Hi Mark,

I lurked here for well over two years before I actually bought a Vanagon
of my own. I didn't contribute much except for occasionally  asking
questions about my parent's vans or to promote a local campout...

A couple years ago (2007?) the list went through a wild period where
there was no moderation whatsoever. During this time here was at least
one member who I had to "kill-file", setting a filter in my email app
that blocked their messages before I saw them because I knew that
reading their messages would simply annoy me. (I originally wrote this
with another term for annoy, but rewrote it to keep BenT happy.)
Sometimes I would see their words quoted by others, but usually in those
cases they were quoted for context and it wasn't so bad.

Then there was an incident where a list member went on vacation and left
their email auto-responder turned on... With no moderator at the helm we
were helpless to turn off the endless echo of his messages back to the
list.... where they would echo again, and again, and again... If you
hear of someone being "Wallaced", you will know of what we speak.

So now the pendulum has swung back the other way. Things are a LOT
tighter here, and I for one appreciate it. The signal/noise ratio was
way too low and the topic of religion and politics came along far too often.

You wanna see an in-groupish snarky and insular community... try
theSamba. Every now and then I try reading things there and I just can't
do it. So I am happy here.

If there's a particular person who is ruining you picnic, kill-file them
with an email filter and get back to the party!

Happy Trails,

Greg Potts
Toronto, Ontario Canada
197x Westfakia "Bob the Tomato"
1987 Wolfsburg Weekender Hardtop (ND Graphics graphics wrap)
1988 Wolfsburg Weekender Hardtop (Colleen's ride)
www.pottsfamily.ca

BUSES OF THE CORN - AUGUST 12-14th, 2011
www.busesofthecorn.ca

On 11/6/2010 8:50 PM, Mark L. Hineline wrote:
> This list seems to have gotten in-groupish, snarky, and insular
> relative to what it once was. That's a shame, because it used to be a
> key resource for learning how to take care of a Vanagon and for
> becoming part of a community. It still has the reputation, but gosh,
> if you're not one of the in group you get chastised for asking
> questions, for making comments, for any participation at all.
>
> Mark
> 1982 Westy
>

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