Re: [at-l] unsubscribe

[Jennifer Delia Sawyer <jdsawyer@bu.edu>]

Gosh, Jim, we missed you around here!!!  So glad you're back!

:) Pooh

At 12:12 PM 2/2/00 -0500, Owen wrote:
>
>Chuck - 
>People unsu*scribe for a lot of reasons.  We've done it several times so
>we could go hiking for extended periods of time. Sometimes people move
>and sometimes they don't come back afterward. And some people expect the
>list to conform to their expectations of what a list "should" be. 
>
>There's no flame intended here - I just found it interesting that you
>think the list should be less personal while at the same time there's
>another list (NOT the "other" list) that's sometimes too impersonal. 
>Truth is that each of the lists conforms to what the list members (or
>sometimes the list moderator) want/expect it to be.  And frankly, I
>prefer what this list is.  But, again - that's personal opinion - I'm an
>anarchist at heart. 
>
>As for the content being "non-trail-related", I once (a long, long time
>ago) expressed the opinion that there's no topic that's NOT ultimately
>trail related. Example - and this is a broad-brush example - the Ruck
>(which is apparently about to become the RucksssSSS) is the direct
>result of the on-line  friendships which have developed on at-l as a
>result of the "horseplay" on the list. On an impersonal list you'd have
>little desire to meet and interact with the other list members so the
>Ruck wouldn't have happened.  And the Ruck IS trail related - tutus
>notwithstanding  :-))
>
>Unless I'm entirely mistaken, I think you'd find that the AT community
>has become almost exactly what this list is - a travelling 5-star, 20
>ring circus.
>We just spent 6 months on a trail without that kind of camaraderie - and
>it was great.  But we also missed the social part of the trail and we're
>glad to come back to the list to get our "social fix".    
>
>One other point here - as you said, there IS information here in the
>midst of the confusion.  You might want to think about what the list
>would be like without the tutu and Ruck stuff.  It'd be pretty dead. 
>After all, how much conversation is possible about packs - or water
>filters - or whatever - before the conversation gets REALLY boring.  I
>lived through a "sock" discussion on another list at one time -- 400
>posts about Thorlos.  BORING.  And useless. The tutus, the Ruck, the
>personal stuff - is the glue that holds this list together in between
>the bursts of real information.   And that's good, because when the real
>information comes along - people listen.  And they answer - gently -
>because of the personal relationships that have been formed by the
>personal stuff.  
>
>Enough - you'd think I was a psychologist - and I'm not, I'm an
>engineer.  
>
>Walk soflty,
>Jim
>
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>
>
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