The following is a response I sent privately to someone who was remonstrating with me over my use of sarcasm. I hope it gets my point of view across once and for all. Norm ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: Norm Saunders <osprey@ari.net> Subject: Re: MD Osprey. Date sent: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 07:18:25 -0500 There is a website that describes the background of MDOsprey, where it came from, why it was set up, what the intended useage of the list is. When people subscribe to the list they get a significantly shortened but essentially clear statement of the philosophy of the list as well as of the ownership of the list. My conclusion has to be that many are not reading this material or, having read it, they want to change things all on their own to the way they think the list should be run. When we spoke before I said that an occasional posting of something extraordinary from out of state was okay. My posting last week was sarcastic because it was the end of a long, hot week, I was tired, and just about all I had been seeing all week long was material from other states. If my sarcasm was heavy-handed, I apologize for that. We have gotten some of the finest Maryland birders in the state talking about the birds they see. Filling the list up with the other material will only serve to push them away from this forum and we will end up with a mish-mash of cross-postings that really interest only small portions of the people using the list, the rest just deleting them without reading them. In the past week I have deleted about 90% of these sorts of postings unread, a terrible waste of this wonderful resource. If we lose readers from MDOsprey because they only want to know about Virginia or Delaware or New Jersey birds, so be it. This list is about Maryland birds. One thing I have considered doing is making the list monitored. I don't want the bother of clearing every message before it gets posted, but if that's what it takes, then perhaps I'll do that for awhile. I had hoped, however, that our readers would understand the ideas behind the list and police themselves. Perhaps this discussion will serve that purpose. Best, Norm Saunders =============== Norm Saunders Colesville, MD osprey@ari.net