Sinister: please read me

[honey at xxx.org]

Your List Mummy's going away from tomorrow for a week to somewhere weird
called Nude York in "the Americas" to gambol in the fields with other
Sinistereens, and wants a word before setting sail.  Settle down at the
back.

The Village.  Sometimes a thread of discussion that lots of people love
winds on and on and dominates the list.  That's because lots of people
love it (can you hear me pussyfooting here? *gulp*) but there's always
a silent grrring sound if something dominates the list for too long.
I've had a few quiet comments and mails about it and I think it's
appropriate to be Mum and say "hush" a bit now and let some other stuff
through please.  With 1200 people on the list we can't all be
photocopies of each other, and something that appeals to a lot of
people will wind a few others up.  The key is "balance" so we can all
live together without calling out the Sinister Riot Police.  I've
spoken to Vel and Simon (who's doing a Village website) and they're
going to provide a village email address soon where you can send all
your requests to be the village prostitute, or whatever.  So please,
for now, ease your foot off the village thread and talk about other
things, like we used to.  I expect you to all be GOOD while I'm away
and don't go scaring the neighbour's chickens.

Can we also focus a little?  New people often love the galloping
momentum this list has, but when you're a list pensioner you'll have
trouble keeping up.  All I'm really saying again is please ask
yourself "do 1200 people want to know this?" before you hit Send.
Anything that's witty, wise or wicked will probably be ok, but please
don't just use it as an exhaust valve.  If you're not reading most of
the list mails, please don't post.  That way it'll get back to
something manageable we can all read, and won't fragment.

Now whenever I mail a message like this, no matter how much I say,
"please don't anyone think this is directed at them", I always get a
mail or two back saying "I'm so sorry" or, occasionally "Why did you
humiliate me publically".  I'd like to go on record saying that I have
been composing this mail for ages in between other jobs and I don't
KNOW whose mail I'm following on the list, so it's NOT directed at
you!  Yes you!  Or anyone!

The Village (of the Spammed).  Someone's told me some evil wicked loser
has mailed a few of you with irrelevant rubbish that looks a bit like
junk mail and it just might be through list membership.  If you get
anything like this that you know for sure a truckload of other listees
got, please send the message on to me, with the full headers option in
your mail program if you can find it.  But don't just send me any junk
mail you get!  I'll be swamped and I'm already mopping up madly.  If
someone's using the list addresses to spam list members, I'll
personally remove their vital organs with an ice-cream scoop and use
their carved out bodyshell as a bathtub.  You'll notice that the WWW
site and archive have anti-junk mail stuff in them which will stop the
commercial spammers, but I suppose someone who could be bothered doing
it manually could get round it.  So I'll set the dogs on them.
Maternal grrrrrrr.

"The Sky at Night".  I have to comment on this, Oon Siam Droolz.  It's
an astronomy program on the BBC, starring Patrick Moore, who is nice
and big and fat and mad and as old as Jupiter.  I once met him in an
observatory in the Canaries, when I was what advertising agencies call
a "teen-ult", and he called me "sonny" and I could swear he patted my
head.  He has remarkable views on race and creed, akin to the Duke of
Edinburgh's.  Oon, keep watching, sooner or later he will make a
massive racist indiscretion while describing a comet's tail, or just
die on camera spectacularly.

Finally seeing I'm going away for a week, I'm relaxing a few rules that
keep just such junk mail and "unsubscribe" messages away from the list,
so you might see a few more like yesterdays.  Necessary evil, so that
any genuine messages don't sit waiting for approval while I'm getting
nude in Nude York.  When I get back, be assured that I will flick the
Big Sinister Switches back on so only I get them.

Be good now, I have spies in the colonies who will tell on you :)
Honey x


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