silliness, new mailing list, flaming ...

[henrik@atria.com (Larry DeLuca)]

Just my own observations...

first of all, no party can go on forever.  anyone who's been around the
net long enough realizes that mailing lists and newsgroups, like any other
organic thing, are born, grow, change, and die.  Unfortunately, like a
great many TV series, they keep going long after they are dead.

Don't get too hung up one way or the other about "warmroom" - join it
if it interests you, don't if it doesn't.  If love-hounds goes away,
BushDom will spring up somewhere else.

If love-hounds is going to be a cool place to hang out and talk about 
Kate Bush and the ten bazillion unrelated topics that usually make up the
bulk of the conversation here, it will continue on its own.

Groups splinter all the time as the personality of a list changes - I once
or twice tried to fight it when a particular group of people I cared about
conversing with electronically suffered a similar fate.  I found out, though,
that it's like face-to-face relationships - if it's important enough, you
find a way to keep contact, and if it's not, you get over it.

                             --- HOWEVER ---

I have been on more than one mailing list in the past where a small group of
obnoxious people have come in and declared themselves the lives of the party
and spoiled a good time for a lot of people.  

The arguments of censorship and free speech to defend what essentially
amounts to inexcusably rude behavior has been aired over and over in
this forum and others.  People seem to be more rude to each other
electronically.  There are a number of reasons I can think of to
explain why this is, but NONE of them justify it.  Rudeness is
rudeness, pure and simple.  I'm certainly rude on occasion myself, as
everyone is.  However, I try not to wear it like a badge, and also to
be sure that anything I might say in print to someone I would be
willing to say in person - too often I meet up with a netter in a
different context to do otherwise.

I think love-hounds is on the same sort of downward spiral - the very fact
that I am sending this note validates my claim to some extent, as there is
always some idiot out there who thinks that they have been around the net
long enough to observe these sorts of trends.  This time, it's me.

					larry...