Re: MisK

[Richard Bensam <rabensam@earthlink.net>]

Chris Williams writes:

>>No, there is something going on with the moderator.
>
>   ...who should be thanked for all the work put into maintaining
>Love-Hounds/rec.music.gaffa.

Agreed.  Bill, you're the greatest!

>>Also: someone recently suggested divorcing Love-Hounds from
>>rec.music.gaffa.  I am willing to consider this.  Comments?
>
>    No, no and no! *Please* don't cut the connection.  New fans
>can discover Love-Hounds via rec.music.gaffa. Given Kate's productivity,
>we *need* a constant influx of new blood.

Agreed.  BTW, that comment about "Kate's productivity" is a masterpiece of
litotes.

>   rec.music.gaffa divorced from Love-Hounds would soon become
>just another spam-filled Usenet music group with no posts from
>anyone except befuddled newbies.

Agreed.  I've been in other newsgroup / mailing list pairs which diverged
this way, and this is exactly what has happened.  In fact, I tried very
hard to persuade the keepers of one such mailing list to emulate the rmg/LH
symbiosis precisely to avoid this.  Sadly, I failed, and the newsgroup half
is dying a not-so-slow death.

>   Love-Hounds divorced from rec.music.gaffa would soon
>become just another insipid chatty mailing list of "insiders".

Agreed.  Love-Hounds is always in danger of this happening anyway -- no
criticism of the gang intended here; it's just the nature of the beast when
any group of particularly knowledgeable fans of something gets together.

>   The combination of a mailing list gatewayed to a moderated Usenet
>group is powerful, and (IMO) is the way of the future. Bi-directional
>gateways may be the only thing that can *save* Usenet. L-H/r.m.g
>is a *wonderful* example of how well it can work (the last few digests
>only prove how well the barbarians have been kept out, people!)

Agreed.  But still, from various posts it seems that the service on the
r.m.g. side has left something to be desired lately.  Bill, is there
anything that can be done to make r.m.g. more reliable?  Or is it something
to do with various ISPs and entirely out of your hands?  Frankly, I'd like
to switch over -- unsubscribe from the mailing list and resubscribe to the
newsgroup -- but I was missing too many posts thanks to an unreliable
Usenet feed.

>   To paraphrase Frank Zappa: The suggestion to separate Love-Hounds
>from rec.music.gaffa is, in this context, the equivilant of treating
>dandruff by decapitation.

Agreed.  Could've saved myself a lot of typing if I'd just said "I agree
with everything Chris said."


RAB

_______________________________________

Richard Bensam Home Page
http://home.earthlink.net/~rabensam/

Gaffaweb: A Tribute To Kate Bush And Her Fans
http://www.gryphon.com/gaffa/