Well, I've been mulling this over -- and for me, I guess I've come to the conclusion that I pretty much like the list the way that it is. I agree that it's easy for a list to become stagnant if there's too much restriction of topic matter, and I think that the current rules and regs pretty well keep things under control. But I do understand David's position, and actually agree with his points regarding Kurt's posts -- but it's an easy matter to solve. David, if I understand you correctly, it's only Kurt's posts that bug you, yes? So when you open your inbox, you can check for and delete all of Kurt's incoming email. That way you don't have to read it. Or better yet, you can set your email program to block all of Kurt's mail so that it doesn't get into your inbox to begin with. Problem solved. I think that's more reasonable than asking Mike to spend ever more time trying to meet all of our individual needs. I do think that we all can do a better job of changing the subject line when we respond to posts and the subject matter is morphing. That way folks can more easily delete posts in their inbox in which they have no interest. I guess where this is leading me is that as list members we need to accept the responsibility for our own use of and participation in the list, rather than asking Mike to do it for us. MA
-------------- Original message from David Bearrow <chip...@verizon.net>: --------------
> Sir,
>
> It was not my intent to start a firestorm. For that I apologize.
> Perhaps my blood sugar was a little low and I got cranky and
> responded too quickly to Kurt's email. Normally I would wait a day
> before hitting the send button and likely or not I wouldn't have sent
> it or I would have heavily edited it.
>
> I think perhaps I did not put across exactly why I think that post
> should not be on this list. There are certain conspiracy theories out
> there that have a small basis in fact but then take the facts and
> extrapolate out until they make good science fiction plots but are no
> longer factual. Kurt invariably likes to copy and paste from websites
> devoted to these conspiracy theories and post them to the list. I do
> not mind the off topic health type questions. But Kurt does not post
> questions, he proselytizes like a politician or priest about subjects
> that cause division where ever they are discussed. If, in the course
> of answering health related questions, those topics Kurt loves happen
> to come up and in his own words he discussed them in relation to the
> question then I would not object. Indeed, I would likely respond with
> a counterpoint post. But it is his method to drop a copy/paste email
> bomb out of the blue not in response to any current threads. This
> type of post is not conducive to the conversation. One cannot create
> a counter post as you would not be talking to the poster but to the
> person who wrote the website Kurt is copying and pasting from and
> that person will never see the counter post.
>
> If you have saved all the posts do a sort on kmilkowski. He started
> posting 9-14-07. He consistently posts off topic about his 3 favorite
> pet conspiracy theories chemtrails, vaccinations, and poisoned food
> supplies, which have nothing to do with our current conversations. He
> usually starts these as new threads and pulls the list way out there
> into science fiction land.
>
> I think your existing policies are good and don't need changing. My
> beef is with Kurts obsession with conspiracy theories about
> chemtrails, vaccinations, and poisoned food supplies and his need to
> share that obsession with us over and over and his method of sharing
> which excludes argument.