Personally, I am grateful for efforts to have this a nice forum. Thanks for
all the sacrifice everyone who is involved makes to make it happen.
Gene Bowley
In a message dated 1/21/98 11:44:09 AM, you wrote:
>From: Allen Dick <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>> We are pleased to announce Best Of Bee... As the volume has grown on
>> BEE-L, a number of members have grown tired of receiving large numbers
>> of messages daily, many of which are sent in error or not of general
>> interest. Many worthy subscribers have simply given up and left...
>
>Thanks Al for passing that on. That was the original announcement for
>BoB. I noticed just the other day that it is now the first anniversary of
>Best of Bee (actually I got reminded by my annual bill from my provider :)
> and it got me thinking...
>
>One year ago, BoB was a controversial upstart. Our goals were to try to
>satisfy a wider range of readers by filtering out some of the tomfoolery
>here on BEE-L for the more time-challenged and/or sensitive among us,
>while leaving the BEE-L list open to free speech for the rest of us in the
>proletariat.
>
>Free speech by its very nature is free (surprise) and naturally includes
>everything from the erudite, polite and informed to the facetious,
>ignorant and accidental. The right to free speech sometimes has to be
>accompanied by the freedom not to listen :) We at BoB leaped into the
>breach.
>
>Have we accomplished anything? I note, looking back that BoB has relayed
>about 2,100 messages -- about 6 per day. I wish it had been fewer, but
>it is sure hard to tell which post is going to be the nugget some reader
>has been waiting for. I'm not sure how many messages passed through BEE-L
>in that time, but I suspect it must be at least twice that 2,100.
>Routinely, many posts passed on to BoB are edited to ensure quick
>readability and to foster steady blood pressure and tranquility in the BoB
>readership. (FWIW, I even cut my own innocuous posts back a bit -- for
>BoB only).
>
>I receive no complaints at all from the 440+ BoB subscribers -- even when
>I request feedback -- so I guess they are mostly happy or the server is
>down. FWIW, I know they sure weren't pleased when they suddenly started
>getting BEE-L again the other day, so I guess that proves something.
>However, I also do know that -- while we are steadily gaining readership
>on BoB -- we do lose people from BoB continuously, so maybe there is a
>natural lifetime for toughing it out on a list. Between the two lists,
>BEE-L and BoB, subscribership seems to top out around 1,200 (total) and,
>of course, we have to assume quite a bit of duplication between the two
>lists. I also know there are some who frequent sci.agriculture.beekeeping
>and never post here.
>
>Here on the BEE-L, I think most everyone -- the current crop of survivors
>at least -- are happy, too. Sure we have misdirected posts, occasional
>binaries, HTML posts, excessive quotes followed by 'Ata boy", a little
>pushing and shoving, and some foolin' around, but we have never had any
>really serious flame wars. Actually I can only remember two or three
>(hmmm... maybe four or five) real flames and they died out fast. It seems
>everyone usually ends up friends. And, since BoB started I think there is
>a whole lot less grumbling here on BEE-L than there used to be.
>
>What does the future hold for BEE-L and BoB? I don't know. Some day I
>hope to see some form of moderation here on BEE-L to damp out the
>accidental posts -- and the empty ones and the binaries, but not to stifle
>free speech. However, as an editor myself, I realise it is a job for
>someone -- and not a small job. I personally regard the BEE-L logs as a
>source of fascinating and searchable information and cringe everytime I
>see them diluted or polluted with long quotes, misinformation, and
>binaries (including my own).
>
>But then I am only one, and for others BEE-L is many other things -- and
>we do have to share. That is what makes BEE-L so vital -- the fact
>that no one viewpoint dominates. Sharing means compromising and accepting
>things are not going to always go the way we may personally wish.
>(FWIW, Sometimes, late at night, as I sit here at my ancient 486 2DX50, I
>imagine that -- perhaps -- there are even a few misguided souls reading
>BEE-L who do *not* wait in eager anticipation for my next missive. Such
>base lack of appreciation is hard to imagine, I know, but I suspect it must
>be true from my knowledge of statistics, human nature -- and selected
>readings from my inbox).
>
>While I am waiting upon the day that BEE-L is moderated, I personally find
>BEE-L a real treasure and spend a lot of time panning here for gold. That
>gold, I try to refine for BoB. Sometimes I add in a bit from
>sci.agriculture.beekeeping too, although the signal to noise ratio is
>*much* better here IMO.
>
>In considering both these lists and their value to myself and others, I
>have to thank all the people who internationally give so freely and
>selflessly of things that in some industries might be considered 'trade
>secrets'. When I look back, I have to say that participating on BEE-L
>has certainly improved my beekeeping, my writing skills, and perhaps done
>something for my outlook and diplomacy (some may argue). Thank you
>everyone for your patience and good humour.
>
>As for BoB in 1998, we'll keep on trucking and hope that BoB continues
>growing and keeps with us at least some participants who would
>otherwise just fade away.
>
>Allen
>
>
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