Re: Forwarded from David McDonald

[Xenon Zi-Neng Yuan <wenhuadageming@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:46 PM 8/22/2003 -0400, Louis Proyect wrote:
> I have not the slightest doubt that the cutthroat
> atmosphere you promote has a lot to do with the almost total absence of
> female contributors on this list, which cannot be good.

and fwiw, i'll put my bit in on this...  it's strict here, but hardly
"cutthroat", imho.  besides, louis has mentioned many a time that he is
more lenient of late than he used to be when this list started, which is
back when almost everyone would have been using dial-up.  i personally know
people that maintain discussion lists, and if it's high volume like this
one, it's no easy task.  i've also ventured onto the henwood and pen-l
archives, and they're often just as louis described - filled with
intolerably long threads that go nowhere and just take up bandwidth, not to
mention the flamewars.  you have to rummage through a lot of crap to find a
worthwhile post (which of course there are plenty of, i'd just prefer if i
didn't have to slog through all the filler first).

(i personally think that this is one reason why a web-board might
eventually be a better choice - not that i'm against keeping it email-only,
i'm just bringing up an example.  a moderator on a web board can much more
easily strike a post or thread out of the archives, thus making it less of
a chore to follow a discussion in full.)

the 450 men:handful women ratio is unfortunate, and we should work on it,
but really it's not that surprising.  blaming it singularly or primarily on
louis' "cutthroat" attitude (if that's what you're doing), seems a bit unfair.

xzy