In re: 'For Sale' items, non-LBC content, etc...
I agree that it is important to keep the bandwidth clear of extremely
extraneous material, as well as blatant commercial advertising. However,
I think it is equally important that we keep channels open for people to
acquire spare parts for their pride and joy, outside of lists devoted to
parts for sale (sometimes its a pain in the tuckus to wade through ten
zillion messages about parts you have no interest in to find one you are
interested in). For example, I don't think it wrong for a user to say
"Hey, I've got some extra parts, anyone wanna buy 'em?" and take the
haggling to private e-mail, or for a person to post a 'part-wanted'
request. I even like the idea of commercial providers offering advice
and alternatives purchasing points for parts (as in the
gentleman/business owner who offered me advice about a windscreen and
carburetor -- I didn't buy from him, but I now know of an additional
place to get stuff, and will probably take him up on one of his offers).
As for non-lbc posts (ie, the dreaded cat threads), a little off-topic
digression is good for the soul. Trust me, as a LBC owner, I have to
have a sense of humor, if only as a survival mechanism.... No one is
harmed by it, so, what the heck? We all have a delete key.
May I suggest that the best all around compromise is to use the subject
line to denote the contents of the post?
For example:
SUBJECT: Non-LBC -- Cats as Wheel Chocks
(used for completely off-topic remarks)
SUBJECT: For Sale -- Midget Parts
(private seller clearing out his/her garage)
SUBJECT: TD Clutch Problems and Cats
(on-topic with off-topic inclusion, ie "Here's how I fixed it but you
might try stuffing a cat around the input shaft to muffle the noise of
the failing throwout bearing")
SUBJECT: TD Clutch problems
(on-topic seeking or offering advice)
Indeed, I think this has been suggested before, and, as it is a good
idea, I think I'll try to hold myself to it. All each lister would have
to do is scan the subjects and delete those s/he isn't interested in.
This is not much different from what most of us do anyway, that is, scan
the first paragraph and decide if it's worth continuing. Since common
courtesy would seem to require that we all try to work together so that
all of our needs are met, this is a reasonable compromise -- everybody
gets a chance to get what they need or like.
And if some people are still offended by it, well, mayhaps they should
spend less time on the list and more on their LBC...
Just my Buck-Two-Ninety-Eight ($0.02 adjusted for Clintonesque
inflation).
Rich
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