Long postings on AFRO-NETS (2)
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There were quick responses from several subscribers to my note about
Claudio Schuftan's lengthy essay. As one subscriber noticed, we can't
please all of our more than 1,100 subscribers. If you don't like con-
tributions from certain people make use of your mail client's filter-
ing capabilities: each message - let's say from 'Dieter Neuvians MD'
- automatically goes to the trash bin.
A more constructive suggestion is to announce the availability of
lengthy contributions and place them on a WEB site for downloading.
We are also considering to introduce a sort of 'push' technology
where a subscriber receives only messages he/she is interested in by
supplying us with keywords messages have to comply with to be sent
out to this person.
Since most of the comments were sent directly to the moderator and
not to the list I decided to shorten the sender's addresses to ini-
tials and the country of origin.
Regards,
Dieter Neuvians MD
AFRO-NETS Moderator
mailto:neuvians@harare.iafrica.com
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Here the comments:
I second the subscriber's complaint about laborious treatises, though
not as much annoyed as him/her. Why not simply circulate an abstract?
Those interested in more detail can still request for the full paper.
S.T., Germany
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I vote in favour of the subscriber both in terms of the length of the
postings and, in fact, the content of Claudio's postings. Like other
spam, I delete them without reading them. I can imagine it is very
annoying for people who have slow connections to have to sit and
watch yet something else from Claudio download.
J.C. Namibia
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Hey! You can't please everyone. I didn't read the full text as it
isn't my interest area, but I did pass them on to someone else in the
organisation. I thought you'd distributed them quite carefully not to
cause anyone problems. If the content fits the brief of the list I
would be inclined to include it - attachments are a different story
of course.
C.D. South Africa
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If AFRO-NETS is to be more than just an electronic "yellow pages" or
"dear auntie pages", then contributions such as those from Claudio
(irrespective whether or not one agrees with the content) should be
welcome. AFRO-NETS may wish to establish a limit on the length of
postings - but that limit should be applied universally. Your corre-
spondent is clearly not the most tolerant of people, and perhaps this
mailing list would be better off without people whose contribution
includes such vituperation.
F.M, UK
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My feelings concerning Claudios contributions are not so negative as
cited in your letter. They remind the argumentations lines of the
European student movement of the late 60th "Kampf dem, weg mit ...."
and are not yet in their adulthood of "Fuer ein demokratisches..".
But they are refreshing, questioning the axiomas of the Biedermeier-
replica we are living in and there is a feeling of social responsa-
bility behind - and none of them is bad.
If I feel like reading a text like this, I would rather like to have
it complete and at once than in bits and pieces like a soap opera.
Why don't you suggest to Claudio to put it on a website and communi-
cate to AFRO-NETS whenever there is a new chapter or edition avail-
able?
P.R., Germany
--
Yes, I read them and enjoy them.
J.O., Dominican Republic
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