Re: Postings

[Stefan Bengtson <Stefan.Bengtson@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 22 Jan 1995, Jere H. Lipps wrote:


> True enough.  I have no problem with letting the world know about paleo.
> But I don't think jokesters and frivolous types should be told about these
> things as though they are encouraged to use PaleoNet etc for their
> electronic antics.  The previous suggestion by TomDeVrie@aol.com  that
> sci.bio.paleo should be used for the general, non-professional comments,
> and the professional nets. used for technical discussion seems appropriate.
> So I am not complaining about amateur or passing interested persons
> posting technical and well thought out comments to our lists, but I don't
> think the kind very general, off-the-cuff silly stuff, and talks between
> folks like I see more and more of on the dinosaur list, will promote the
> professional use of PaleoNet, MicroPal, RadFolks, etc.  Once these things
> get cluttered with too many non-technical comments, people will begin to
> ignore them as a useful forum.  The dinosaur list, in my opinion, is
> approaching that.  A slightly less severe problem is that all postings to
> MicroPal, for example, are archived on our gopher and that takes some
> memory and makes our server run more slowly in theory.
> 
> Let's inform people what the purpose of these lists is.  Perhaps Stefan,
> you can send the polite notes to abusers, if we get any.
> 

I don't think we disagree much on this, Jere, I just find it pointless to
try and restrict the spread of information on where to find Paleonet,
Micropal, etc. As Una pointed out, the info is easily available anyway for
those who look. And I fully agree with what Phillip Bigelow wrote: 'Keep
the discussions professional, succinct, and the cranks will stay away. In
the long-run, people seek out their own kind.'

It was interesting to see that most of the comments in support of keeping
Paleonet separate from sci.geo.paleontology came from professed amateurs. 
I take it there is a large crowd listening in who also don't want any
garbage on the line. I'm also sure most of us welcome input from the
devoted amateurs - a lot of them certainly know more than I do about both
this and that. And maybe we could just all agree that simple queries and
musings should be politely referred to Usenet (I'll be happy to send such
messages when I'm available, but maybe it's better that Norm or someone at
NHM organizes that, to avoid gaps and duplications), whereas cranks and
pranks (when we recognize them!) should just be ignored (and preferably
no private hate-replies either!).

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Stefan Bengtson
Institute of Earth Sciences
(Historical Geology & Palaeontology)
Norbyvagen 22
S-752 36 Uppsala
Sweden

tel. +46-18 18 27 62 (work)
     +46-18 54 99 06 (home)
     +46-18 18 27 49 (fax)