Non-indological post re mailing lists

[Brian Akers]

This reminded me of some recent threads on Indology. :-)

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Q: How many mail list subscribers does it take to change
   a light bulb?

A: 1,392:

     1 to change the light bulb and to post to the mail list
       that the ight bulb has been changed, plus...

    14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs
       and how the light bulb could have been changed
       differently,
     4 to complain that they were happy with the old one,
     7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs,
    27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about
       changing light bulbs,
    53 to flame the spell checkers,
   156 to write to the list administrator complaining about
       the light bulb discussion and its inappropriateness
       to this mail list,
    41 to correct spelling in the spelling/grammar flames,
   109 to post that this list is not about light bulbs and
       to please take this email exchange to alt.lite.bulb,
   203 to demand that cross posting to alt.grammar,
       alt.spelling and alt.punctuation about changing light
       bulbs be stopped,
   111 to defend the posting to this list saying that we all
       use light bulbs and therefore the posts **are**
       relevant to this mail list,
   306 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is
       superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what
       brand of light bulbs work best for this technique,
       and what brands are faulty,
    27 to post URLs where one can see examples of different
       light bulbs,
    14 to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly, and to
       post corrected URLs,
    12 to flame the users for violating netiqutte and
       blame them for starting this whole thing,
     3 to post about links they found from the URLs that
       "are relevant to this list, which makes light bulbs
       relevant to this list,"
    45 posts about whether or not mail lists should even
       be allowed to exist,
    33 to concatenate all posts to date, then quote them
       including all headers and footers, and then add "Me
       Too,"
    12 to post to the list that they are unsubscribing
       because they cannot handle the light bulb
       controversy,
    19 to quote the "Me Too's" to say, "Me Three,"
     4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ,
     1 to propose new alt.change.lite.bulb newsgroup,
    47 to say this is just what alt.physic.cold_fusion was
       meant for, leave it here, and...
  143 votes for alt.lite.bulb.


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Brian Dana Akers
www.pipeline.com/~sfauthor/
sfauthor at aol.com