And now, a few words from your host, owner-e-gold-list. That would be me, by the way, for those who were wondering (with good reason) if such a person even existed. I don't have a problem with posts concerning: 1. Other gold backed currencies Other gold backed currencies have emerged in response to e-gold. Discussion pertaining to these currencies is arguably on-topic and of interest to e-gold Users. 2. Criticisms of e-gold Criticism of e-gold is by definition on-topic. Sometimes such criticism results in needed change. Other times the criticism seems to emanate from "trolls". Although I confess it would be richly satisfying to bounce trolls, it's a tough call to know when this is appropriate, precisely for fear of suppressing constructive criticism. Hence, trolls are permitted to congregate under the bridge, but are not generally taken seriously by anybody with a modicum of discernment. In fact, troll drivel seems to be a tonic for some, inspiring some of the best e-gold rants I've seen. "All things work together for good" on the e-gold-list. 3. Advertisements Advertisements from e-gold accepting businesses are not only welcome, they are encouraged! I suggest (see rules) that more than twice a year would be excessive. I should have loosened this up a bit ages ago, still it might be worth noting that if people are expressing annoyance at the mere sound of your online voice, that perhaps you should kick your self promotion down a notch or 2 (or 3). I have to confess that I personally find JP May extremely entertaining, even when his self promotion mojo is in overdrive (perhaps especially). This is the very activity that makes electrons bump together, one day (soon) to reach a rolling boil. One exception - advertising is not welcome from high yield investment programs, prime banks, and other "businesses" that make promises that are not possible to keep. Tiresome debates have raged on in the past about the rightness or wrongness of these so-called "investment opportunities". Feel free to peruse the archives for the excruciating details (as opposed to opening up this topic yet again): http://www.mail-archive.com/e-gold-list@talk.e-gold.com/ http://www.mail-archive.com/e-gold-list@free-market.net/ I think I don't say much above that is not well known to anybody not pretending to be asleep. Actually what follows should not be any big mystery either. I do have a problem with posts in/with/containing: 1. HTML format 2. e-mail attachments * 3. Excessive, inconsiderate citations 4. Off-topic advertising (as in don't accept e-gold) This is why the list has *rules* which specifically address these areas. For those who don't recall the rationale for these rules, please see: http://www.mail-archive.com/e-gold-list@talk.e-gold.com/msg01245.html ** * New improved reasons overdue. Care to take a wild guess what those might be? ** I'm sure the consideration I'm displaying in using this citation technique won't be lost on everybody. And finally, my personal pet peeve... 6. Posts which ignore the long standing "Golden Rule" (yes the pun has *always* been intended), which states: --- begin quote 5. Before posting, ask yourself: "Is my post likely to be of interest or value to a broad range of people from around the world who are interested in the topic of e-gold?" If in doubt, please don't post. --- end quote Of the examples I provide to illustrate this concept (some would say the very distillation of all moral precepts), attention spans appear to trail off right before this one: --- begin quote * Political stuff. It could be argued that the very concept of e-gold is of a libertarian bent, but that is not license to use this list to get people to write their senators or whatever, no matter how important you think the cause is --- end quote Please pause for a moment of silent introspection to contemplate: "Could he mean... Moil!?" Chances are the answer is ***OBI!***. Your views are bound to come out in the course of discussion - this is not a problem - protracted, non-e-gold related arguing of the fine points of your political philosophy are what fester into problems, even for the long suffering. I'm not a fan of topic Nazis, but there is a limit, as many of you have made a point of reminding me (in your own special ways), both on and off-list. On a related note, did you know that... the first 3 posts of new subscribers are moderated (ever since the e-gold list moved in-house)? This is not generally a topic Nazi type activity. Rather, I take this opportunity to squelch blatant HYIP shills to prevent this list from devolving into a [******] forum. I also squelch those who choose to delurk with "yeah, me to" type comments followed by scores of lines of unnecessary quotes. This moderation activity is quiet and beyond discreet - I don't even send offlist e-mail pertaining to it. After all, had the offenders read the rules they would have a pretty good inkling of the reason for the selective censorship without my inelegantly repeating myself, right? The beauty of the Lyris software we use for e-gold-list is that it facilitates selective moderation. For example, if some clever shill makes a couple of (loosely) on-topic posts thinking she can begin shilling on a delayed basis, she can have her antennae yanked. By this, I mean her subscription can be configured so that moderation is required for *all* of her posts, while permitting the grand majority of subscribers to continue posting at will. "So with such cool tools, why are you not using them with far greater frequency?" many of you must be asking yourself. I suppose the answer would be that I've been excessively possessive of this list, despite the fact that it's been quite some time since I've been able to give it the attention it deserves. Therefore, the beloved (half a step shy of famous) Jim Ray has agreed to help me give this list the attention it deserves. This means that Jim will have his hands on the controls of all those cool features I was just mentioning, and may not be able to resist using them. :) So beware to those of you with reading comprehension difficulties, but good news for the rest of us - Jim Ray, the epitome of seasoned web maven, is about to tune this list up a bit. It could be fun. Regards, - Reid - a.n.k.a. (co) owner-e-gold-list --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: archive@jab.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
