Alessandro Pardi wrote: > I fully agree. Tony, can you do or say anything about that? I'm really > starting to consider quitting, and that would be a pity, but I don't > think I could stand another 100 messages thread like the recent 8 vs. 16 > bit...
I've had a steady stream of complaints about the list, and they're becoming more numerous as participants have become increasingly exasperated with the deteriorating signal-to-noise ratio. Membership has declined by one-third in the last year; about 500 people have run away screaming. With this diminution of the gene pool, things have become ever more incestuous. Pleas for self-restraint and asking for personal wrangles to be taken off-list just haven't worked. I suspect the the original motivation for the list, the exploration of what was new territory 5yrs ago, is now obsolete. Film scanning is now sufficiently familiar, current hardware and software is now competent enough to have run out of big questions. All that's left is nit-picking angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin stuff, interspersed by axe-grinding. This is undoubtedly my lazy-arsed fault, or at least my responsibility. I no longer provide the stimulus of review material since the effort was wrecking my precarious freelance livelihood. I seldom contribute, since I'm bored with answering questions that have come up 20 times before and usually progress to a spiral of nit-picking vituperation. I haven't even shot any film for 6months. Scanning old film is something I am going to be doing for some years yet, but new material is easier and better produced on digital camera. E6 is already ebbing. Apart from a dwindling pool of film diehards and archivists, this is how it is going to be for most. I can now see no way to rescue this list from terminal decline except moderated posting, or at least zero-tolerance moderation. I simply don't have the time or energy for either, even if I did want to play policeman, which I don't. All I can suggest is ignoring/deleting posts you can't be bothered with, or killfiling contributors. Unfortunately that won't leave much useful content, for all the reasons given. I am considering closing the list entirely, as filmscanning is now just another tool in the box. As such, the Prodig list, or various other lists or forums, may support better-balanced debate. Regards Tony Sleep - http://www.halftone.co.uk ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body