E-mail and BBS posting is a hot medium that too often seems to bring out =
the
worst in people. There is a feeling of anonymity; even when we're =
signing our
real names, we don't expect anyone to come to our house and punch us in =
the
nose for what we say. An e-mail message can be written and posted so =
quickly
that we too often write words in anger that, had we needed to write them =
on
paper, find an envelope and stamp, address the envelope, etc., we might =
never
have sent.
Mail lists are not nearly as bad as Usenet groups in this respect, but =
even a
congenial group such as ours will see this happen from time to time. The
worst seems to be when two people get "hot" at each other and start =
trading
insults in public.
I think the best approach for us to take is to not respond to these =
occurences
on Ridecamp itself; that just exacerbates the problem. Either ignore the
"offender," or send him a private e-mail tactfully requesting that he =
take his
dispute to e-mail and off the list.
If someone became an ongoing problem, an alternative would be to close =
the
list so that only subscribers can post to it, and then removing habitual
offenders. This would make more work for Steph, and I doubt she would =
want to
be put in the position of "enforcing" etiquette.
So far, only a few individuals have displayed poor manners on this list.
Let's not over-react and lose a good resource. All of us would benefit =
if,
before pressing the "send" key, we re-read what we just wrote and ask
ourselves if we would be comfortable saying it out loud around a =
campfire.
=20
--=20
Joe Long
jlong@mti.net
Business http://www.mti.net
Personal http://www.rnbw.com