The recent exchange on this list deeply saddens me.  In these times of
instant global communication we seem to occasionally forget that
courtesy and professionalism should prevail   and   that the internet is
not a private means of communication.
 
Discussions among BEE-L members should respect the views of others.
Vulgar name calling serves no useful purpose, whether directed towards an
individual or the list.
 
With respect to the assertation that the recipient of this message
purposely re-distributed it to the entire list, I offer the following
observations:
 
1) Almost everyone who uses this list has at times hit the wrong button,
so we don't know whether it was intentional.
 
2) Personal messages from lists often spill over to other recipients,
even if the message is direct back to the sender.
 
3) Anything posted on the Internet is public, so don't say anything that
you wouldn't want the world to read.
 
 
Some examples:
 
For 6 weeks I received very personal intra-office memos from one of our
largest federal agencies.  I knew who was being fired, where the
personnel problems were, what the agency policy was concerning sensitive
issues  -  all because something went wrong in an agency server and I
started getting "confidential" mail from around the world.  You better
believe that the agency fixed that problem.
 
BEE-L does the same to me, about 95% of the messages land in my incoming
folder for the list, but every day about 5-8 messages slip through, many
that are not intended for the list as a whole.
 
Worst case scenario, I was working at a facility with 1200 employees on
an in-house network.  One of the middle management men started to
sexually harass a woman who worked for him.  Only he made the mistake of
sending her an obscene e-mail message.  A few minutes later, 12000 other
people also got to read it.  Needless to say, we know whose job ended.
 
Finally, I want to commend Allen Dick for reminding the list that this
group started out to talk about bee biolgy.  At no time did he say this
list was only for academics, that would be pretty strange since he is a
beekeeper.  He did say, and I agree, that those of us in academia and
research will leave the list if it strays too far from bee biology.
 
He also reminded all of us that many messages should go to the
individual, not the list.  I also said that, so I don't think that is an
unreasonable request.
 
Neither of those comments seem to me to be out-of-line.  They certainly
don't warrant the scathing reply.
 
 
What would I do if I got such a "flame".  Well, my first instinct might
be to post it to the group.  But, I won't.  However, I'd probably decide
it wasn't worth my time anymore.  As some have been quick to respond,
those of us who are academics can go form yet another list, but that
seems counter-productive.
 
Jerry Bromenshenk
The University of Montana
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