Listserv

[PianoBook@aol.com]

I echo Israel Stein's opposition to balkanizing this list into smaller, more
specialized lists.  In addition to the points Israel raised, I would also
point out that the dividing line between "elementary" and "advanced" is
non-existent.  A recent exchange about heat sources for bending shanks may
seem elementary to some technicians, yet others took twenty years to find
their ideal heat source and their wisdom would be unavailable to those who
only subscribed to the "elementary" list.  Most technicians rediscover, at
various times throughout their career, new ways to perform basic, elementary
tasks.

Similarly, it would be impossible to divide subject matter into "theoretical"
and "practical".  Everything discussed here ultimately has practical uses or
we wouldn't be discussing it.  David Stanwood's ideas are only theoretical
until one decides to hang a new set of hammers or has to answer a customer's
complaint about a heavy-playing action.

If this list is subdivided, I predict that most current subscribers would end
up subscribing to several lists and many of the same messages would turn up
on all of them, only compounding the time and effort needed to sort through
it all.

I think it would be helpful to have a message sent to each new subscriber
outlining some etiquette for this list: avoid posting frivolous and redundant
mesages, send a reply personally to the author of the message rather than to
the list when the reply is unlikely to be useful to the group, proper use of
subject headings to aid screening of messages, etc.  If this is not
sufficient, we might seek someone to personally screen messages before
posting to the list -- a rather unsavory chore.

If we are overstaying our welcome at BYU, then I think Jack Reeves should
tell us so and, with gratitude to Jack, we should start looking for a new
host.  But I would be opposed to splitting the list up at this point.

Larry Fine