I know I shouldn't have done anything to extend this discussion of the list on the list, so if you have a reply, please send it privately to me. Ah Sinister, settle down. Again. We've seen this before in the 2+ years we've been together. People come, people go, people write brilliantly and people write shit, we spat and we hug and we utilize our delete keys when it's something we aren't interested in. Sinister imitates life -- no, it *is* life in a lot of ways. Which brings me to the point I'd like to risk making. I've always thought that it's a very lovely thing that people feel safe enough, or valuable enough, to sit down (I picture them late at night) and pour their hearts out on Sinister when there doesn't seem to be anyone else around to listen to them. That they feel people on the list will care about them and they won't be alone with whatever is troubling them, at least in the moment they're feeling so down at their keyboards. I always thought it spoke well for all of us that people could do that when they needed to. No matter if half or more of us were deleting after the first sentence. At least we did it silently, and some of us might have been touched and sent an encouraging word along. I know mailboxes get burdened awfully and I know people should think before they write drivel. I don't enjoy reading about or care about lots of things like "what I did this weekend with my friends and what I wore" or "who can I have a crush on/who will have a crush on me this week, go look and see how great I am" or "I'm a poor penniless student with 25 papers to write." Personally I'd like to hear more things that have some heart in them, or beauty. But some people do and I can make what I don't have any interest in go away with one stroke of my finger like I throw out junk mail that comes in the post. I know people have indulged things that I have written here. So, I wouldn't much think of telling anyone I don't care about their lives because it seems mean if they want to talk about it. It seems doubly mean to tell someone who has poured out real and true sadness that they're pretty much a pain in the ass. Yes, everyone should think before they post, but sometimes the pain is pretty big, I'd think, and needs a release. Who can think then? I find it hard to begrudge that. Too much of any one thing isn't good. We're a diverse bunch. We've got lots of stories to tell. I'd just like us to stay a place that's known as much for caring as for wit, I guess is what I'm trying to say, without stepping on anyone's toes. --michele +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "jelly-filled danishes" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+