The future of the list?

[John M. Krafft]

Let me say first that I've been on this list uninterruptedly since December
of 1990, though I did recently switch to the digest version.  I think the time 
when we could imagine the list as some utopian space for free expression
has passed, or outlived its viability. Much good stuff still gets posted,
stuff at least as good as we've ever had.  But the signal is getting 
overwhelmed by all the noise,  and sometimes it gets hard to tell the casually
careless litterbugs from those who may as well be quite deliberately out 
to destroy the list.  I don't think the list needs to lend itself to wankers 
as a performance space.  I could name two, at least, of the most frequent 
posters to the list who may never have posted anything substantive about
Pynchon.  Unlike Gary, then, I'm not so sure everyone is welcome here: 
people can prove themselves unwelcome, and some have--or have proven many posts
unwelcome.  Telling me to use my delete key does not seem the best solution.
(And for now anyway I'm not even thinking of the posts with more quoted 
reply than new message--another source of irritating noise.)

So maybe it's time pynchon-l became a moderated list.  Yes, I know that
passage in GR about the openness of Der Platz and about nobody wanting
to play angelic gatekeeper.  Yeah, well, they hadn't  spent much time
on this list.  It wouldn't have to come to that if people would moderate
themselves some, but repeated pleas to that effect have just brought more 
noise.

jmk

John M. Krafft, English                  | Miami University--Hamilton
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