Re: Techwr-l Recurring Reduces (plural of redux, no? :)

[BILL KONRAD <konradb -at- UL -dot- COM>]

>>>From: "Beth Mazur" <mazur -at- MAYA -dot- COM>, on 7/3/97 2:50 PM:
At 2:35 PM -0400 7/3/97, Ridder, Fred wrote:
>I'm not sure Jim's idea is practical if what he has in mind is an
>exhaustive list of all topics that have been discussed.  But I do
>think there is merit to the concept of providing a list of those topics
>that cause an irresistable "ARRGH" response among long-time
>list readers.
You mean a response among a smallish percentage of list readers. If
more than 90% of the list have good filters and/or are low maintenance
enough to ignore posts they aren't interested in (remember, fewer than
10% of the list voted to kill the certification discussion), then as
Danny Wood says, this thread is really just a more politically correct
version of an annoying recurring thread that the large majority of folks
simply ignore.<<<

I'll weigh in with my opinion on this, for whatever its worth.  I joined
the list about when it started and stayed on for a few years.  Then I got
so bored with the repetitiousness and volume of the "ARRGH"-inducing
messages that I signed off a year or two ago.  So I'm skeptical of your
90/10 percentage to begin with--and then you should also figure in a
significant percentage who leave the list, whether from boredom or disgust.


Now that I'm at a new job where I have internet access at work (rather than
at home), I thought I'd see what was happening on the list these days.
Many of the same topics that cropped up like weeds then are still coming
up.  But, at least for the time being, they don't bother as much now. Maybe
I'm still fresh from the long absence or perhaps it's having the net at
work where I don't feel like I'm wasting personal time at home, first
waiting for all the messages to download and then wading through them all
for the nuggets.

Personally, I'd like to see something like what Fred suggests, but even if
such a list of "ARRGH"-inducing topics were available, you can be sure that
those topics would still come up, just like weeds.

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