I thought I'd reply to this to clarify some misconceptions that may be
shared by list members, then trust that anything further on this be let
die.

>         The main comptroller of this here list recently wrote to us:
> > for the sake of the list and its mandate, I would like to
> >actively discourage ... personal insults
>
>                 and yet, so soon, our List Owner approves the above
> insults, devoid of basis or justice.

Inasmuch as the first reference was to a quote from a post of mine, I
should explain once again how BEE-L moderation works, and direct everyone
to http://www.internode.net/honeybee/BEE-L/ to read further.  The fact that
this information is on a site I maintain is coincidental.  I did not write
all the material there or make up the guidelines.  I am not the listowner.
I am merely one of a number of people scattered around the world
(moderators) who all receive every post sent to the BEE-L address, and
before the server sends it to all the other list members.

It is our task to decide if the article is suitable for the list and to
reject the SPAM, viruses and chain letters, etc and to measure each
remaining post against the guidelines.  If it meets the guidelines, any
one -- or all of us independently -- send a command to the server to send
it out.

Once the server receives a command from any one of us, the article is
distributed, no matter whether the others similarly approve it or not, and
no matter how much any one of us may disapprove of it.  One vote and it is
sent out immediately to all subscribers.  The moderators all operate blind
and no one of us -- even the list owner -- knows who approved any given
post except by asking around after the fact.  We are volunteers and not
bound to be on duty.

Thus you can see that we moderators do not know who approved the post in
the second instance, and there is no way of knowing whether the List Owner
approves or does not approve.  He may even be away and not read it until he
gets back.  There (rare) are instances, in fact, where all the moderators
are away, and recently we had several days with no traffic on BEE-L for
just that very reason.  We don't much keep track of one another.   Any one
of us may be off-duty for weeks or months on end without any interruption
in the service or notice -- even to one another.   We may choose to simply
disregard all the incoming if we are overloaded with other things and leave
it to the others.  I'm not even sure, myself, who all the moderators are
for certain!

The reason for this system is to try to have as fair and timely a
moderation process as possible.  It is not perfect, but seems to work well
most of the time.  There are times when a good post may be lost, or a post
that is borderline gets approved.

We do try to prevent circulation of posts that appear to us to contain
deliberate insults, name-calling, or which are based on unprovable
assumptions.  There were several recent instances that were very close
calls, including the one in which the very last line provoked the reply
mentioned above.  Some one of us moderators saw merit enough in the balance
of the material to disregard the transgressions and OK the posts.  All I
can say for certain is that in both cases, it was not I.

I thank Robt for stating his credentials and experience, and also for his
efforts to inform us of the threats relating to GM as he sees them and
writing the balanced and very reasonable reply to which I am responding.

I trust we will all put all this behind us and treat one another with the
utmost respect and courtesy, and also extend that courtesy to all those who
work with bees -- on the list or not -- whether we happen to currently
agree with them or not.

Let's talk bees.

allen