18556: Corbett replies to Charles Authur on volume of posts

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

>From Bob Corbett:

Charles, thanks for the note to the list on the volume of posts and the
difficulty with the duplication of posts.  I am extremely sympathetic with
with your post and the problem is raises.

There were about 1/2 dozen others who responded to your note.

Two of our most prominent posters of news stories responded, both willing
to stop posting news stories.  I strongly urged them not to do so.

Three others sent notes strongly agreeing with you.

Another, on the complete opposite side, allowed that for him the list has
never been more useful than now, since he can follow many points of view.

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One of our members did point out something I think is true -- many of our
members simply don't have the time to search out their own news stories to
read and one of the things they like about the list is precisely that the
news stories are there.

I have to admit, I am among that group myself.  I would NEVER go hunting
the stories, and I just love it that people send them in.

However, I should be the one who stops the duplication.  I try but I have
two major limitations:

1.  I honestly have a very very bad memory, and NEVER puposely post the
same story twice.  And occasionally the same story appears in more than
one newspaper with a different title.

My memory is really a handicap in that latter situation.

2.  The volume of posts has just been so huge in the past week that I
desperately struggle to keep up at all, thus I give news stories a rather
cursory read in getting them posted, and then go back for myself to read
the ones that most interest me at my leisure when the day is done.

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I am not going to make any changes in list policy at this time.

However, I would PLEAD with subscribers.  Please, do you own part in
trying to avoid duplication.  Please, don't just repost some old story a
second time to get your favorite position out there.   The list just isn't
meant to be a political game, it is a community of interested (if often
disagreeing) people who want to know and understand Haiti.

I know it can't always be helped.  A person may find a story and send it
to me and IN THE MEANTIME the story will come to them from the list.
Posts often do not appear immediately, but get bogged down somewhere in
cyberspace and there are lags.  The lags cause some of the duplication.

However, if everyone will try to help me in avoiding duplications at least
we can make some progress on that issue.

For my part, I want to thank people who have gone beyond the big-name
press and have brought to our attention alternative analyses and positions that
the big-name press often ignore.   I personally find such positions
interesting and informative even if I may not accept all of them.

I would warn, however, that we have to be realistic.  Haiti is everywhere
on radio, tv, newspapers, journals and such today.  There are people are
in Haiti and on the list, and they have things to say.  That we on the list
are obviously split badly on issues in this time of crisis.  In that
milieu there is going to be a very very heavy traffic on the list in this
period of crisis.  there just is no way to avoid that.

Bob Corbett