Kenton Bird's Common Sense

[Tim Lohrmann <timlohr@yahoo.com>]

  Many thanks to Kenton Bird for expressing what most
V2020 subscribers are thinking.
  One post per day is plenty!
  This endless rebuttal stuff is becoming downright
dreckful--not to mention silly and a waste of time.
   
  I was amused at a couple of the endless posts that I
happened to glance at before deleting. 
   
   One frequent back-and-forth post-er asked, "where
have you been? Have you not been reading the posts on
this list?" As if this was an unimaginable horror.
   
   Well I've got news, with a whole row of
posts--scores of them from a few back and
forth-ers--MOST subscribers are not reading the posts
here. 
   
   It might be an entertaining luxury if everyone
could keep up with the recorded stream of
consciousness of a handful of individuals.
   
   But time just doesn't permit.

   I noticed another post with only the words "Ho-Hum,
click, delete," or something similar as the only new
comment. This was sent to the entire list!
 
   Endless rebuttals, arguments, comments etc. are
wonderful. But what's wrong with sending them ONLY to
the person you're rebutting/arguing with and NOT to
the entire list? 
   This is not only easier, but it will keep many
people who are thinking of unscubscribing due to the
incredible number of posts from doing so.
   
  I'm not saying don't post--I'm just saying that
limiting the sheer numbers, as Mr. Bird recommended,
would be welcome to many subscribers. 
    
  Less really can be more.
     TL 
    


--- Kenton Bird <kentonbird@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Visionaries,
> 
> From 1982 to 1992 (with the exception of about 10
> months in 1988-1989), I 
> edited the opinion page of the Idahonian (the
> predecessor to the 
> Moscow-Pullman Daily News).
> 
> One of my regular correspondents was a now-deceased
> retired school teacher 
> from Elk River, D. Beverly Hughes. She signed her
> letters (usually 
> postcards) "D.B. Hughes."
> 
> When I arrived that the newspaper, Mrs. Hughes sent
> a postcard almost every 
> day, and we picked a representative one to run about
> every two weeks.  The 
> paper's publisher and I discussed how to use our
> limited space for letters 
> to best advantage while promoting a healthy exchange
> of viewpoints.
> 
> We finally established the "D.B. Hughes rule," which
> limited writers to one 
> published letter per week -- less often if there
> were letters awaiting 
> publication from less-frequent writers.
> 
> The result was that Idahonian readers were exposed
> occasionally to the 
> provocative, humorous and sometimes outrageous ideas
> of Mrs. Hughes, but 
> were not bombarded with them. Mrs. Hughes quickly
> adapted to this rule, 
> becoming more selective about which of her ideas she
> commited to a postcard.
> 
> Vision 2020 is a different forum than a newspaper
> editorial page, of course. 
>   "Space" is not a limiting factor, but the time of
> subscribers is finite.   
> With all due respect to the diversity of views
> expressed on the list in the 
> past month, the volume is simply overwhelming for
> many of us.
> 
> Consequently, I propose that writers adhere to a
> self-imposed limit of one 
> posting per day, choosing to frame issues in a way
> that speaks to a larger 
> audience.  (There might be exceptions to this in the
> days before an 
> election, so that a charge doesn't go unanswered
> before voting.) Individual 
> retorts to prior posts could still be sent directly
> to the writer "off 
> list."
> 
> I submit that the quality of commentary on the list
> would be higher if 
> everyone had to choose their words carefully and/or
> wait 24 hours before 
> sending another reply, instead of just firing off
> repeated  rebuttal 
> messages.
> 
> I welcome responses -- one per day per person, of
> course.
> 
> --Kenton
> 
> 
> 
>
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> 


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