Well, I'm in both camps, I'm afraid. I make many gruesomely on topic,
often tediously long and/or overly detailed and, surprisingly, mostly
accurate posts on the core business of the list. And then, I participate
in the lighter, more social and definitely OT threads too.
I sometimes picture some listees checking the list, seeing nothing on
topic to talk about, feeling like making contact with living human
beings. Even if they are far away, at least they are friends. So
somebody weakens and post something OT but within the list gestalt and
suddenly several people are off and running. Or one of the resident
curmudgeons tosses in a bomb with the fuse lit. Ever notice how an
upsurge of on topic posts coincides with a small number of OT posts and
vice versa?
I have this suspicion that an on topic only list might often be very
quiet. The regular repetitions of all the standard questions and issues
is useful and necessary as the list membership slowly changes and some
of us forget things we thought we knew, but kind of dry and dusty fare
for those who have been around for a while. A bit of breadth and
leavening keeps things alive.
It seems a lot of those most knowledgeable and interested in sharing
their knowledge are also some of the more socially talkative.
It would be nice if we always remembered to put OT in the subject when a
thread slips off into neverland, but it doesn't always happen.
I believe most browsers allow sorting by subject and/or viewing by
thread. It's pretty easy to just mark a bunch of posts and push the old
Delete key. I've done that myself occasionally. Threads on B&W film and
long discussions of film/developer/time/concentration/etc, gun threads,
SUV threads, and so on are of low interest to me and often get short
shrift in my inbox, but you will never hear me complain that they
shouldn't be here and I don't even mumble off the list, cause these
people are part of my community and I consider many to be friends. So I
just exerecise the power of the Delete and go on to the subjects that
engage me.
There is not much new about OM and Oly that hasn't been discussed,
usually many times, and all the old favorites roll around like the
seasons. I think there is more info about 1.5x volt 357 size batteries
in our archives that in the head of a battery engineer. Still, when
someone know or having a _____ moment asks, we chip in and repeat it
all. I learned why I sometimes had batery problems when I joined the
list and now I'm pleased to pass it on.
OT threads rise and fall like the tides. It's all part of some natural
rhythm, I think. Maybe one of the statisticians on the list could run a
correlation to the moon cycle? :-P
Just some ramblings from someone who is pretty happy generally with the
way the list is and up past his bedtime.
Moose
Curt Sampson wrote:
>Hey, I don't want to be a wet towel or anything, but have we considered
>splitting this list into two, one for camera talk, and one for social
>talk? I find the list to be pretty high volume, not so much of which has
>anything to do with Olympus cameras....
>
>cjs
>
>
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