>I rarely find this list entertaining. I have several times almost
>unsubscribed. I'd rather talk with my friends in a better way, and ANY way
>is better than this. I've stayed on because several of the people I most
>admire are on it. Some of them have however not written to it for a long
>time, possibly because they feel as I do about
>it.
It's certainly an odd beast. It was founded by Das Boot, whose bile, sadly, seems as real as it is off-the-planet (i.e. Belfast). The obligatory insults began, if I recall (heavens, check the earliest messages) as a response to and a way of containing Das Boot and sending up his wacko-ness. Being an "all" boys list, like all the Gloranthan lists (big wave to Allison and Jane), It quickly degenerated into an online version of a boys-only pub night, so lovingly described recently by Jane.
However, it has tremendous uses as a "free zone / red light zone". Everyone here is equal (except Das Boot of course). People say what they are thinking. People vent and cathart. No one can take themselves too seriously. Topics get dealt with that can't be touched on the other lists, and I suspect, like any red light zone, its existence helps to keep the other lists relative civil - except for the Metbot of course.
It can also be very funny, and you discover all sorts of things about real people.
For good and bad, it reaches places other lists can't reach.
Now bugger off, all of you ...
Jimbo
john_at_k8ap1twkNrj7fEXnZXPKImeR81oO4pN1c198RuOQmi46SZ6ZiAN6hndaCdFlsFXRlFayGmjBvfPEiw.yahoo.invalid John HughesMythologic: http://mythologic.info
"There was a muddy centre before we breathed.
There was a myth before the myth began,
Venerable and articulate and complete.
From this the poem springs: that we live in a place That is not our own and, much more, not ourselves, And hard it is in spite of blazoned days."
Wallace Stevens. "Notes Towards A Supreme Fiction"
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