<p dir="ltr">I hear you Aaron, I really do. And I'm all for a bit of anarchy on the list: it's the nature of the beast. I also strongly agree with you that any meta-narrative is decidedly on-topic.</p>
<p dir="ltr">However ...</p>
<p dir="ltr">Moderation in all things implies occasionally going to extremes of control that I too feel uncomfortable with and I applaud Jim for the even tempered way he's handling things. And by "things" I mean the mind-numbing, clueless, filibustering by one openly anti-FOSS evangelist who seems to have taken it upon himself to commandeer this soon-to-be-a-list-of-one.</p>
<p dir="ltr">If I wanted to hear this kind of incessant, obtuse drivel, I'd watch C-Span. I choose my lists very carefully and I was overjoyed when I discovered ALE, re-discovering old online colleagues from the most unlikely elements of my past. Even though it was a relatively quiet list, it was high quality tech talk with the occasional political spat: just my type of list. It's really disappointing to be considering packing it in due to one miscreant that seemingly refuses to behave civilly despite the incrementally direct and ever-ruder responses that he elicits. It has single-handedly changed the character of this list for the worse.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This list continues to be commandeered, except it's now by ostensibly on-topic drivel rather than OT drivel. I can handle ignorance because it can be overcome with education, as continuously attempted by members here. But the apparently willful, contemptuous delight taken in delivering red-herrings, trolls and blatant misinformation has become as infuriating to me as what it is mind-boggling.</p>
<p dir="ltr">It's been many years since I've witnessed such a remarkably disciplined and effective exercise in sowing mayhem and destruction on a list by one single person. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The list was split in two to accommodate this nonsense. Where does it go from here? ALE is getting drawn and quartered by a single, delusional, overbearingly disruptive element that seems to have upped the ante in the "Now I'll show you" stakes. Quite unlike the bare-knuckles list-fights I've seen before that have actually been enjoyable to witness with informed yet opposing perspectives sparring, this stuff we now see is just circular, weak and destructive.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Unchecked, I see it killing this list.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And that my opinion about that.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ed</p>
<p dir="ltr">Edward Holcroft | Madsen Kneppers & Associates Inc. |<br>
3020 Holcomb Bridge Rd. NW | Norcross, GA | 30071 |<br>
O (770) 446-9606 | M (678) 587-8649</p>
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