In a message dated 2/22/01 4:45:44 AM Eastern Standard Time, N.Faulkner@tesco.net writes:
<< If anything, it's the funsters (who I do not consider nitwits, whatever Penny might say) who are the egotistical ones, because they seem to assume the right to jump in on any conversation and make it their own with scant regard for those who are trying to enjoy themselves in their own fashion. >>
I'm sorry, Neil, but we're obviously never going to come to an agreement on this issue, because your idea of what an internet mail list *is* is obviously so completely different from mine. I, for one, don't believe that it is possible to "own" a thread of conversation on a mailing list. Once you put it out there for public consumption, you really can't impose your own rules regarding who can and can't respond and the tone that they must take. Yes, you personally might find it annoying if someone finds humor in the conversation, but sorry. It's a public list and those who chose to "trivialize" things, as you put it, have just as much right to respond to a public posting as anyone else. That's the way I see it. And, yes, I do think it is a matter of ego and, even more than that, a matter of wanting to control what people do and think. Unless you are the moderator of a particular list, you do not have that control over who and what gets posted.
Annie