Re: open forum about pkt

[John Gelles <jjgelles@xxxxxxxx>]

			TIME TO READ, URGE TO WRITE:
			THE PROBLEM AND THE SOLUTION

	1.  The appropriate frequency for essays of the kind I send
	    to this forum, (when a membership of 400 is considered),
	    is one per week.  This is mine for this week. The
	    dynamic duo, Holt and Galbraith, have brought past
	    sins to our attention, not in vain.

	2.  The appropriate way to respond to others' essays is
	    by private reply off list to the essayist.  Please
	    nobody respond to this on list, until you have
	    finished it, if at all.

	3.  Why do we read a net list instead of better material
	    in conventional places?  Because we want to converse.
	    We cannot converse with dead authors or the great men
	    of the day because they would have no time to read
	    ten thousand applicants for converstaion.

	4.  But, as Ric reminds us, even conversation with mortals
	    can lead to too much writing for others to read. So
	    solutions 1 and 2 are offered.

	5.  Is there a remaining problem?  Yes.  PKT has a mission
	    amd a reputation.  Its mission is not puny.  It is not
	    a club for chatter that needs no proceedings and no
	    archives.

	6.  It may be that when 1 and 2 are adhered to, there is
	    insufficient dialog to win any prizes -- and the net
	    is made for dialog. (It is not a jounal or a library.)
	    What to do?

	7.  What I will do is, per para 1, write one essay per week.
	    Per para 2, reply to other's posts directly to them only.
	    Per this para 7, if I am fortunate enough to get replies
	    to my essays, I will edit the replies myself and present
	    them as powerful commentary to a past essay IF they are
	    really so good that not to do so would be an affront to
	    PKT and the dialog purposes of the net.

	8.  In the para 7 task I shall be fair and shall give credit
	    to authors of messages edited down for one single
	    commentary posting per essay. (Writers who forbid me to
	    give them public credit should so advise me when and if
	    they reply off list to any essay.  In such case, their
	    brilliant edited remarks will be credited to Anonymous.)

	8.  I think this forum, having an interest in things
	    economic, should make every effort to sell
	    advertising in the margins of its content.  It
	    would put us in the real world.  The money could
	    go to defray costs now paid by universities and
	    others who run the servers.  If that is impractical,
	    the money could go to the United States Treasury
	    in thanks for past financing of the net from scratch.

			Margins with the names of booksellers,
	    journals, banks and brokerages, and a government or two,
	    would compel the system to center all text, like this is,
	    to make it easy to read.

		John Gelles