Who the list is for!

[John Wehlitz]

Greg Newell wrote:

>How interested I was to find that
>we have about 280 people signed on. Many of whom we never hear from!
>To all of you I hope to see you get more involved as their is a wealth
>of knowledge out there to be shared!...

And:
>     2. The only dumb question is the one that never got asked!!!!!!!!
>                 (that's because it also never got answered)

Greg - I lurk on this list, and hopefully learn from it, but I seldom post
for several reasons. First, I am a "technician in training," and there are
less embarrassing ways to get answers to dumb questions. Second, I am not
one of the people for whom this list exists, and I suspect a good share of
the 280 listmembers also are not. In other words, a lot of us are not
college or university technicians, but are guests here. If all the guests
were posting constantly (which would practically amount to taking over) I
think we might quickly find that we were no longer welcome.

Since many of the guests may not realize that they ARE guests, I will quote
the following from Jack Reeves, the list owner. It was kind of burried, and
could easily have been missed. Yes, a list owner DOES have the right to say
who a list is for.

>May I explain to Peter and to many other new subscribers to this
>list that the list exists specifically for college and university
>technicians.  The list has been created and maintained by me,
>and funded by BYU as a means for C & U techs to communicate
>with each other, and all other subscribers are guests.  The list
>participation is slanted strongly toward institutional piano
>maintenance because of that.  I anticipate that at some future
>time, someone else will start a list with a different slant.  I don't
>have any idea who, what, when, or why.  The PTG  electronic
>communications committee is looking at those same questions
>and working on answers, but because Council only meets
>yearly....  In the meantime, if you are a college and university
>technician, welcome to pianotech.  If you are not a college and
>university technician, welcome as a guest of the college and
>university technicians.

>Jack
>jack_reeves@byu.edu

I have mixed feelings about the possible solutions. In some ways I would be
sorry to see the list split, but it may well be necessary. Since many more
people are getting Internet access at home every day, it won't be very long
until the self employed and music store employed technicians - not to
mention students - will outnumber the college and university technicians. We
may already. Since the college and university people naturally want to keep
their forum, perhaps the time has come for the rest of us to find a way to
set up a second list. I'm sorry, but I'm not volunteering - just hoping to
get the discussion started.

John Wehlitz
Hillsboro, Oregon
jwehlitz@ix.netcom.com
Associate member Portland OR PTG