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 > > >----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- >Return-Path: <[log in to unmask]> >Received: from relay24.mail.aol.com (relay24.mail.aol.com [172.31.106.70]) by >air07.mail.aol.com (v37.8) with SMTP; Wed, 21 Jan 1998 11:44:09 -0500 >Received: from sysx.systronix.net (mail.millennium-realty.com [204.209.166.9]) > by relay24.mail.aol.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) > with SMTP id LAA26529 for <[log in to unmask]>; > Wed, 21 Jan 1998 11:43:01 -0500 (EST) >Received: from pool1-9.internode.net by sysx.systronix.net (NTList 3.02.13) id >sa111662; Wed, 21 Jan 1998 09:34:09 -0700 >Comments: Authenticated sender is <[log in to unmask]> >From: "Excerpts from BEE-L" <[log in to unmask]> >Organization: [log in to unmask] >To: [log in to unmask] >Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 09:33:44 -0600 >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII >Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT >Subject: Best of Bee's First Anniversary >Reply-To: BEE-L <[log in to unmask]> >Priority: normal >X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v2.54) >Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]> >X-ListMember: [log in to unmask] [[log in to unmask]] >