It was 5/11/04 12:07 pm, when Diana Craigie wrote: > But obviously not. Steve Climpson's words paint a chillier picture. Post > or piss off seems to be the message, even if you've got nothing useful to > say. If this is the general feeling amongst Prodig's regular posters, > please just say and I'll unsubscribe. I've stood my round all my life (at > least until I've fallen over) and don't intend to be a freeloader now.
Jim I didn't read Steve Climpson's words quite so litterally. Only the list owner can tell you to unsubcribe and then you have to do something really stupid to upset the list, lurking is not considered grounds enough. The problem with lurking is endemic (or should that be epidemic?), as has been pointed out. Personally, I don't care how many people lurk. I just treat the list as if I am talking to the 50-100 or so members who post regularly or irregularly. The fact that someone whose name I don't recognize asks the question doesn't worry me. I answer them and make the cause now for them to create the effect when the time is right. For my part, when I answer a question three things happen: I learn something; I remember something I had pushed to back of my head; I get thanks. The way I see it, if a lurker doesn't want to participate in a discussion, it's their loss. I agree with Richard Kenward about the guidelines (and have made my view known to all the listmums and the listowner(s)). The list has moved on, as has digital imaging, and the guidelines have not kept up with the changes. New guidelines have been in the pipeline for many, many months but they seem to be stuck in a limbo. Moving to a faster server run with decent software will make it possible to have a discussion in almost real time. It should also make the listmum's life easier. Majordomo, which I think is the software currently used to run the list, is ancient. While there is a lot of onus on repliers deleting email addresses, I can query Majordomo and get the addresses for ALL the list members. I haven't tried it lately but that used to be the case and I suspect it still is. There are plenty of sites that list all the lists on the Internet. All a harvester need do is query Majordomo and back come 2000 addresses! Send 10 queries and you can have 20-30,000 addresses easily. Much richer than fishing the public archives. The newer software doesn't allow this. It also has lots of filters that can be used to stop off topic threads and easily create new lists (funds permitting). FWIW, I think the solution is NOT to have a splinter group of pros. I tried it with Photoshop and it didn't go very far. The problem is, when you get a lot of pros together, they all know everything about the topic, so there's nothing to talk about but the weather or, worst still, football!....The solution, IMO, is to have 3 groups under the same umbrella, or possibly 4: capture, post, 101 and chat. If you sub to all 4 and herd the messages into one folder, it will feel like one group that can talk about all the above topics. But if you don't want to take part in, say, answering 101 questions or chatting, just don't sub to those lists. Shangara Singh. ________________________________________________ :: Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) Photoshop CS :: Photoshop CS Essential Tips || Photoshop Glossary (eBooks) :: Examaids for Adobe & Macromedia Certification :: http://www.photoshopace.com || http://www.examaids.com =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
