no technical content WARNING - RANT

[Ron Nossaman]

List,
An observation or two, if I may.

1: If the complainers of the lack of technical discussion would post
technical discussion instead of complaints, there would be a higher
percentage of technical content in this List. This ought to be self evident
to everyone, but apparently is not. As the technical content diminishes,
the chit chat traffic increases. If you don't like the chit chat, bury it
in technical discussion. Overwhelm it with pertinent data. The fact is that
if someone says something interesting, people will be interested. If not,
it seems that people will just complain.

2: When a technical discussion is in progress, there are normally only two
or three participants of the dozen or so who are willing to join technical
discussions at all, none of whom are the habitual complainers of the lack
of technical content. 

Why don't the complainers join in when there is a technical discussion in
progress? They're awfully quiet when the information is flowing and only
tend to surface and get noisy when it stops. Who's getting the benefit of
whom here? Why do they offer so few of the technical observations and
comments that get these discussions started? Where is their contribution to
the much bemoaned deteriorated content of List traffic? I see precious
bloody little of it. If you want to know where the revered names of the
industry that used to traffic this List went, my guess is that they didn't
see any point in hanging around when so few of the List subscribers were
willing to put their egos and knowledge on the line for public scrutiny and
dissection when they got so little in return from the majority. This List
isn't intended as a school for lurkers complaining when the curriculum
doesn't meet their demands, it's a forum for the exchange of ideas and for
discussion of all things piano. We're it, folks. Any technical discussion
that appears here is generated by us. That's US, people, not HIM, not HER,
not THEM - US! That's ANY of us and ALL of us. Anyone that's learned a
nickle's worth from this list owes it a dime's worth back, and if all of us
paid our debt, we'd be swamped in technical discussion. Those that
contribute little should complain to the degree to which they contribute
when they don't like the way the List is going - seldom, or not at all.
Rather than crying that the List is wasting their time and not teaching
them anything, they should be teaching the rest of us some of what makes
their time so valuable. In my considered if not humble opinion,
consideration is earned by contribution. Help, don't just give us another
junk post to delete.

Note: The subject heading says "no technical content", so it's likely that
the folks this was intended for won't read it anyway, and there's the pity.
For those who are actively contributing technicalities in an attempt to
make this List work, please disregard the above, with my congratulations,
gratitude, and apologies for wasting your time.


Ron N