Mauro,
I unreservedly apologise to you and other subscribers for the offence I
caused you with my post. It was unnecessarily personal and out of place,
and I regret having sent it. I did not intend to imply, and I do not think
I did imply, that your knowledge and experience as a birder was in question
(although I admit that may well be the only score upon which you have no
cause to be offended). I hope you will be generous enough to put it down
to a very bad hair day on my part, and I am sincere in saying that I
appreciate your having called me to task in more temperate terms than I
those I was foolish enough to use.
I have to say, though, that I was reacting (OK, over-reacting) to what I
perceived to be a quite angry and negative tone in your original posts,
which seemed to directed at those of us who participated in recent jocular
exchanges. I think the vast majority of subscribers understand very well
the serious intent of the list. Nevertheless, I do not think that
occasional light-hearted exchanges do any lasting damage. To keep things
in proportion, the threads which you and others have objected to are a
temporary phenomenon (which occurs from time to time on virtually every
"serious" ng and mailing list I subscribe to), and form only a small total
postings to the list over time.
Hal's suggestion re the possibility of separate "streams" seems to have
merit in terms of resolving the issue. Another option (which has been
adopted by other groups who have experienced similar disagreements about
breadth of their charter) is for the list to adopt an agreed systems of
"flags" to be used in subject lines. Flagging social or humorous posts as
"Chat" may enable those who aren't interested to use their delete button or
kill-file as they see fit.
Vicki PS
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Vicki Parslow Stafford | "Oh, many a Cup of this
Ipswich, Qld, Australia | forbidden Wine must drown
Email | the memory of that
Ph/fax +61 7 3281 5010 | insolence!"
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