first of all, i'd like to say a sincere thanks to lance for
starting a moderated idm-l. i sure as heck will be
joining. however, know that it will be a very very
large undertaking, even if only 25% of the current idm-l
members switch over. for those of you new to the list,
lance has been around here quite a while, and, when
not in one of his occassional silent periods, has contributed
more to this list than just about anyone else that i can
think of. thanks lance...
on to other topics. the signal to noise ratio on this list
has become nearly unbearable. there's been many a
time when i've said to myself, "screw this, i'm outta
here" and then remembered, "damn, i can't...i'm the
list admin". there was a point (even within the past
several years) where this list was an extremely useful
entity. i bought records based on other's recommendations,
went to shows to meet other listmembers, and generally
geeked out with other likeminded people. now, many
of the people whose opinions i so respected have
left. it may amaze some of you to hear this, but there
was a time when people respected each-other's opinions,
even if they disagreed, the word "fuck" showed up
less than 50 times a day, and was almost never followed
by the words "you" or "off". granted, i was not here
when this list started (i joined prolly a year into it), but i
have seen glimpses here and there of what a good,
functional idm list can be, and where we are at right now
is not it. Right now this is beginning to look more like
an AOL chatroom than a group of people interested in
discussing experiences, ideas, and discoveries, which
is what this list was originally formed around.
here's a quote from the idm-l policies:
"So as to prevent the list from becoming a hopeless barrage
of flame mail over what is and is not "intelligent", the official
stance will be that all opinions are to be respected - you are
welcome to disagree and post your disagreements, but outright
flames and name-calling are to be avoided. However, if you
declare that "Rozalla is intelligent dance music", you should
be willing and able to back it up - not just "because it obviously
is." Just remember that your mail goes into approximately 900
mail boxes worldwide therefore unrelated or unneccessary posts
should be kept to an absolute minimum."
However, that quote is pretty old. I stole it from the previous
list admin, who i believe stole it from the admin before him.
One major change is that instead of 900 list members, we are
looking at closer to *2000* list members. As one would expect,
as a list grows, the traffic increases....but what we didn't expect
was the overall demeanor and disposition of the list to go down
the crapper in a direct relationship with the number of listmembers.
I'm sure i'm not the only one getting sick of the "confield rocks" /
"confield sucks" / "screw you" / "yer mom" kind of crap posts
that are multiplying like rabbits around here.
that being said, if i find that people are being rude, disruptful,
hasty on the reply button, or generally disrespectful to others
on the list, i *will* kick you. you may or may not get an
accompanying email from me re: why you have been kicked.
i've tried the nice friendly route, where i ask politely for people
to please keep their arguments and flame wars off-list, but it
doesn't seem to be working. consider yourself warned.
i would like to get this list back into the bearable, if not good
category.
here's what i need from listmembers:
- reviews: tell us what you think of the music that you buy.
if your review contains the words "rocks", "sucks", "blows",
"bites" or anything similar, keep it to yourself...at that point
you're only writing to get a response, not to foster discussion.
- news: keep us updated. not about about the 14th ae-ripoff
track that you've posted on mp3.com in the last month, but
about interesting things....if you can't distinguish between the
two, please find another list.
- be selective: only write if you have something to say that
adds to the discussion. "me too" posts & posts that re-state
what previous posts have said are not needed.
- show some restraint: if someone on the list is acting like
an idiot and obviously trying to get people pissed off, just
ignore them. they're like the little kid down the street
when you were growing up that didn't know how to make
friends, so they just pestered the other kids. if we ignore
them, they'll get the picture, and hopefully come back later
with something useful to say.
and lastly:
- someone organize a damn potluck. ferchrissake, nothing brings
people together like a crock pot full o' meatballs (tofu-balls if you
prefer) and some generic soda. you think i'm joking but i'm not....
early aphex and potato salad go very well together.
okay, i think that's about it. it's late now and i apologize for the
typos and grammatically-challenged sentences. let's get our
ish together folks.
discuss amongst yourselves....
brian r.
clickpop@hyperreal.org
idm-l admin
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