ADMIN: We'd Like to Pick Your Brains About TBAY

[msbeadsley]

> > I like TBAY. TBAY messages are like puppet shows, little 
> > vignettes produced to illustrate ideas about HP in a whimsical 
> > format. Although it's somewhat campy and can be confusing, it's 
> > fun and adds freshness and creativity to the board (which has 
> > somewhat of a tendency to grind away in plodding, pedantic 
> > discussion now and then).
 
> Yes - but what I think may be being missed is that some people 
> actually *enjoy* that 'plodding, pedantic, discussion', as you 
> describe it. Some of us don't think there'd be anything 
> particularly wrong with a list where people just discussed matters 
> in a straightforward fashion and don't feel any great need for 
> flights of whimsy.

If no one enjoyed pedantic discussion, would it be there? Anyone who 
doesn't enjoy it at least somewhat probably doesn't stay on HPfGU 
very long. (And it's a very, very long toss from "don't think there'd 
be anything particularly wrong with a list where people just 
discussed matters in a straightforward fashion" to "take anything 
that isn't straightforward discussion and ban it, or move it *over 
there*.")

Who sits down to dinner and eats just meat every night; just meat, 
with no vegetables, or salad, fruit, bread, or dessert? Those rooting 
for segregating TBAY (and possibly more) strike me as family members 
announcing, "Well, *I* despise turnips, and I don't want to have them 
at table. If *you people* want to eat turnips, do it somewhere else, 
or at least go eat in the kitchen." (Why can't you just pass the bowl 
and go back to your roast beef? Or you could go partake of meals in a 
group consisting solely of meat eaters, where you would never be 
asked, "Please pass the turnips." It isn't even like it's something 
*pickled*, where you might have a point about the vinegar fumes 
getting up your nose.) It is *so* trivial to simply click the "next" 
option (or delete those messages) if one doesn't wish to be part of 
TBAY! Or FILK. or FF. (It would be very interesting if someone wanted 
to do a statistical analysis; what percentage of messages is wheat 
and what is chaff to which members?)

This is a *social* group; the variety (along with the stunning degree 
of general intelligence) is what makes it so terrific. And do those 
who love TBAY just read and respond to TBAY? Don't they participate 
throughout the group? Someone said that segregating TBAY would kill 
it. I agree. (I'm hearing Gollum's voice from TTT now: "That would 
kill us--*kill* us!") But I also think that, as it became moribund, 
those trying to keep it alive would be missed on the main board; and 
they might not come back. It that what you want? Although I am not 
primarily a TBAY-er, the notion of kicking it off the main board 
bothers me very much. Because HPfGU is not *about* the pedantic 
discussions, is it? Isn't it about the people having them? (That's 
what I'm there for.) And that includes the TBAYers. And the FILKers. 
And the FFers. (Hmmm...it occurs to me that I've been each of those, 
at least briefly--as well as participating in my share of pedantry.)

> I also think 'organised' whimsy is less whimsical than whimsy that 
> just happens (-8

Organized? TBAY? The "(-8" means you're kidding, right? ;-)

ADMIN...poll time yet/ever?

Sandy