RARA-AVIS: Re: Forum Format

From: hardcasecrime ( editor@hardcasecrime.com)
Date: 18 Feb 2008


Mark wrote:

> Man, have I been struck by the sheer
> nastiness of the responses to my
> innocently offered idea. That'll
> learn me...

Not intending to pick a fight here, Mark, but you didn't just "innocently offer" your idea -- you offered it and offered it and offered it again, insistently and naggingly, until this annoying meta-discussion about how best to hold our discussions represented the majority of the messages coming across my screen today. In the face of zero support from any quarter and more than a few people saying, "Sorry, nope, not interested" you kept insistently and repetitively explaining why you were right and all the people you were failing to persuade were wrong.

I don't think anyone would have responded particularly negatively (in terms of tone -- they would still not have liked your idea) if you had just said ONCE, "Listen, I know this might be a lot of work, but I, at least, would like it better if we made the following change and here is a list of the reasons the rest of you might like it better, too. If no one's interested, fine; if you are interested, let me know and I'll see what I can do to help make this happen."

But that's not what you did.

For the record, no one could accuse me of being a Luddite and I do appreciate the reasons some other platforms might be better, but you know what? There's something to be said for inertia, something to be said for the status quo, and even if I hadn't read the many messages from people who don't want any change and the zero messages from people agreeing with you, I'd have come down on the side of encouraging the moderators to leave things the way they are.

Now, speaking only on my own behalf (but I suspect I'm not the only one who feels this way), can we please let this topic die?

On the other hand: If you have anything to say about the actual topic of this list -- crime fiction -- I very much hope you will go ahead and post it.

--Charles

--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Mark R. Harris"
<brokerharris@...> wrote:
>
> Those were two of more than a dozen functionalities that I
mentioned. Not
> the most important ones. But people seem to reading just those bits
that
> they can back-slash me on.
>
> Man, have I been struck by the sheer nastiness of the responses to
my
> innocently offered idea. That'll learn me...
>
> Mark
>
> --
> Mark R. Harris
> 2122 W. Russet Court #8
> Appleton WI 54914
> (920) 470-9855
> brokerharris@...
>



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