[AT] Email list in general and this one in particular (was)Herrings?

[Francis Robinson]

      When I first got on-line back in the kerosene burning computer days I 
was researching email list  since I didn't have a clue at that time. I 
recieved some excellant advice, much of it from Spencer Yost, our fearless 
leader on this list.
    One of the first pieces of good advice I got was to join a list and lurk 
for about 2 weeks reading messages until I determined if that list fit what 
I wanted and if I would fit into the list. No one ever advised me to join an 
existing list and try to change it to suit me during the first week. Over 
the last decade or so I have signed onto probably hundreds of email list and 
read for a week or more then quietly signed off if it was not what I was 
looking for. In all cases I did not sign off because of off topic discussion 
but usually because it was either totally unmoderated and completely out of 
control or it was moderated so tightly that the moderators were virtual 
tyrants.
    The best advice I ever got was from Spencer and I have quoted it often 
on the dozen email list that I own. Spencer simply says that "if you do not 
like the topic being discussed introduce a topic of your own". That was 
already said here when someone said to ask a tractor question and it will be 
answered.
    With only a few blatent exceptions we are "a list of friends". Many of 
us know each other off list either from visiting at a number of tractor 
shows like the huge Portland IN show where many of us camp together or also 
many of us have visited each others home and shops. Spencer stopped at my 
farm this last year or so and when I was making a business trip to Charlotte 
NC I stopped at his house. In both cases we talked old tractors but that was 
hardly all we talked about. I would strain my brain trying to come up with a 
complete list of mambers here that have been to my farm one or more times 
but everytime was a great experience. Sometimes if I know I am going to be 
in the area of a list friend I contact them and we try to work something out 
even if it is only a nice dinner out somewhere that will allow us to visit a 
while. This year we were visiting a daughter in Eastern TN from here in 
Central IN and we made a stop at a tractor show in Western NC where I got a 
chance for some short visits with Herb Metz, Charlie Hill and Evil Dave 
(sorry if I missed anybody). That was the first time I met Charlie Hill even 
though we have been list friends for many years.
    We have a loose informal network where we try to help each other move 
parts or even tractors around the country. Sometimes an item (not always old 
tractor related) will move across the country in several hops being carried 
part of the distance by several different folks.
    Yes, a number of times a year tractor questions thin out and we still 
keep talking as friends. Yes, we are enough like family to argue and bark 
once in a while...   ;-)   Still I always check this list first when I 
download my email... If it were a hard-nosed always on topic list I probably 
would get totally bored and just not bother... You can only discuss the 
function of a steering wheel so many times a year.
    So...lets hear some more tractor questions from lurkers... We will talk 
about them.   :-)   Meanwhile we will chat about almost anything...   ;-)



--
"farmer"

When you reach the end of your rope
 tie a knot and hang on...

Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net