Ay, caramba!

Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Mon, 07 Jul 1997 17:06:47 -0400 

Gee, a list owner takes a day off, and all hell breaks loose!  This is what
I get for letting Air France hold me hostage in a jet all day, while we
dodged thunderstorms.  Between the time I packed up my computer in Paris
and had a chance to reconnect in New York, a lot happened here, and I am
concerned about the turn for the worse this list has taken.

I'm not the preachy sort (those of you who know me will attest to this) or
an authoritarian (ditto), and there's nothing I want to do more than to
urge people on the list to pay attention to the writer's work, and to
contribute to the intelligent conversation, and get ourselves back on track.

By "intelligent," I don't mean "highbrow," or "pretentious," or any of the
other tags that have been floating around.  I mean that there are an
enormous number of fiercely intelligent people on this list who love the
work of JDS, and in the past we have heard from them -- as someone pointed
out, with wisdom and insights coming to us from all ages -- and I want to
see that continue.

So:  I'd like to gently set a few things straight.  

The "I am Salinger" bit was scarcely amusing the first time, and has now
managed to piss off a large segment of the subscribers.  (Quite a few
people sent me private mail telling me they were going to bail out because
of the shift in this list.  I implore you all to rethink that; I don't
think we have a hopeless case here, and I'd like to see you hang on just a
bit to watch things clear up.)

I'd like that part of the list traffic to stop right here.  Few of us want
to hear anyone else claim to be JDS or any other writer, in a continuation
of this silliness.  I strongly believe that a listowner should take action
(e.g., drop people into the "ignore" file so their postings don't get
distributed) only as a last resort, and I haven't quite reached that point
yet.  Therefore, I would like to ask the various pranksters to reconsider
your pranks, which amuse few of us, and if these messages are all you'd
like to contribute to the list, take it to private mail between you and
people who want to hear you declare, "I am Salinger."

Second: Call it what you want, but "bananafish" is its own peculiar type of
community, and as such, personal attacks here are not acceptable.  If you
feel compelled to call someone a moron (or whatever the pejorative of the
day happens to be), take it to private email and spare the rest of us.  It
sets a lousy tone for the list, and it is not appropriate for this
situation, and it will result in me doing something I don't much want to
do, which is either bounce the people who are here merely to cause trouble,
or just set the list to "moderated," so that postings will no longer freely
go out when submitted.  That's not the kind of community we have here, and
that would be a distasteful and absolutely last resort.  But if it comes
down to a choice between having all this destroyed or filtering out the
troublemakers ... well, what would *you* do?

Finally: When all else fails, people sling spelling mistakes and other
accusatory trivia around.  Please -- not here.  None of us is a perfect
typist; an acquaintance of mine is a brilliant non-fiction writer whose
books and articles are exquisitely created, but whose email has at least
one error per line.  That's life.  If I felt the need to carp at him for
his typos, our acquaintanceship would have no chance to blossom into
friendship in the future.  And the same applies here.  There is no reason
for cheap shots to appear on this list.

I wish to see the debate and the discussion continue, and I **don't** want
the new people and the silent people to be intimidated by the prospects of
posting to the list.  

So, let's get back to being a civil group, can we?  Send personal reactions
to me directly (tim@roughdraft.org), or follow up on this thread in public.
 Whatever you do, I'm sure most people here will continue in the generous
and productive spirit that got this list going.  Let's hear from you.
Let's cool off the tempers.  And let's get back to encouraging readers and
writers to post on JDS, on books and what they do to us, and on all the
rest of the subjects that make this list a worthwhile endeavor.

--tim o'connor