Henry Gould asked me to forward this to the list, as his home modem is
playing up.
Robin Hamilton.
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Henry writes:
...the best way to get a flavor for the buffalo flap, even though
it takes some tedious searching, is to go to the Poetics list archive
for Nov and Dec 1998.
Without getting into the details, I think it was a crisis, overdetermined
by several different factors. One was the SUCCESS of the list - it was
huge,
as you can see, with dozens of pretty active members. For some people the
sheer volume was a problem. Overposting was an issue - in my 2 years on
the list, I had been warned backchannel by C. Bernstein to reduce my
postings (others had been warned too). I generally concurred with him
& tried to get along, though I was a high-level poster most of the time,
and my "poetics" position annoyed some people.
Another factor was that at the time of the crisis there was a nasty
back-&-forth going on between Marjorie Perloff & another list member,
with other people pitching in to defend one or the other. I came to
the other person's defense (Perloff is a friend of C. Bernstein) &
was warned about overposting: I posted once more & Charles put me on
a special "review" status which no other member had been subjected to.
He did this backchannel, without announcing it to the list. I wrote
to the list explaining the situation & agreeing with the status -
basically I agreed in principle with the idea that people should exercise
some restraint & not overpost, though often I had trouble abiding by it.
What happened next, though, was that 2 or 3 of my "reviewed" posts were
simple "disappeared" without notice from CB. I queried him backchannel
about it & got no response. At that point I felt it had become
censorship, & that I was being put in an untenable position. I
resigned from the list. That set off a big & sometimes
vituperative debate over the month of December. Two other list
members were expelled from the list. At the end of Dec 1998
Poetics was re-organized; the 2 managers resigned (oddly this
was happening when Clinton was being impeached & the two
top Republican congressmen resigned!) & new people came
in to manage a new "controlled" list, in which ALL posts
are reviewed & posted at the managers' discretion - it's
like an edited bulletin board now. When I applied to re-join
under the new auspices my application was rejected - I was
considered a troublemaker.
There were & are MANY diverse opinions about all these events;
many old-time Poetics listmembers felt that it was abuse by
over-use that was the true culprit for the old list's demise,
and hold me & others responsible.
Basically I think none of us - Charles, me, or any of the others -
expected any of this to happen. I think Charles was a little
heavy-handed with me & it sort of backfired. & I must say in
my defense against those who have misrepresented me & my motives
& participation - that I never engaged in vicious or personal
attacks on the Poetics list, & in fact tried to keep things civil
& entertaining.
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