Re: Bombardier Beetle Poll

Brian D. Harper (harper.10@osu.edu)
Wed, 05 Feb 1997 16:16:24 -0500

At 01:20 PM 2/5/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Steve Clark wrote
>
>>Is it reasonable for individual reflectorites to request that Steve Jones
>>not respond to their posts unless he does so in a more timely fashion and
>>only responds to individual posts rather than to collections of messages?
>
Bill:=====
>That's reasonalbe. I think Steve's problem is that he feels he must
>respond to more posts than he can reasonably respond to. I think the
>situation would be vastly improved if he would respond only to the one or
>two posts that seem most in need of a response. I personally don't mind
>taking up an old subject on occasion. But if I got a dozen or so responses
>to what I said several weeks ago dumped on me at once, my response might
>not be as temperate as yours and Glenn's have been.
>

Well, I said you wouldn't hear from me again on this and here I am back
again already :). I consider this a separate item though from the issue of
whether or not Steve is abusing the group. While not being abusive of the
group I still feel very strongly that Steve's practice is unfair to certain
individuals, namely those who might attempt to have a discussion
with him. Every person needs to decide for themselves how to react
to Steve. I think that SC's suggestion is perfectly reasonable. I also
think that people to whom Steve J has replied have every right to
state publicly how they are going to treat his posts. The reason is
that a failure to respond may be taken as a concession or as an
unwillingness to discuss issues.

Brian Harper
Associate Professor
Applied Mechanics
Ohio State University