18776: Corbett responds on volume of posts

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Folks, I thank Mark Schuller for the note, and the earlier one from
Charles Arthur.  The volume is exhausting.  I am spending many hours a day
at my computer and I am not actually sending you all the posts I get at
all.

I honestly try hard to catch the duplicates.  It is hard for two reasons;
the sheer volume demands I work fairly fast and second, I really have a
very bad memory for short term items.

However, I do not plan any change in policy.  I am sorry that this brings
about a hardship on some of you, but I am worried about openness to all
views.

As most of you know, I don't really have a "position" on this political
crisis that is so harming Haiti.  I just want to provide a forum where one
can receive news and express views, and inquire about things one wants to
inquire about that concern Haiti.

A story from some very far left or very far right source is as important
to me as a story from the New York Times or the Miami Herald.  It
expresses some person's serious views on Haiti.

When I started the list in 1994 there was a larger percent of us,
perhaps, who didn't want to spend the time to go hunt up news stories.  I
honestly believe that view still represent a huge portion of this list,
and I am not going to resort to "pointers" to sources and stories, but
will only post the individual news items themeselves.  My own orientation
is that I use e-mail constantly and I rather seldom use the internet.

My e-mail program is not browser based nor web based but is 100% separate.
Right now I am on e-mail, obviously, but not on the web and my internet
connection isn't even up.  I use a unix system for e-mail.  It won't open
attachments, graphics, photos.  I can't "click" on a web address and go to
it.  Rather, were someone to send me a web address I have to copy it.  Get
off e-mail, get onto the web, open a browser, paste in the address and
then find the item.  I would imagine my resistence to having my e-mail and
my internet programs communicate with one another is relatively rare, but
I run the list on that basis.

There has been an enormous number of new folks come on to the list in the
past three weeks and a noticeable number of old members who have dropped
off.  However, the fact is that the new subscribers outnumber those who
have dropped off by a 10-1 ratio.

I don't have access to the mailing list itself.  As I've mentioned before
that is on purpose.  I don't want to know who is and who isn't on the
list.  Nor do I have names for list members, only the e-mail address which
you subscibe is on the Webster U. system, not your name.  I wrote the
list master a few days ago asking how many people are on the list now,
since so very very many have joined recently, but he hasn't answered me
yet, so I don't know.

But, I'm holding fast and not going to make changes.  I am not taking the
time in most cases to write people who send in posts that come with
attachments, but I NEVER EVER post them.  Often the posters don't know the
attachments are there since they don't put them there but their e-mail
service does.  Aol and yahoo are the worst offenders in that regard.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience of the volume.  I'm much sorrier that the
nation of Haiti is going though such a desperate crisis that generates all
this interest and mail.

And lastly, I do appreciate your thoughts on the mailing list; I read them
and consider them carefully.  I don't post many since they aren't about
Haiti, but about this Haiti list, and that's not the purpose of this
forum.

However, I do want to thank the many many of you who have posted your
views and thoughts about Haiti, and who do send us news stories to show us
what the world press is saying.  And I also encourage you to NOT send
stories which are duplicates or close duplicates to other stories.

Exhausted as you are, and heavy hearted for the suffering of the people in
Haiti today....

Bob Corbett