We were never in Kansas

[Mickey Rowe <rowe@psych.ucsb.edu>]

Mary has been quite kindly taking all of the heat for me since I've
been in the midst of moving across the country.  Please note my new
e-mail address, and use it accordingly.  Web pages for the dinosaur
list will likely be migrating West during the next week as well, and
I'll announce the relocations after they are complete.

Anyhoo, for those of you who still have not taken Mary's advice I urge
you to read:

http://www.cisab.indiana.edu/~mrowe/dinosaur-administrivia.html

There you will also find some links to old messages, such as:

http://www.cmnh.org/fun/dinosaur-archive/1999Jan/msg00018.html

which will direct you to such text as:

       If you have any comments about how this document or list
       management policy could be improved, please feel free to write
       to me (Mickey Rowe) at: mrowe@indiana.edu.

  I've always tried to be quite clear that if you have any problems
  with the way the list is run, you should take them up with me
  directly.  One of my most recent amendations to list policy
  (specifically section 8h) includes:

       The purpose of this rule is to end meta-discussions about what
       should or shouldn't be discussed on the list.

  Anyone who's been paying attention would know that I feel quite
  strongly about keeping discussions of list policy off the list as
  much as possible.  Go a few rounds with me before *we* agree that it
  is appropriate to bring your concerns out in front of the whole
  list.

Several people have been timed out during the past two days, and all
of them could have easily avoided that fate if they'd merely read,
understood and then followed the rules.  I personally think that
Creationism is an *extremely* important topic to address and I've
spent countless hours doing so in other fora.  However, banning such
discussions from this list was (at the time) by far the most
well-supported policy I ever created.  If times have changed and
people now think the topic should be opened up, take it up with Mary
and me.  We can put it up to another vote if enough people think we
should change the policy.  However, for the moment the policy is what
it is.

Finally, against my better judgement let me address this:

> I was told that I could be slipping in stealth ads.

I bent over backwards to try to make sure that Mr. Felps understood
that I did *not* think *he* was doing that.  What I actually told him
was that if his message had come from somebody new to the list I'd
have no way of knowing that the message was legitimate rather than an
attempt to alert people to a time and place where they might buy
fossils.  Thus to have ignored Mr. Felps's message would have been to
give him preferential treatment just because I felt I could infer his
intentions.  Let me be clear on this -- I'm not a mind reader, so
intentions are not as important as actions in this context.  I tried
*very* hard to make this clear when I wrote in the administrivia file:

  If you pass along a message that is not explicitly an advertisement
  but serves to alert others of a location where an advertisement can
  be found (for example, giving a url to the site) -- ****>> even if
  you're mentioning the advertisement only to lament its existence
  <<**** -- you will be warned not to do so again.

(emphasis added) So if you want to talk about list administration,
write to me and/or Mary.  If you want to write about Creationism
between now and some time in the indefinite future when the rules
might change, send your message some place besides the dinosaur list.
Nobody appears to be complaining about the messages over on VRTPaleo,
so please feel free to take up the subject there.  Note that the rules
do not say you should avoid "support[ing] creationism".  They say you
should not discuss the subject.  I set the rules up that way quite
deliberately in an effort to ensure that no one can claim we're
censoring a particular viewpoint.  What we're actually doing is
preventing discussions that list participants have deemed off topic.
If you think there are other topics (e.g. dinosaur toys) that should
be kept off of this particular list, please go through the proper
channels to make your opinion known. 

Thanks for your cooperation.

Your humble list administrator,

-- 
Mickey Rowe     (rowe@psych.ucsb.edu)