Message-ID: <3EE981B1.25F04C9B@wyoming.com>
From: madscientist at wyoming.com (Philip Stortz)
Subject: list annoyances

yes, i realize i'm contributing somewhat to the noise.  the things i find most annoying about this list are:

1: People who can't or won't bother to trim what they are quoting, and worse yet who's email clients don't do anything to indicate it's a quote, particularly since i get the list in digest mode it's highly confusing and time consuming to go through long, unmarked quotes and try and find the next real email.

2: postings with several paragraphs about how wonderful their company is or the wonderful things this product does other than it's security hole...

3: whiners of all varieties.  use your delete key, grow thicker skin, and realize that people you may have thought a waste of time can often surprise you with something truly insightful or useful.

moderation is bad, it inhibits open communication, and it makes the moderator and list owner liable for what's posted according to dan knight who runs many macintosh listserv's.  i'd suggest that even moderating a specific poster is a problem, because it could still create liability problems when they don't switch someone to moderation fast enough and they post things that some one considers "actionable", i.e. worthy of taking to court.  the other problem being of course that it takes a lot of time for the moderator(s) and if there's more than one they'll all have somewhat different censoring rules, yes, censorship sucks.  if someone is truly and repeatedly obnoxious, bounce them off list.  if they resubscribe with a new email address and continue being obnoxious, they'll just get bounced again and it's usually easy to recognize someone's writing style, particularly when they've been annoying.  filter your mail any way you like, but know that you will doubtless miss valuable information and viewpoints.

i'm not a security expert, but i do know something about it, and joined to learn more.  i'm old enough to be mature and have a genius iq, i expect people to realize the value of a view from the outside and judge content rather than form.  for instance, yes, i don't capitalize, it's dysgraphia, related to my dyslexia, proper capitalization is actually harder for me than reasonable grammar, and email is supposed to be less formal than written mail anyway.  if you think the lack of capitols is annoying, be glad you aren't reading my handwriting, it's very readable, but not pretty, and i capitalize randomly, even when repeating a word used earlier in a sentence.  deal with it, it's not that big a deal honest.  i also joined specifically because the list was not moderated or restricted to high priest.  those who whine about others are usually just demonstrating their own insecurity with their flaws, time to grow up and realize we all have flaws, know them and allow for them and prepare for them when possible.  i also don't line wrap and prefer others not to, because most monitors can display more than 72/8- characters per line if the windows opened wide, and most email clients do a fine job of wrapping incoming email to the window size or a preset value, honest it's easy.  i've also got serious health problems and chronic pain, so please forgive any confusion and use of the wrong word in my post, it's been a tough day without enough sleep, pain can do that, an amazingly small pain that's not a problem when you want to be awake in fact.

this is a great list, most of the time, but again, that online poll is a farce.  open means open, all rights have a cost, and that cost is always in blood eventually one way or another.  free speech can sadly often lead to violence when that was not the intent, often from those who oppose a particular view.  martin luther king was censored, i.e. killed because he exercised his right to free speech.  it's one of the many things i do fight for and am willing to endanger myself for, and i'd hope to never have to kill for it, peaceful revolution/evolution is always best.  i also do find it "repellent" when the police kidnap people for some ridiculous laws or simply to harass them, which i've personally experienced so i have had that foul taste of harassment in my mouth, i fear i'm smelling it more and more.  believe me, if you want to harass someone, there's always a "legal" way of doing so, and bushco is definitely making it easier and more intense.
-- 
Philip Stortz -- To be nobody but yourself when the whole world is trying its best night and day to make you everybody else is to fight the hardest battle any human being will ever fight. -- E.E. Cummings

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