[R-390] RANT: The Delete Key and Unwanted Threads

[Clay Curtiss W7CE]

I delayed deleting myself from the list hoping things would settle down.

I enjoy a LITTLE humor and OT conversation as much as the next guy, but I
received EXACTLY ONE HUNDRED (yes, that is 100) R-390 list emails from
12:40PM yesterday to 12:40PM today and most of them were OT.  With the
subject line changing every few hours, its not always simple figuring out
what is junk and what is interesting.  Maybe most of you are retired and
have nothing better to do with you life than sort through the email that
makes your life somehow more interesting.  Personally, I'd hoped that a
moderated group would save me some of that headache.  Even at 5 seconds per
email, deleting this list accounts for over 8 minutes of my life in the last
24 hours that I can't get back (that annualizes to over 50 hours per year of
delete time).

The library analogy was really quite poorly thought out.  When I go to the
library, I don't wander aimlessly up and down every ailse looking at every
book for the topic I'm interested in, and then cursing those that don't
apply.  I learned the Dewey Decimal system and card catalogs in elementary
school and find they save me a lot of time (kind of an early spam filter).
Using the same principles, I subscribed to an R-390 mailing list rather than
a complete collection of OT mailing lists hoping that most of the material
would somehow apply to the R-390 and related topics.

Now that I've increased the the bandwidth requirements of this group way too
much, I'll go back into reading mode and wait for something interesting to
show up.  Although I suspect that I have helped to make some of your lives
just a little fuller and certainly more interesting because you received one
more email.

Sigh, now I assume the ranting and flaming will begin.  Oh moderator,
moderator, wherefore art thou moderator?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Norris" <r390a at bellsouth.net>
To: <R-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 12:52 PM
Subject: [R-390] RANT: The Delete Key and Unwanted Threads


> I apologize in advance for being disrespectful to several of
> those on the list. This is a very sincere apology, and I hope
> it will be taken in the manner it is meant.
>
> I subscribe to over a dozen mailing lists. When I see a subject
> line that I know I don't want to read, I simply hit the delete key
> and don't read it. No one is holding a gun to my head and forcing
> me to read any message message on any list. Even if the list
> comes to me in digest form, I just skip over things I have
> no interest in reading. There are those on nearly every
> list that instead of simply deleting the message before reading
> will yell loud and long about how bad that message is.  Some will
> say "By Jove, look what this group has turned into, I'm
> un-subscribing post-haste!" even on groups that have not seen
> posts in months. (I'm not talking about this group!) If I got
> upset over message threads I didn't want to read, I wouldn't
> be subscribed to any lists now. I simply use the delete key.
>
> It's akin to going to a library. Lets say you hate books about
> sewing. Do you simply *not check out the book*, or do you
> go to the library board and demand they remove all
> books with any reference to sewing from all branches
> else you will never let your shadow cross the threshold
> of any library ever again? Me, I'd simply not check out
> the book. *shrug*
>
> I know this silliness about ballast tubes and kielbasa
> and wet sheep has been going on for about a day now.
> (just a day, maybe two now) There will most likely me
> more posts come along that don't mention wet sheep
> as  tube substutes. In fact today there was at least
> on post about the use of the URM-25 and yesterday
> several about SP-600's.
>
> If any of you have defective keyboards with a non-functioning
> Delete key, I have quite a few spare keyboards around
> and will be glad to send you one gratis. I've got several
> types of PC keyboards, Mac keyboards, maybe one
> or two for DEC or Sun machines so I may very well
> have one that will work for you.
>
> Delete Key, just say yes.
>
> Tom
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