Posted by Bob on October 28, 1999, at 8:59:42
In reply to Re: This is a bbs for mutual education & support, posted by S. S on October 28, 1999, at 7:16:14
Yeah, with Dee and dj I'm also guilty of tiring people out, out there in Babbleland. But Dee and some of the Weary bring up some good points of reason. Perhaps the most important being that this *is* a diverse community and as such, we need to show respect for what others want and need from this group.
This sort of dissention offer ruins listservs and email groups because of the serial manner in which everyone gets subjected to everything. The great thing about the structure of this board is that you can decide whether you want to read something by the title of the thread. I'm not interested in SAM-E, phototherapy, or MAOI discussions, so I skip them. On the other hand, there are a large number of people who I've come to respect through the nature and quality of their posts, so seeing a follow-up by one of these people to a thread often pulls me into something I wouldn't have examined otherwise. Another great structural tool on this site are those new tags. They make it very easy to page down/up (instead of scrolling) and find what's new (imagine that ;^) since the last time you loaded the page. Meaningful thread titles and these new tags are both important aids to picking out only the things you want to read ... leaving the rest to whoever wants to read them.
As a number of folks have pointed out, tho, that tend to turn threads into gorilla-sized "cables." Deleting the auto-quoted previous response is a great suggestion, coupled with using only the parts of a quoted response that you want to illustrate. Remember that this server can be achingly slow, particularly when responding to a Submit request, so don't hit that submit button a second or third time. Knowing that the post you've just submitted will not show up in the list until you hit the Refresh/Reload button, so there's no need to enter it twice. Knowing also that hitting the refresh/reload button will erase all the "new" tags, even on posts you haven't seen, so perhaps its better to scroll to the bottom of the list before you go looking for your post on-line.
To the weary ones out there -- although your handles are a great show of mutual support and it does appear to have an effect on us babble-on-&-on'ers, I hope that it's also not a concern about getting flamed. You've got every right to speak your mind reasonably, and there certainly is a difference between "constructive criticism" and slagging someone. I hope this latter concern isn't the reason for the handles, since discussions like these are needed from time to time to keep things from escalating. I do respect the input that you've given here.
Thanks,
Bob
poster:Bob
thread:13988
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991108/msgs/14085.html