Re: Greg Burch: Time to Act

Harvey Newstrom (newstrom@newstaffinc.com)
Wed, 16 Jun 1999 14:48:47 -0400

I can't stand hypocrisy. Do it, or don't do it, but stop waffling.

First you say you were too busy to enforce the ban. Then you say you will "try to come up with a fair and reasonable approach".

Is there going to be a ban or not? It is plain unprofessional to make a big announcement, fail to follow through, and then try to avoid the effects of your actions later.

To be honest, I think so many people have broken the ban that ExI cannot enforce it. If they were to unsubscribe all the people like they said, the list would dwindle. If they don't do what they said, they look like hypocrites. I predict that they will make vague excuses and try to reword the ban later.

What irks me is that this is not an unexpected outcome of the ban. ExI has a history of making big announcements and then being surprised at the results of their own actions. They announced a fee for the list early on and were surprised that people dropped out. They originally did not allow people to quote the list to outsiders and were surprised that people did. They tried to make the list members-only, and did not expect the outcry. Now they announce a topic ban, and seem unprepared to actually enforce their own ban.

This is repeated incompetence. Why do we keep having problems that were totally predictable and avoidable? Basically it is because the ExI board are too busy with their own projects to really run this list, the newsletter, the magazine, the node-nets, or any of the grand plans that have been announced. I would suggest that such announcement be delayed in the future until a working plan has been thought out. 

--
Harvey Newstrom <mailto://newstrom@newstaffinc.com> <http://newstaffinc.com>
Author, Consultant, Engineer, Legal Hacker, Researcher, Scientist.

----- Original Message -----
From: <GBurch1@aol.com>
To: <extropians@extropy.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 1999 10:40 am
Subject: Re: Greg Burch: Time to Act




> Jeff;

>

> Thanks for your post.  I'm very busy at work this week, so can only do

quick


> strafing runs at the problem till the weekend.  Have emailed privately all

> posters.  Most claim to have missed my announcement of to have made an

honest


> mistake in interpreting it.  Will try to come up with a fair and

reasonable


> approach to repeat posters this weekend.  Appreciate your input.

>

> GB

>