[Introspective] Intro alive and kicking...

[Johan]

I agree that the flame wars ruined Introspective, but I think in actual fact
there was only really one person doing almost all of the flaming and that
was Jeffrey Durst - he wrote about 5 posts (most of them harsh personal
attacks) every time somebody else wrote one. Since the list moderator did
not intervene, he made about half the list members unsubscribe and the other
half shut up. This combined with the upshot of the web forum and the well
combed 'Petheads' mailing list shut down Introspective in my opinion. Oh
well, at least it went out in flames rather than just fading away :-)

I do rather enjoy Jeffrey's ramblings in a way - as trolls go he is at least
doing it with some wit and style - but it's a shame that he was allowed to
single-handedly close down a long time well-functioning list, and it should
also be noted that on occasions he has crossed the line between innocent
internet harassment and downright illegal threats and libel against members
of this list and the web forum. 

It will be interesting to see if James Lick - who or whatever he is -
decides to actually take action this time, as I remember he wrote that he
would some years back. Until then, of course, as you point out, it should be
fairly easy for those who are offended or bored by Aloysius/Jeff to simply
put him in the junk folder or create a rule that automatically deletes his
mails (In Outlook, go to Tools->Rules and alerts and create a new rule that
looks for his name in the sender of the mail and automatically deletes it or
puts it in the junk folder).

Anyway, it's nice to see that so many people stayed here after all - this
list was such an important part of my initiation to the whole internet
business that it still has a special place for me - even if we've all grown
up now and probably don't have as much time to spend on PSB or mailing lists
these days as back in those days :-)

Johan



-----Original Message-----
From: introspective-bounces at lists.jameslick.com
[mailto:introspective-bounces at lists.jameslick.com] On Behalf Of Erik
Cedergren
Sent: 25. august 2007 12:02
To: Introspective - Mail
Subject: [Introspective] Intro alive and kicking...

Hi all!

         For a long time, the only mails that appeared on Intro were the
monthly (?) subscription reminders, and Wayne's weekly polls. (I am very
impressed by the latter by the way, what a wealth of info on petheads he
must have amassed by now.)

         Then came Lydia. Some people have been slagging her off, others
have been supporting her, but the fact of the matter is, whether you like
her or not, *she* has brought life back to this dying list. I may be old,
but I'm not too fond of web forums, I have way too much to do at work to be
active on those. I've been on Intro since 1993, and it is still the best way
for me to keep up to date with PSB, when I have the time for it. I *want*
Intro to survive!

         Of course, with the increased activity came the inevitable flame
wars, and names and words that should have been left unspoken were uttered.
No single person is to blame for this, this is just the natural result of
people caring strongly about things. We all care, we but not necessarily
agree!

         In the 14 or so years I've been on this list, I have seen people,
discussion threads, morons, saints, you name it, come and go. If someone in
particular annoys you, there is always spam filtering. It works perfectly,
trust me on that! :) Block their addresses, or just delete their mails as
they appear! I know that this may be hard, and I will probably end up on
someones bad list because of my saying this, but to true petheads, the list
as a whole is more important than any single egghead trying to ruin things
for the rest of us.

         Finally, a bow to Lydia, for having the time and energy to do what
the rest of us have been very bad at - keeping Intro alive and kicking! I
may not always agree with you, but you really do care, and in my book, that
counts!

//ecgn (suffering from delusions of adequacy)