Blues-L 's most interesting characters

[E. Willett]

Ahh..The "Slaves Of E-Mail"...count me as one!  My "spam filter" catches 200-300 per day, but I have to read the headers to see if it junked a "real" message, and I get 75-100 legit mails in one mailbox, and 10-20 in the other. And I only do ONE once-weekly Blues Update!  
    George
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Walter Potter<mailto:maxdog-blues-l@COMCAST.NET> 
  To: BLUES-L@LISTS.NETSPACE.ORG<mailto:BLUES-L@LISTS.NETSPACE.ORG> 
  Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 3:33 PM
  Subject: Re: Blues-L 's most interesting characters


  Marty Spaulding / Kalamazoo MI wrote:
  > Egads. Rick Edwards.
  > 
  > He spent most of his free time trying to get me kicked off my ISP for 
  > saying anything negative about SRV.
  > 
  > Did blues-l nuke him finally ? Or did he drift off and never return ?

  He was removed.

  > I left the list in '01 and returned last year. The number of post-members 
  > dropped dramatically during that time.

  The number of members appears to have dropped but that number is 
  deceptive. That is the number of members who receive Blues-L as 
  individual emails. It doesn't include digest users or nonmembers. 
  Blues-L can be read in quite a few ways, Google Groups is one popular 
  way and another is through the newsgroup, bit.lists.blues-L. There are 
  other places that archive Blues-L. In other words, we have a whole lot 
  of lurkers. Some of them who have contacted me would surprise you! 
  (Don't ask me who as I respect their privacy) I also know that a lot of 
  what is said here gets passed on to other forums.

  The only way to post is to email blues-l@lists.netspace.org<mailto:blues-l@lists.netspace.org> or to use 
  the web interface at: http://lists.netspace.org/archives/blues-l.html<http://lists.netspace.org/archives/blues-l.html> 
  and only established members can post without moderation. All new member 
  and nonmember posts come to me for approval. I approve any blues related 
  post that comes to me that is not offensive, and there are very very few 
  offensive ones now.

  The average daily number of posts has also dropped, mainly because the 
  flame wars get snuffed out quickly. I think that raises the signal to 
  noise ratio. I would like to see more in-depth discussion at times.

  I think that in Blues-L's early days there weren't many places on the 
  Internet to get this type information. For example, if you wanted to 
  find out who was playing where it was difficult, now almost every venue 
  and every act has a web site with that information. And there are 
  several other blues forums that have cropped up, which I view as a good 
  thing. If this one doesn't appeal to someone, there may be another that 
  does. I don't view it as competition but as expansion.

  > People like Dick Shurman and many others gave this board a credibility. A 
  > lot of them (most of them) are gone now. 

  That is sadly true, and some of the voices we should be listening to are 
  quiet much of the time. I know that some of this is because they are 
  tired of having their first hand knowledge disputed by people who have 
  only read liner notes. While I fully believe in questioning authority, I 
  also believe in respecting it. Unfortunately the ease of flinging out 
  any brain fart via email coupled with perceived anonymity causes some 
  folks to spout crap, stuff they would never say face to face. The 
  Internet creates a sort of level field where any idjit who can send an 
  email can have a voice, but it also means the sludge at the bottom of 
  the barrel is now mixed with the cream at the top. In some ways it is 
  pure Democracy and in many other ways, pure anarchy.

  I have to wonder how many members we have lost due to the general volume 
  of things tossed at us daily now. I have been getting over 600 emails 
  per day for years now, no way I read all that! I spend a fair chunk of 
  time per day just sorting through it all. I know I have had to cut out a 
  number of things I used to be involved in because I simply can't absorb 
  it all anymore. And the number of things that I am EXPECTED to be 
  involved with has grown exponentially. I know at work it gets crazy at 
  times. I work in IT and it is a daily struggle to keep up but much of 
  the old stuff is still around. Heck I still deal with DOS weekly!Ah, 
  modern life, I love it and I hate it.
  -- 
  Walter
  Keep on keepin' on ...

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