Robert Upshall wrote
<<
If you want to grow, and maybe quite a few of you don't really want that,
then
please be more welcoming and inclusive. >>

Surely that cuts two ways?  If you want to join then at least have the
manners to wait a while and look at a few dozen threads *before* slagging
us off. 

<< but nobody surely can pretend to
have 180 worthwhile things to contribute every month.>>

It is wrong to name names so I won't name but there are several prolific
contributors to this list who are well worth reading. It does perhaps take
a while actually reading stuff on the list *before* you get to the stage of
being able to identify those folks.

<<If you do get a lot  bigger then traffic and volume will be a problem
unless
people exercise self-restraint >>

I don't agree with that. I have seen the list traffic go way up in the time
I have been here and well, no-one forces me to read everything I download
or forces me to download everything in my mailbox. The list is like all
sources of information;  when time is short we have to be selective. But
you *have* hit on a point there about the internet and I recall someone at
a PHCSG conference making a similar one a few years ago---it is that people
are inclined to accord stuff received via the net considerably more
importance than it deserves. The argument at the PHCSG conference was on
looking for info on the net and how can you be sure that what you retrieve
is any good or even accurate? To which the answer is that you apply
whatever tests you apply to info gained from other, non-electronic sources.


<< By all means
criticise peoples opinions but accept them and encourage them-I think most
of
you do from the responses I've had. >>

There are opinions, some opinions are even worth something.  But arriving
on a list and telling us all that we are pretty useless before taking the
time to study the evidence is not really expressing an opinion.  I would
not dream of walking into a GP surgery for the first time and rounding on
the partners in the first ten minutes to tell them how useless I thought
they all were.  Yet this appears to be  what has happened here. 

<<Seriously though has anybody discussed whether you do want to expand to
include people like my partner whom I had to show how to save a file to
drive
A. How are you going to handle the volume of material and will people
restrain
themselves from posting every thought that comes into their heads?>>

THose who can't cope with saving files make their own decisions, the same
as the rest of us.  It is patronising to suggest otherwise. It is
patronising to suggest that because "we" learned how to use computers,
modems and the net some time ago that we should treat *possible* list
recruits like kids in P1 who have to be spoonfed everything.  If your
partner seriously wants to participate in the best medical and non-medical
discussions going then he can go and learn how to use his PC. If he wants
help many of us will be happy to give it to him but we will not knock on
his door to try and sell it to him.   BTW I think the P1 comparison is
inappropriate---my daughter is in P1 and is into self-directed learning
already. 
As for posting every thought that enters the head, there are several points
there.
1. Some people on this list have a lot of very good thoughts and there are
times when I wish they would post more of them!
2. Posting takes time and time is the limiting factor for most worthwhile
activities.
3. Posting requires some degree of self-confidence, belief in one's own
worth and thoughts etc etc.  Many of us are lacking in those attributes to
various degrees.
4. If Dr X invariably waffles on in his posts, people stop reading him.
Then they start tellling him to shut up and finally they may take steps to
bar him from their electronic domains altogether.
This actually shades into the whole argument over whether we as a
profession can be mostly trusted to do our work well or whether we have to
plod through umpteen accountability procedures to prove ourselves to those
who themselves are lacking in professionalism. Most GPs will agree that the
Red Book, which is supposed to keep us honest, is in fact very easy to
circumvent and fraud is temptingly easy despite the existence of several
hundred pages of rules and procedures which were originally conceived to
prevent fraud. Eventually enough managers and politicians will realise that
so-called accountability procedures are at best useless and at worst
counter-productive with professionals.  
Similarly, people who use e-mail a lot are mostly mature adults able to
make decisions for themselves, able to act collectively when necessary and
really they don't need protecting from each other or themselves. In some
ways I suppose the internet in particular and IT in general has shown the
world how things should be done.  The internet evolves largely thro the
request for comment process while a lot of IT stuff in the real world
outside NHS computing evolves in broadly similar ways via various bodies
which I used to know all about when BYTE came in the door every month but
I'm sure Midge and Ahmad can remind us of their names if necessary.

Finally, I applaud you for posting you some good comments since the initial
burst of abuse and hope to see you starting many good threads in the
future.

Declan


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