I want to agree with Jerry on two points: (1) he's not the only one who has sent trivial or off-topic posts (maybe I have a few) and I didn't mean to imply that. But I agree with Paul that minor questions to specific people should be sent just to those people, rather than the discussion group.
(2) Jerry's right that it's really strange that we have not moved this group to any of the numerous free web-based discussion forum options out there. Those systems have an e-mail option, for those who don't want to visit the website, so no existing capabilities are lost. And because discussions can be separated into different threads (e.g., Latin) you can decide not to read those you're not interested in. Before I joined USMA about a year ago, I had no idea that listserv, something I vaguely recalled from the early 90's, still existed. When I joined, I offered to implement a free web-based USMA discussion forum accessible through metric.org (I run an internet business). I also offered to update other antiquated web functions USMA still uses, like making people print, hand complete, and mail in membership forms with paper checks. My offer was not accepted, so I'm hopeful the person responsible for those features will be getting to them shortly. From: Jeremiah MacGregor Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 4:12 PM To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:42902] Re: Jerry Victor, My mailbox was full with 86 posts from the USMA from my last post until now in which a majority of them were utter nonsense. I fail to see how the origins of AM/PM or the spelling of meridian, what to call military time, etc. fulfills the concept of useful information about the metric system. If you want me to follow your guidelines I should be shown examples by others along the same path. Don't you agree? Jerry -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Victor Jockin <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, February 1, 2009 8:46:22 PM Subject: [USMA:42817] Jerry Jerry, I want to second what Brian and some others have already said. Why don't you try to keep it to one or two posts per day (which is a lot) and please ask yourself whether you're really sharing new and useful information when you draft your posts. -Victor
