Re: I've had enough of Andreas; how about you?

["Doug, Data Librarian at Ext 4225" <engstromdd -at- PHIBRED -dot- COM>]

In reply to Pat:

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I hereby publicly petition Eric J. Ray, listowner for techwr-l, to immediately
and at least temporarily, if not permanently, suspend the subscription of
Andreas Ramos to techwr-l. If you feel similarly, put a "me too!" message on the
list and wait for democracy to take its course. I cannot in good conscience
counsel sending mail directly to Eric J. Ray, the techwr-l listowner, who might
subsequently be subjected to a virtual (pardon the pun) avalanche of mail.
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I couldn't disagree with you more, either in regard to the general principle
involved or with regard to this case.

While there are cases where barring someone from a list may be necessary for the
health of the list, this is a step that should be taken with great care and only
in extreme circumstances.  I would favor it only in cases where a person posted
information that would subject list members to some sort of legal liability
(serious copyright violations, national security, etc.) or they clogged the list
with so many messages as to present a technical problem with processing them.

Unless there is some sort of off-list problem you haven't mentioned, I can't see
that Andreas is guilty of anything other than annoying you.  A quick scan of his
messages reveals quite a few solid contributions, some fluff, and an occasional
dumb comment, plus an offer to take on the task of indexing job hunting tips for
free.  I doubt a scan of anybody's input will turn up a much better record.

"Democracy" is not served by shutting people up, but by listening to what they
have to say, and either being persuaded by their arguements or putting forth
better ones of your own.  The process is often messy and annoying, and we hear
lots of things that challenge, enrage, or frustrate us, but that's how growth
happens.  Often the stuff we have the worst problems with does the most for us.

So, PatO', take a couple deep breaths, go for a walk, and switch to decaf for a
while, OK?

Doug
ENGSTROMDD -at- phibred -dot- com