Being a fellow listowner (book_arts-l and gbw among others), I'd like to
give Everett the benefit of the doubt. For one thing, lists are not
democracies, or even anarchies, despite what some of us may think at any
given time. A list functions at the listowners discretion and whim. There
are times I have resorted to setting the list to "moderated" to screen
postings much as other lists are, or times it seems to be working well
enough to let subscribes post on their own. It's at my, or in this case
Everett's, discretion, no one elses. Now, I try to be even-handed, fair,
and generally hand-off, even when moderating. These lists are also serve
very important social functions and bring us all together because of our
mutual interests.
On the other hand, I too must admit that the tone of Everett's message was
more than a bit over the top. While I read the list in digest form and
generally skim over the dealer announcements I have, like many, found them
useful. It's so easy to delete, and not even worth getting exorcised over.
Now, we're mostly librarians here and research is a part of our
livelihoods. I did some digging at Berekely's website, specifically in
computing. The list policy is pretty clearly stated there and can be read
at <http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7015/policy/mlistpol.html>. Note, in
particular, point 5 under "policy." Exlibris is run off of the Library's
listserver and I couldn't find any information there on policies, but it
wouldn't be a stretch to assume that they're in synch, at least to some
degree. Ignoring list realities/relevance issues, I can see where Everett
would have to abide by this policy. However, just about every list
condones/tolerates some sort of related "commercial" activity. Otherwise
we'd have to ban postings by individuals which identify them as working for
corporate entities either by email address, or their signature file which
would be ludicrous.
Before all this spins further out of control and into the absurd, I think
it appropriate that Everett explain his position more clearly, especially
in light of the tone of the message. This list serves too important a
function in the rare books/special collections field. It can be replaced,
but the cost would be high in terms fragmentation/email load/management.
How much time do we really have to play around with this stuff. Don't
answer. Remember also that Everett is listowner for the RBMS list, or at
least he was. Many of us wear many hats, and my hats (all 4 of them) to
whoever said, "if we're going to ask for an abdication, we also better be
prepared to take over duties as listowner. It can be a lot of fun, it can
also be a major pain and thankless. Everett deserves a lot of credit for
taking over duties from Peter Graham who started, and made this list what
it is in the first place.
My apologies for going on, but let's all sleep on it and hope tomorrow is a
calmer day.
Peter
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Philobiblon: Book Arts, Different By Design
Hand binding, conservation, and project websites for historical agencies
Peter D. Verheyen
<mailto:verheyen@philobiblon.com>
<http://www.philobiblon.com>
Home of the Book Arts Web, Book_Arts-L & John Vassos Bibliography