I was going to tell the group that with regret I must leave the group
since there are simply too many messages. (Somehow you egotistically
think someone might miss you). But then I noticed the thread between
Keith Miller and Art Chadwick and some others and realized that the
group has some good thinkers on it and it is important mechanism for
keeping in touch.
Yet there are often 20 or more messages in my filter box and eventually
like now I look at it and groan at the five hundred or so messages. Is
there any way we can get the volume down? The group would be much more
effective if it had half or less messages. Maybe if we could more
consciously think if our opinion has appeared it would help. It would
also help to have more messages directed via private e-mail to
individuals and not back to the group. It is also I think the case that
a few individuals post an enormously lot more than do others (I did not
want to pick on anyone, but if you added up posts I think it would be
true). I do not want to inhibit them since some of the frequent poster
often have well thought out ideas and it is critical to have some
responders to keep the discussion rolling. But perhaps if you are one
of these that ends in really adding to the volume, be aware that it
makes some of us harder to hear you or the rest of the group.
Feel free to disagree, it may only be me. And it is better to have a
group with good dialog than something that something goes for weeks
without any posts (Christian geologist list is one group that is like
that sometimes - and there I have on occasion (as list manager) tried to
get some more responses). Maybe the nature of the group is such that we
have to put up with the number of posts, but I would love to get it down
to half the numbers and still have good participation.
-- James Mahaffy (mahaffy@dordt.edu) Phone: 712 722-6279 Biology Department FAX : 712 722-1198 Dordt College, Sioux Center IA 51250