Sinister: please read

[honey at xxx.org]

Forgive me, an impatient mail.

Mark, on "Baby" Chris:
> Moving on...certain ancient people with long memories would probably suggest
> that I don't get into this, but BabyChris' comments about the Cool Set in
> London (forgive the paraphrase) seem a bit tetchy and far from the truth.
> 
> ...
> Sinister is meant to bring us together, and does an impossibly good job of
> it. There's no need to try and create some kind of division which simply
> doesn't exist. Especially in your valedictory post. 

And about Americans.  And about someone he doesn't like who took the
time to contribute to Papercuts.  And about someone whose face he
didn't like at the picnic.

Chris is no longer with us, I helped him along in unsubscribing.  I'm
afraid this may be a lack of patience on my part, but the sort of
posts that say "bye bye I'm leaving, and by the way, most of you are
wankers" really gets to me; people only get so much rope.  

Who read all of yesterday's 30 posts to the list?  How many of the
people who posted have read all those before?  How many of those who
posted really thought all 1300 people really wanted to read what they
said?  How many of those people decided to wait before posting, to see
if they had a few things they could send at once later on to make
things more digestible for the other 1299 who were about to receive
their mails?

These questions aren't a dig at anyone, they're not quite rhetorical.
Some of the mails as always were delicious.  But if you're posting and
don't care less, then you're going to feel a hand on your shoulder soon
I'm afraid.  Or everything will just go very quiet for you, more
likely, because I haven't time to enter into debate.  You all know the
score, I've bored you all to tears with it before, and most of you are
incredibly patient putting up with my nagging, and careful about what
you send; it's the few who don't.  I do find that by and large people
can tell who cares and who doesn't, and if it's obvious someone
doesn't, or hasn't read this mail, or doesn't care what's in it, I
might have to do something drastic, because I just don't have the
time to run this *and* send these mails.  Remember this list isn't
affiliated to anyone, isn't paid for by any organisation, doesn't have
anything to do with Jeepster or the band, is just a place you all come
to meet: You Get The List You Make.

If you're on this list just to get an audience for your own thoughts on
life, or breakfast, I'm afraid you don't belong.  If a mail took you
less than 15 minutes to write, then maybe you should think before
sending it: it probably means you just want something, and to get
something, you usually have to give something too.  If you're not
reading what others are posting because it's all too much, then you
have no business posting.  If you find this hard to understand, or
unreasonable, please give a thought to what how many of those other
posts you just can't get through would be there if they'd followed this
rule.  And if you plain don't like the kind of environment that
expects this, then there are plenty of other mailing lists that don't
have to worry about such niceties that you could go to: it's just,
they aren't usually so big or long-lived.  But you might be happier
there, or you can go and make your own lists, it's what the
Internet's for.  But I'm mum here.

Sinister has been a special very place, to me as much as anyone, and
I'm just here to do a bit of weeding, which is what this rather
impatient mail is about: knowing what the majority of you want, because
you tell me, and trying to keep it that way.  If I'm getting it wrong,
please do mail me about it, but let's not discuss it on the list: that
way lies list conflagration.  For nearly three years Sinister has
trundled along more or less merrily, and I'd like to see it through for
at least another, if we can avoid falling into the holes most mailing
lists trip up in and die.  This mail did take me more than 15 minutes
to write, and I feel a bit of a toad sending it.  I suspect it's not
going to win me any list crushes.

I *really* hate sending these mails, and afterwards I worry like mad.
It's just, I really love this list.  

Grrrrrrrr,
Honey


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