Re[2]: "Off Topic" Postings

[Don_Smith -at- SMTPLINK -dot- PENRIL -dot- COM]

     Very nicely said, Tony.

     However, I believe I shall return to being a reader.

     Sorry if I was out of line.

     Don Smith
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______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: "Off Topic" Postings
Author:  "Tony G. Rocco" <trocco -at- NAVIS -dot- COM> at INTERNET
Date:    10/23/96 4:17 PM


While I am just as opposed to off-topic postings as anyone, and myself have
complained about them in the past, I wonder why it is that postings that
generate a lot of interest from subscribers are deemed "off-topic?" I posed
the initial query on the ageism issue as it effects technical
communicators, and it generated a thread that went on for a few days.
Within the first hour or two alone, 4 or 5 people responded to my posting,
some privately, even though the listing was posted late on a Friday
afternoon PDT.

I think that like other ambiguous features of human life, deciding what is
and is not off-topic is going to be a judgment call. Obviously, numerous
people thought the ageism issue important, while others decided to leave
the list because they found it another example of irrelevancies being
posted. Without having an omnipotent arbitrator deciding what does and does
not go on the list, I think this is a state of affairs that we all will
have to live with and tolerate as best we can.

- tgr

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"Practice is worth more than grammar."

- Italian proverb