radical remedy

[meboriqua at aol.com]

I am neither an oldie nor a newbie, but I have been around long enough 
to see how the HPFGU site has been changing.  I also vaguely remember 
reading some postings about newbies posting a lot when I was one, so I 
think this idea has been brewing for some time.

It is easy for us to want to cut people off the list, but I have to 
say that I agree with Ebony on this one.  I am the first one to stand 
up, wave my hands in the air and kvetch about the grammar and spelling 
that has *not* been showing up in people's postings.  I sometimes have 
a mad desire to reply with a PROOF READ on the bottom of postings (I 
would never actually do that).  Perhaps, though, some people should be 
advised to read through what they write before hitting the send 
button.  It does have to be on the main list, and it certainly does 
have to turn into criteria for who should be allowed on the list.  
There are adults who are guilty of making the most heinous grammatical 
mistakes of all, and there are kids who have written brilliant 
postings and added at the end that they are 14 years old.  Age may not 
be the issue here.

I know I said this at the main list, but we need to remember that we 
do not have to read each and every post that is listed.  I'm not going 
to lie and say that there aren't names I skip whenever I see them.  
There are people who post on the main list who are downright 
obnoxious, but you know what?  If I don't read what they write, I 
won't know their attitudes and my ignorance is blissful.  

The good thing about all of this is that I no longer need to set aside 
a good two hours when I sit down and log on to the HPFGU site.  School 
starts in about two weeks :-( and I won't have the time I have now.  I 
won't feel guilty about skipping so many postings then, especially 
since so many theories and topics have been discussed into the ground.

I have also been someone who has been snubbed by groups that were 
self-prescribed elitists, and it feels pretty bad, just as I felt bad 
when I was chastised on the main site a few months back when I posted 
something that really offended someone.  That is what we have off list 
posting for.  I was also mortified when I made a hideous grammatical 
error, but Anal P. Lardbottom was all over it in a second - off list, 
not on-list.  I proof read even more carefully now (I think I wrote 
this before or I'm having deja vue).

Mostly, I'm just aching for book 5 to come out.

--jenny from ravenclaw ***************