Proposal: A separate antedatings list

Tue Nov 6 20:05:26 UTC 2007

Could we keep this civil--and accurate?

No one asked that anyone be "kicked off the list." Several of us have questioned the efficiency of the current way of doing things and suggested that other ways might be found to make more people--posters as well as postees-- comfortable with the way things are organized. There have also been complaints about OT postings, totally trivial postings, and what seem to many of us to be excessive numbers of postings from some individuals.

The consensus seems to me to be pretty much to leave things as they are. (No one seems at all interested even in my suggestion that we limit the number of postings per individual per week, as some lists do.) Fine: there have also been some very useful suggestions about how we frustrated users might work things from OUR end to get rid of unwanted types of messages.

I find all this useful, and if others don't find it "boring," then they can just delete it, right?

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>

Date:         Mon, 5 Nov 2007 16:20:05
To:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] Proposal: A separate antedatings list

There are two things that puzzle me about this uproar.

One is, if there are people who are repining because so little is posted to ADS-L of interest to them, why do not they themselves post stuff about exciting new ways of diagramming sentences, or whatever it is that this forum is not giving them.

Second, the solution proposed by the dissidents among us is to kick everyone off this list except themselves.  Surely it would have shown a more becoming modesty to have asked to have a separate list created just for them and their ilk?

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
Date: Sunday, November 4, 2007 9:02 am
Subject: Re: Proposal: A separate antedatings list
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> On Sun, Nov 04, 2007 at 08:44:03AM -0400, Dennis Preston wrote:
> > I agree with Lynne. Doesn't the DSNA have a list (if not, it should)
> > in which matters lexicographical could be discussed? (Dialect
> > lexicographers might want to get both.)
>
> Yes, it does. But it is not really used.
>
> The thing that splitters seem not to realize is that to split
> the list does not mean that ADS-L will magically be more to
> their taste, subject-wise. It means a significant disruption,
> even under the best of circumstances (by "the best of
> circumstances" I mean a situation in which everyone who
> currently posts antedatings to ADS-L starts posting to the new
> list, and everyone who cares about these posts will subscribe
> to the new list).
>
> But the circumstances will not be the best. I've already heard
> from at least one regular poster who has expressed a strong
> lack of interest in moving to a new list. Maybe the splitters
> just don't care, but I for one think it would be a bad thing.
> Let's remember that such posts are on-topic for the ADS; it's
> not like people are regularly discussing woodworking
> techniques and arguing that a lot of people like the subject
> here so let's just let it slide.
>
> A mailing list, forum, etc. is an organic thing. The DSNA is a
> terrific organization, with a great journal, a wonderful
> conference that produces loads of great papers and much
> cameraderie, and is devoted to a subject of significant
> interest. But its list has very little traffic. Why? Who
> knows? That's just the way that it is. My expectation is that
> carving pieces out of ADS-L (even if successful) will result
> merely in these pieces being much more badly discussed, in
> whatever place they end up, and ADS-L less interesting.
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org