--snip--
> Just venting some steam,
> Mark Kuzia
>
> P.S. Do you ever wonder why people always "unsubscribe", just ask
> my buddy,
> he saw the "Jules flaming" and told me the DML was a joke!
Mark and Bob have some excellent points, we should all try to be a bit more
careful what we write, and keep in mind that we're reflecting badly on
Dakota and Mopar enthusiasts when we start in with the flaming.
However... in all fairness, I think we should take a step back and look at
the larger picture. It's too bad that the magazine editor or other people
that have been mentioned are looking at the DML somewhat out of context.
What I'm talking about is the rest of the Internet. I've been around since
1990, back in the days when "web" meant there were spiders in your computer
that needed to be cleaned out with a vacuum, "Mosaic" was a little solitaire
game based on colored tiles, and even "gopher" was nothing more than a small
furry animal. I'm not necessarily an Internet expert, but I have been
around for a few years, and I'm here to tell you that the DML is the most
flame-free civilized discussion forum that I've ever seen among those that
aren't ruled with an iron fist.
I was on a Babylon 5 mailing list for a while, and the list admin had a
habit of kicking people off the list for getting off-topic and especially
for saying anything negative about other members. It didn't even
necessarily have to be a flame, something along the lines of "what a
dunderhead" would have gotten you expelled for good. I, personally, don't
WANT the DML to be like that. I think Jon's doing a heck of a job keeping
all 650+ of us mostly happy most of the time.
I'm sure that I'll get lots of examples of other mailing lists that are more
civilized. My point is that there are lots that either aren't or are only
civilized against the will of the people on it. If you really want to see
how bad the signal to noise ratio can get, go check out some news groups.
That's all I used to have, now I can't stand to go anywhere near them.
Yes, I think we're doing fairly well, all things considered. I also think
that if we can do this well, we can do better. Type carefully and we'll all
get more out of the list. I know I've learned so much from the list about
the Dakota and general mechanical information that I couldn't have found
anywhere else, or would have had to pay a huge amount of money for. The
list is an invaluable resource, I'd hate to see it deteriorate.
Soapbox mode off.
---------------------------------------------------------
Jason Bleazard http://www.bleazard.net Toronto, Ontario
current: '95 Dakota Sport white 4x4 Reg. Cab V6/3.9L/5spd
current: '98 Dakota Sport black 4x4 Club Cab V8/5.2L/Auto
RIP: '95 Dakota Sport black 4x2 Club Cab V6/3.9L/Auto
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:14:25 EDT