[filmscanners] Re: [filmscanners_Digest] filmscanners Digest forThu 18 Sep, 2003

["Arthur Entlich" <artistic-1@shaw.ca>]

I always have to laugh when these kind of postings show up.  Not because
they are or are not valid, but because their intent is so disingenuous.

Tony has a private email account, which anyone has access to if they
wish to write Tony a personal comment about their view of the list.  In
fact, I imagine it is a lot more effective to do so, since I don't even
know if Tony has had the time of late to be actually monitoring every
email going by.

This type of public posting is the sour grapes kind.  If the person has
a gripe with the list members, the honest thing would be to address the
list members.  If he has a gripe with certain list members then he could
do that as well, preferably in private mail.

But what this posting is really about is to play elitist games (I could
say something about Morgans as cars, and their owners, but I'll
refrain).  A "Dear Tony" letter translates to "I'm writing the moderator
and owner of this list to express my dissatisfaction with it and I want
to make sure everyone else reads it and feels guilty".

The truth is that there has not been a lot of activity in the film
scanner market, and the market is probably saturated.  Anyone who wants
one has probably bought it, and now people are moving to digital
cameras.  Prices on film scanners have dropped, and very little new
innovation has developed to cause any real excitement in the industry.
Film scanners have become another commodity that certain people need.
The software has matured to a great extent, and people have learned to
pretty much make them do what they are needed to.  As a result, the
minutia of the workflow gets discussed in an echolike fashion.

In looking through my admittedly incomplete archives, and as memory
serves, I do not recall the poster ever posting a public message before.
  I don't know how long he has been on the list, but he certainly hasn't
been an active participant in a long time, if ever.

Whenever lurkers come out of the woodwork to complain about the content,
or atmosphere of a list, I have only to say, why don't you participate
and change the direction or content of the list?

I may very much agree with the poster, or I may indeed be one of the
people he is complaining about, but that really isn't the issue. This
list is pretty much democratic.  Tony rarely intervenes, and like any
other democracy, it works when people participate.  Complaining and
walking home is only a valid method of protest after you have tried to
make change by participation and still failed.

Art


SDviewpnt@aol.com wrote:

> Hi Tony,
>
> I've hung in there about as long as I can.  This list has disintegrated to
> the point that for every one thing I learn, I must endure the endless atom
> splitting, word parsing, "Nth degree" discussion and clutter that egos bring. 
> Then
> comes the "I'm right, you're an idiot" tone and it goes downhill from there.
> There are some smart people on this list.  Just ask them.
>
> This is human nature, I suppose, as many lists have had a similar fate.  I
> belong to a number of lists but none reaches this level of pontificating
> discourse.
>
> Another e-group to which I subscribe is on the Morgan sports car.  It has
> over 800 members internationally, a lot of them very active and is chock full 
>of
> very knowledgeable people who want to share their wisdom and do so with humor,
> civility and respect.  There is no such thing as a stupid question and the
> "community" is the better for it.
>
> The level of expertise of all things Morgan is exceeded only by their broad
> experience in many other things.  One dimensional they are not.  Spirited,
> lively discussion and debate is the norm, but done in a way that perpetuates 
>it's
> existence.  It's grown from day one for the last two years.
>
> Your original concept was much appreciated.  You've always been fair and a
> gentleman and your skills as a photographer and a caring moderator are tops.
> It's too bad that the list has not been the same to you.
>
> I'll be unsubscribing (a separate request will be made).  Should this
> essential topical listserv ever find it's way out of it's egocentricity, 
>please let
> me know.  I'd like to continue getting good information without the 
>dysfunction.
>
> Best Regards,
> Steve Dreiseszun
>


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