Mr. Long's objections Re: Handfuls of Unrelated Forms

[Rich Alderson]

NOTE:  I am writing to the list as moderator.

On 28 Jun 2001, Steve Long wrote to complain about the rough handling he has
received from me when I write as a linguist subscribed to the list.  He states

> In a message dated 6/28/2001 4:38:04 AM, alderson+mail at panix.com writes:

> << Once again, the crucial importance of vowel length has been missed.
> The words for _arrow_ and _poison_ both begin with a *long* vowel, /i:/,

[ moderator snip ]

> I'm sorry but this is REALLY undeserved.

> 1. Let me give you an earlier post on this list where you might have brought
> all this up:
> In a message dated 6/27/2001 9:20:37 PM, acnasvers at hotmail.com wrote:
> << the oxytone <i:os> 'arrow' referred by L&S to the root of <ienai> 'to
> go'...>>

I do not know how Mr. Long came by these dates.  The two messages in question
have the following headers (here repeated in full up to the point of departure
from toad.xkl.com):

    Received: from mail1.panix.com ([166.84.0.212]) by toad.xkl.com with TCP/SMTP; Mon, 25 Jun 2001 12:14:59 -0700 (PDT)
    Received: from panix6.panix.com (panix6.panix.com [166.84.0.231])
    	by mail1.panix.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5F9584870B
    	for <Indo-European at xkl.com>; Mon, 25 Jun 2001 15:14:07 -0400 (EDT)
    Received: (from alderson at localhost) by panix6.panix.com (8.8.8/8.7.1/PanixN1.0) id PAA05996; Mon, 25 Jun 2001 15:14:07 -0400 (EDT)
    Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 15:14:07 -0400 (EDT)
    Message-Id: <200106251914.PAA05996 at panix6.panix.com>
    X-Authentication-Warning: panix6.panix.com: alderson set sender to alderson+mail at panix.com using -f
    From: Rich Alderson <alderson+mail at panix.com>
    To: Indo-European at xkl.com
    In-reply-to: <111.125ec83.285f8916 at aol.com> (X99Lynx at aol.com)
    Subject: Re: Yew Two
    References:  <111.125ec83.285f8916 at aol.com>
    Sender: Indo-European mailing list <Indo-European at xkl.com>
    Reply-To: Indo-European at xkl.com

    Received: from hotmail.com (f15.law7.hotmail.com [216.33.237.15]) by toad.xkl.com with TCP/SMTP; Tue, 26 Jun 2001 01:26:07 -0700 (PDT)
    Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC;
    	 Tue, 26 Jun 2001 01:30:39 -0700
    Received: from 216.165.137.44 by lw7fd.law7.hotmail.msn.com with HTTP;	Tue, 26 Jun 2001 08:30:38 GMT
    X-Originating-IP: [216.165.137.44]
    From: "Douglas G Kilday" <acnasvers at hotmail.com>
    To: Indo-European at xkl.com
    Subject: Re: About the Yew1
    Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 08:30:38 -0000
    Mime-Version: 1.0
    Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
    Message-ID: <F15cL4hsT9JMLfSHmFs000026fb at hotmail.com>
    X-OriginalArrivalTime: 26 Jun 2001 08:30:39.0559 (UTC) FILETIME=[47EB6D70:01C0FE1A]
    Sender: Indo-European mailing list <Indo-European at xkl.com>
    Reply-To: Indo-European at xkl.com

Please note the Date: and Received: headers.  My response was written at noon
(Pacific Daylight Time) , 25 June 2001, on panix.com, and arrived at
toad.xkl.com the same day, while Mr. Kilday's was written at 1:30am (Pacific
Daylight Time), 26 June 2001, on hotmail.com, and arrived at toad.xkl.com the
same night.

Because of the very large number of posts on numerous topics in the past few
weeks, I have been grouping posts on the same topic in the outgoing queue.
Thus, Mr. Kilday's message will indeed have been sent out before my own, since
the two threads in which they appear are separated in time.

It would appear that Mr. Long's mail system is reporting the arrival time in
his mailbox as the origination time of the message, rather than the actual time
of composition.  As moderator of the list, there is no way I can compensate for
broken software on the receiving end.

Let me point out that I do not review incoming postings before writing my own
comments on issues of interest to me, which I would view as unethical.  Thus,
even if Mr. Kilday's post had arrived before I wrote my own, I would not have
known what he had to say on the subject until the message was being prepared
for final posting to the list.  (As will be clear from the occasional blunder
on my part with regard to off-topic, potentially libelous, or other unwanted
posts, if I'm pressed for time, I might not know what he had to say until I
read it at my subscription address.)

The other points brought up by Mr. Long are not issues of moderation, but of
fact, and so will be answered in a separate post when I am wearing my linguist
hat (and which will therefore come from panix.com, rather than toad.xkl.com).

								Rich Alderson
								IE list owner
								and moderator
-------