Message-ID: <19990326045810.AAA12600@LOCALNAME> Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 01:02:32 -0004 From: Kerry Miller <mailto:kerryo@ns.sympatico.ca> Subject: 3400 bytes (was: M-239 Tobin tax... To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Hubert wrote,> She then follows with 23 k of political comments : in this single message,
> she manages to combine two things she has already been asked to refrain
> from, on this very list :
> discuss politics, and hog the waveband.
>
> Kerry, some people pay lots of money to follow the discussions on this list
> : they pay for the phone connection (by the minute) and for every byte
> downloaded from their server.
>
> I will have to filter your messages again to the trash can before I see
> them(I had done it earlier, but you changed you e-mail address and came
> back on line.) People who pay for their download cannot avoid the charges
> by using the filters. Please show them a minimum of respect (That is the
> start of democracy.)
>
> Can we ask the list manager, if he reads this, to restate the basic rules
> of posting to this list (actually, they are just basic good manners)?
>
> Have a good day, everybody !
>
You make several valid points -- perhaps they will lead to some real discussion here, as they happen to contradict one another. First, you say I have "been asked" -- by you -- and then appeal to the list- 'manager' (owner, btw, not moderator) to restate the rules. This leads me to ask: if the *list-owner* has not asked me in the past to do something different, why is that de-facto acceptance not good enough for you?
Secondly, you base your objection on the fact that "some people" pay for their downloads -- and then appeal to "good manners." I ask, is not it even more fundamentally good manners to let people speak for themselves?
----- In view of the fact that this list has gone on for several years now, at times exceeding on a daily basis what we now see in a week, it might be worth pointing out that "hogging" bandwidth is hardly meaningful when there is essentially no traffic at all -- if it werent that I know that everybody (bar one) knows this simple fact of Internet life as well as the one about expensive connections.
I surely do hope that we thousand or so subscribers feel they are getting their money's worth, listening to this empty line; I for one certainly wont take up any more of their time on *this thread, but it would be nice if one or two others topics were to emerge to occupy our developmental energies. (Even the eco-tourism thread hardly left the ground -- I dont know whether to apologize for not contributing, or to wait for applause!)
If the birthing of a real-politic Tobin tax doesnt qualify, how about the reclamation of salt marsh? The fuel-cell Mercedes? The preparation of rolled oats? The utility of a Lorenz water wheel? Is development so automated these days that it doesnt deserve *some* talking about?
But at least if everyone here weighs their words in gold, it suggests a solution to the problem of keeping the subject-line in line with the really important subject!
Cheers, kerry