Mission of the American Dialect Society

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 11/1/03 9:51:44 PM, mam at THEWORLD.COM writes:


>
> I read some of your antedates and other finds with great interest;
> others I skim; and sometimes I just delete whole chunks or threads
> unread. The same applies to other people's posts. It depends in part on
> how much time I have. But I for one am glad to have the choice.
>
It isn't quite so simple as just deleting messages that clearly don't
interest me. If I have to be away from my computer for several days, the amount of
deletable messages from ADS, together with all the junk mail, is really quite
time-consuming. And if I am not vigilant, my mailbox gets filled and messages
that I DO want get blocked.

I am not writing this to suggest that the antedating stop, though. It would
seem considerate, though, if those who regularly post antedatings confine
themselves to one big posting per day, with all the results of their research in
that e-mail. It would also seem considerate if those who wish to write merely
clever one-word or two-word responses send those responses ONLY to the
individuals involved in the thread, rather than to the whole list. I realize that it is
difficult to remember to do this--I'm sure I have been guilty of posting
smart one-liners to the whole list in the past.