To the Long-Time Listees

[annemehr]

Thanks to all who replied to my post -- and to those who will be 
replying!  I have been wondering about this for a while now.  Last 
night I was reading post 250 to around 300, and I did recognize many 
names (yes, Simon, yours, too!)  Actually, I dipped into the beginning 
of the OT list, too.  I did notice that the tone of things was a bit 
different than now.  I don't know how to describe it, but maybe it's 
that you hadn't gone so long without new material, so you weren't 
trying to pick apart every little nuance of the books to find 
something different to discuss.  There were no elaborate theories like 
MAGIC DISHWASHER or scholarly essays examining the character of one of 
the characters.  And no TBAY yet! Of course, I've only looked at two 
months of the oldest posts, so I'll be interested to see how things 
developed (and no, I don't intend to try to read *all* the posts!)

John, you made me laugh!  Notice that I was very careful *not* to talk 
about "old" listees!  And anyway, I'm 42 years old, you young 
whipper-snapper! (And yes, I did vote, but I might change it -- it's 
hard to decide what's best!)

Heidi says she likes to let others have their chance to speak rather 
than post much anymore (though your name is also familiar to me), and 
others of you like to check in for topics of interest.  I, however, am 
still very much at the stage of loving to post -- it feels so good to 
be writing again, actually (which I haven't done much since student 
days), and I am still hashing out ideas that I had never had anyone to 
discuss them with before.  I am also very much enjoying interacting 
with the community here, as my RL one is *very* much less diverse.


Heidi said:

 While I do still tend to post every few days if I 
> think that someone's made a weird misinterpritation of canon (I 
> recall one post where someone thought that a school governor was 
> more akin to a guidance counseler than anything else...) when 
> someone spins a "new-to-them" theory, I usually let the other 
> newbies on the list run with it and wrestle it to the ground, piping 
> up to point people to certain interviews or FAQ sections, but 
> otherwise allowing it to regrow in its own way. 
> 

Now, that's interesting!  So are you saying that whenever we newbies 
discuss a theory that's been done over and over, that the course of 
the discussion follows about the same ideas and comes to the same 
general conclusions as it did before?  So either we have JKR all 
figured out or we are *all* wrong!  :D

Annemehr