Chuckle, here's a nomination for Idiot of the Year for Mr R Hamilton aka
Rambletone, from secret sources I have discovered that he accidentally put
myself, Mark, Randolph and Alison on his blocked senders list and was
wondering in vain why he wasn't receiving any posts from us. Some of the
events were short-lived, some went on for days. I pay tribute to this
intellectual giant, this post of course is devoid of the personal.
This post too is devoid of any sense of humour
(Smile)
Blabbermouth
David Bircumshaw
Leicester, England
Home Page
A Chide's Alphabet
Painting Without Numbers
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Hamilton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 12:23 AM
Subject: Re: To David Bircumshaw
Sarah:
> However, I do think this business has opened the door for some people to
> feel that it is all right to be cruel to David.
+Concur+
> David has always posted his personal details and feelings. I don't believe
> there is a rule against that.
There is (I think) a VERY general point here.
More than most lists, poetryetc is a mush of people who only know each other
via the list, people who know each other backchannel, and people who know
each other meatself. (Real life? Whatever.)
I (personally) +do+ have a Real Problem here. dave and I tend to talk quite
a bit on the phone, as we're within local call distance.
But my problem is that, all too often, I can't remember what I've said to
dave on the phone, and what I've said on the list. So I occasionally
(often?) trip over bringing-up something that I assume has been fully
discussed, only to realise that it hasn't been mentioned on the list at all,
just something that dave and I have been batting around on the phone.
A breakdown of Chinese Walls.
(dave is MUCH better than me at negociating this, despite being a Brummie
illiterate, having much the more organised mind.)
A bit of what I'm trying to say is that the issue of the bounds of the
private and the public, especially on poetryetc, can be deeply problematic.
There are clear areas -- just because dave and I +are+ pretty close friends,
we can, on the list, make jokes about each other on a level of visciousness
that would get anyone else promptly bounced.
No problem with that.
More of a problem to the list as a whole might be that this can drift into
an area of private reference that probably bores everyone rigid.
Sorry, I'm not making a lot of sense, am I?
> This list serve has often seemed like a hostile place, to me, this past
> week.
Yup.
:-(
Perhaps a question to ask ourselves before we post is, What would someone
just joining the list make of all of this?
At the current level of Worm Weather running (this too shall pass), I
suspect there may have been one or more people popping onto the list, taking
one look at part of what's happening (and let's not forget, there are lots
of perfectly sane [?] threads on poetryetc, even now), and running a mile.
That +does+ bother me. Quite a lot.
Robin
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