Starting this
weekend I will post statistics of how many articles have been
posted during the week. This will make it easier to track
missing articles. I keep about fifteen days worth of articles
and I can e-mail missing articles on request.
Now about the "Lotus Sutra" debate - I would much rather people
turned down the heat in the articles. Not too many people have
complained and so we can probably carry on with the debate and
hope the debate ends naturally. I really do not want to step in
and end it (I will if I feel things are really getting out of
hand).
Regards
Dinesh
(prabhu@amelia.nas.nasa.gov)