Allan Balliett wrote:
I'm reposting this post because it cuts to the heart of the globalnews issue. I think there is some very good advice here and I hope it will be taken to heart. -Allan
The list and it's effectiveness is in the sense of building community
amongst the list members. If a few hundred members of the list cannot show
tolerance to each other, and allow that the opinions of other members have
merit, we may as well all go home to the weapons of mass distraction and
forget about trying to make the world a better place.
James Hedley
We can all individually subscribe to the NYT, globalnews, as many newsletters as we like, and individually preen ourselves on how the views of the commentators and the politicians and the spin doctors coincide with our own - and then look around and wonder why the world is going to hell in a bucket!
For me, a thing that holds my interest in BDNOW! is 'interaction', that is, the way we respond to each other on the world and our own news of the day whether it be Merla's roadway weeds or BD or RS or CT or the war with Iraq we all apparently agree is unwarranted but looks to happen just the same.
For those who want another list, go ahead and do it. Restrict its topic to biodynamics and nothing else, impose your own type of censorship. At the same time count the number who join, the number of posts you receive, the length of time people stay, and rationalise it all with the hours and heartache you put into the running of the thing. When it fails BDNOW! will still be here, uncensored, interacting on all manner of topics, providing an invaluable service to the members of this community, and will welcome you back with open arms.
BDNOW! is not just a list, not a group of disassociated individuals - it is a community of people with common beliefs and targets, common and uncommon ideas, a community interacting to benefit all who care to listen. Chopping off the flow of information from any direction could signify the beginning of the end for BDNOW! - today Jane's information, tomorrow explorations into something else unconnected directly with biodynamics - and it will ultimately lapse into the homogeneity and humdrum-ity so evident in the mainstream media and the majority of internet mailing lists.
Allan Balliett does a really fantastic job with BDNOW! - Let's hear it for Allan!!! :) - one of his major strengths being that he DOES NOT censor incoming information, does not impose his own standards, likes or dislikes on contributors, but allows the conversations and discussions flow unimpeded this and that way - and we all benefit!
Why can't you, the detractors, do the same?
Those messages you don't want to know about, or read about right now this instant, they're your problem, not mine or James' or Allan's or many more of BDNOW!'s members. So put filters in so they don't become (to you) so much useless clutter in your inbox but divert into folders you may read or destroy at your leisure. It only takes a few seconds to destroy one or a thousand emails.
roger
