Message backlog; apologies

[Rich Alderson]

The debates on the Indo-European mailing list have resulted in a large backlog
of messages.  No messages received after 23:30 PST (07:30 UT) Tuesday night
have been processed yet, to allow an overworked mail system to cool down.

Tuesday's message storm (nearly 60 messages were queued to go out to the list)
resulted in my allowing a few messages to go out on both lists that probably
should have been sent back to the writers for further consideration, or at the
very least had their Subject: headers modified.

As I have stated in the past, I try to keep things collegial on the two lists
under my control, Indo-European and Nostratic.  While I have been associated
with academia all my life, and know that bitter feuds can erupt, I also know
that generally people who find each other's presence distasteful simply arrange
their lives to avoid confrontation.  Mailing lists are more difficult that way,
and sometimes provocations are seen where none are really intended, or are
given when a little reflection will keep the writer from responding in quite
the same fashion.

I hereby offer my public apology to Mark Hubey for allowing certain messages to
go out.  Mr. Hubey and I disagree strongly on almost every topic, and have come
to harsh words with each other in the past; nonetheless, I should have directed
personal attacks to private e-mail rather than propagating them.

I apologize to those who have been insulted here by Mr. Hubey, as well.

I also apologize to all the readers for this loss of control of these lists.
Two prior Indo-European mailing lists, and the previous Nostratic list, died
because of personality conflicts, as have many others in other disciplines (not
all linguistic); that won't happen again.  As I stated when I revived the lists
after the last meltdown, I am not by nature a patient person; I will, if I
must, be a much heavier-handed moderator.

Thank you all for your patience and your continued readership.

								Rich Alderson
								list owner and
								moderator
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