FED UP - Keep up the good work Eric

[William Swallow <wswallow -at- COMMSOFT -dot- NET>]

I replied to this off list, but I think that everyone needs
to understand that Eric runs a tight ship because he HAS
TO, otherwise WE ALL lose the list.  Everyone got that?
 Good.  Now, can we all stop this incessant whining and
bellyaching and get back to professional matters?  All this
crap really does well for our image... no wonder Scott
Adams loved (loves?) lurking here for ideas... where do you
think "Tina the fragile Tech Writer" came from?

Grow up people.  You're all professionals.  Act like it.

----------
From:   Mark Nichols[SMTP:mark2051 -at- YAHOO -dot- COM]
Sent:   Tuesday, October 27, 1998 10:51 AM
Subject:        Fed up with Eric's Rules

For too long, Eric Ray has controlled and restricted
information on
this list.  When people have raised controversial,
inflammatory, or
decisive topics, he has stopped the threads, issued his
idiotic little
ADMIN posts, and removed members who expressed their ideas.
Eric might
not have a responsibility to publish, but he has taken his
job as list
moderator WAY too far.  He has gone beyond merely policing
the group,
to practicing full-scale censorship and  ppression.

A growing number of us are sick and tired of his  fascist
rules.
Under the guise of moderating this group to only talk about
technical
communication, Eric wipes out all dissension and topics
which he
personally feels are irrelevant.  Hey Eric - some of us
would like to
hear those ideas!

In the last three months, Eric has removed scores of
members for
violations of his intolerant rules.  This list has become a
laughing
stock of the technical communications community.  Some
writers find
this list so horrible, they will not even accept posts
forwarded from
the list.  My manager thinks this list is a utter and
complete waste
of time. The woman in the cube next to me dropped off the
list almost
a year ago.  Her reasons "nothing even remotely interesting
is ever
discussed on the list.  That guy controls every word on
there. You
can't post anything without a nasty message from him."

Recently, Eric removed George Mena for his ideas about
confrontations
between men and women - While Mr. Mena's ideas were
controversial,
they were also a legitimate opinion about workplace
confrontations.
Because the sensitives of a few meek readers were offended,
we missed
the opportunity to explore Mr. Mena's ideas.

In a removal a few months back, Eric kicked a member off
because he
made a public attack on Eric's ridiculous warnings about
the use of
sexist language.

In his most recent removal, Eric kicked off Andrew Plato,
for his
biting and hilarious satire of the Ugly Incident thread.  I
loved Mr.
Plato's posts.  They were often the brightest thing on this
list.

I am sick and tired of every interesting or remotely
controversial
idea being squashed on this list.  I have another account
on this
list.  I made this "phantom" account so Eric could not kick
the "real
me" off. The fact is, I know that if I made these
complaints through
my "real account" Eric would kick me off in an instant.

So, I am asking everyone to leave this list and begin using
the
listserv newsgroup rather than this mailing list.  The
newsgroup is
bit.listserv.techwr-l.  You will need a news reader to
access this
newsgroup.  You can access the newsgroup through
www.dejanews.com.
Anyone can post to the news group, regardless of being an
"approved
user."  This will allow for a freer exchange of ideas and
information.

Moreover, if you use a news reader like Outlook Express or
Netscape,
you can scan the topics and read only those threads that
interest you.
It might be a little more chaotic than this list - but at
least we'll
have the freedom to express our opinions without Eric being
our mother
telling us what we can and cannot read.

Also, there is an effort underway to create a new newsgroup
called
alt.writing.technical.  I have also contacted a few people
about
setting up a web site with a discussion forum.  The people
I have
talked to all agree, this list is a complete joke and needs
to be
abandoned - those that like sanitized crap can remain
behind.

I encourage the members of this list who desire a more open
and free
exchange of information to stop using this list and start
posting to
the newsgroup.
I will keep everyone updated to our activities through
other "phantom"
accounts on this list.

Incidentally, Eric, myself and others hold numerous
"phantom" accounts
on this list.  To be blunt, you cannot stop these message
by merely
kicking me and my colleagues off. We can sign up a
virtually unlimited
number of "phantom" accounts due to the way this list is
structured.


Signed,
Technical Communicators for free communication.




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