prelude to administrivia

["Mickey P. Rowe" <mrowe@indiana.edu>]

Depending upon whether you consider 3 A.M. to be late Saturday night
or early Sunday morning, I've lived up to my intention of writing up
the administrivia message for the dinosaur list on Saturday.  I am
currently modifiying it with the help of one of the subscribers (who
may feel free to be identified, but I'll leave out names in order to
protect the innocent :-)

I'm writing in advance of the debut of that message because I have two
concerns.  One is about some of the heat surrounding the recent
messages by Brittany Frederick.  I have taken some steps behind the
scenes in the hope of cooling things off.  I would appreciate it if
everyone would help me by resisting any urges to add heat to that
discussion.  If you have advice to give me about how you might handle
the situation please send it my way.

My second concern is about Creationism.  I have received an
overwhelming amount of support for the new policy designed to keep
Creationist discussions off the list (thanks again to all who wrote!).
What's currently got me worried is the recent set of jokes about Duane
Gish and his ideas.  Irrespective of how funny the jokes may seem I
feel somewhat awkward letting those go by without issue if I'm
planning to squelch any discussions about Creationism.  I want to keep
Creationism off the list because most all of us agree that it's
irrelevant to the list's purpose, and when it shows up the list gets
bogged down in a flame war.  My goal is to keep the peace while
allowing a healthy discussion of the science involved in the study of
dinosaur remains.  In my view Creationism doesn't fit under that
scope.  That doesn't mean we should be openly hostile about it even if
the hostility is expressed as humor.  (Please don't take this to mean
I have no sense of humor; I'm purposely trying to avoid any statement
of where on the laugh index I'd place the recent jokes...)

Thanks, and be warned that the administrivia message is much longer
than this...

--
Mickey Rowe     (mrowe@indiana.edu)