Staggering out of the depths of lurkerdom, dragging my knuckles the entire way, I decide to speak up about this issue. My opinions are my own and mine alone. And they carry only the weight of my conviction. I have been a member of this list for many years and have come to know quite a few of you. Well enough to consider you friends and not merely acquaintances. And as friends are wont to do, we discuss things that are important to us, but are not necessarily those things that brought us together in the first place. To me, with friends, you can feel comfortable to approach other topics. If we spoke only of El Grande's blessed children, then this list would be a very sterile place. I can read any of a number of books I own about chiles and get the same or similar info that I get here, but it would lack the personality. To me, I trust the people of this list more than I do, say, someone from the CDC to answers any questions I might have about botulism, for instance. The participants in this list have proven to me, repeatedly, that the knowledge base that they represent is both extensive and accurate. Because these people are my friends I am more than willing to extend to them a lot of slack about off-topic threads, echoing the entire original message in a reply or even the dreaded "Me too." messages. For me, a moderator such as is being proposed, would do something to this list like what has happened to Chile Pepper magazine. It would change from a homey, comfortable, enjoyable and accurate list to a sterile and accurate list. No thank you. George J. Goslowsky Monk of the TCS Holder of Fire You and I, we reject these narrow attitudes We add to each other, like a coral reef Building bridges on the ocean floor Reaching for the alien shore > -----Original Message----- > From: Kasprowicz, Ray [SMTP:RKasprow@microage.com] > Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 1999 8:43 AM > To: 'chile-heads@GlobalGarden.com' > Subject: [CH] This is the CHILE-PEPPER news right ? > > Just a thought ... > Why are there so many "off topic" discussions here? > It's for PEPPERS, not what to do with spices, coffee grinding, bug infused > ice cream, bird jerky, locating car parts on Australia, mixing capsicum > with > paint, eating cabbage (and the list goes on). > Someone needs to moderate this group and weed out the "off topic" posting. > What about the people that have limitations (or metered) use of mail? > Is it necessary to have all of this included in our newsgroup? > It would also help to not "reply" to postings and include the replication > of > the message body.