Well done, Karen. I agree with you about one not being superior to the other, such as one listserv is rife with crazies and the other just talks swap meets, boat races and riding to hounds. There is room for both listservs and people can choose one or the other or both.
On 4/13/10 2:49 PM, "Karen Allen" <kallena...@msn.com> wrote: > Since we're discussing the relative merits of the two primary neighborhood > listservs, I'd like to make one observation: > > The actual reason UC Neighbors doesn't have rancor or hostility on its list is > basically because they rarely talk about anything controversial there that > would arouse rancor or hostility. They created that list with that in mind, > and serves a defined audience. > > None or very few of the controversial issues that burned hot on UC List were > even mentioned on UC Neighbors. I observed that once in a while someone would > cross-post a response to a UC discussion to UCNeighbors, but usually no > further discussion took place there. > > I remember that UCNeighbors was spawned by Kyle Cassidy in (I think) 2006 > because there had been some really nasty exchanges going back and forth on UC > list over UCD's BID proposal. UCNeighbors was definitely around during the > Campus Inn fight (that controversy first arose when an article appeared in the > October 12, 2007 edition of UCReview, and was finally resolved in early June, > 2009). > > I did a search of my undeleted email with the term "ucneighbors", and found 12 > pages (over 400 emails) of UC Neighbors posts dating back to August 2007. > Overall the consistent topics were: missing pets, recycling, home repair and > contractor recommendations, meet-ups, clean-ups, crime alerts, schools, > cultural events and general announcements; basically the same things that > appear on the UC list. There were no posts mentioning "Campus Inn". The only > somewhat controversial discussion there had to do with the closing of the > Kingsessing branch library. > > Since I was actively involved in fighting the hotel, I intentionally saved all > emails on that topic for reference. A similar email search using the term > "campus inn" produced the first 400 emails, dating from April 28, 2008 until > June 8, 2009. All of the list-generated posts came from UC List; not one of > the 400 emails had "UCNeighbors" in the "from" heading. > > By contrast, UC Listserv talks about controversial issues, which in turn have > aroused passionate, angry, hostile, exchanges from the people, on either side, > who care about an issue. I regret having lost friendships over some of the > things that have been fought out on this listserv. But the reason that there > is no homeless shelter, UCD tax, or ten-story hotel in this neighborhood is > due in large measure to the existance of this list. > > I don't intend this to be an attack on the UCNeighbors listserv, because they > serve an audience. I'm merely pointing out that UC Neighbors and UC Listserv > have different audiences and fill different niches. Neither one is better > than the other, and neither one is a substitute for the other. > > > From Franklyn Haiman The American Prospect | June 23, 1991: > "As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis advised, in his famous Whitney v. > California opinion in 1927, "If there be time to expose through discussion the > falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the > remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence." > > >