> FOLKS!
>
> Let me ask EVERYONE please to terminate this thread. It is entirely
> unproductive and it is taking energy from working on important, immediate
> tasks.
Dave,
While I completely agree with you that these threads have
been unproductive and the noise:signal ratio is
approaching a Very Large Number, it appears clear to me
that at least some of the people who are creating the very
high level of work-disrupting noise on this thread (and a
few others) really don't care about the disruption (note
that I'm not accusing anyone specific -- if the shoe fits,
wear it, but let's try to avoid a flame-fest on that topic).
So, in addition to your plea, I'd like to make a few
suggestions to you and everyone else on the list:
* If you see traffic that you are convinced isn't
productive, or that just reiterates things said a dozen
times before, don't encourage the authors by responding --
just ignore the stuff and use the "delete" key or
equivalent.
* If you observe that some people, in your personal
judgement, almost never say anything that contains anything
of use to you, consider just deleting their messages
without reading them... especially if those messages, when
read, usually raise your blood pressure.
* If abusive language or personal attacks raise your
blood pressure or otherwise irritate you, just stop reading
the mail message when you encounter either, delete it, and
don't bother to try to respond, especially on the list.
And, of course, those of us who are lucky enough to be able
to deploy effective filters that just drop messages that
would otherwise have to be deleted manually should probably
[continue to] use them. One hint about filters of that
type for the constructive members of the list: it is not
unusual to set them up so that, once a thread reaches the
point at which the noise far exceeds the signal, all
further transactions in that thread are likely to go into
a black hole unless they come from someone who is known to
only write high-signal messages. So, if you actually have
something constructive to inject, consider starting another
thread, ideally with a highly-topic-specific subject line.
thanks to all,
john