Re: How old are we? ***VERY*** OLD !!

Like two ships passing in the night.....

Damn Sandy, after that first paragraph, I was expecting to read something
really hot!

I too have met Judy—she bought me a corned beef sandwich at the Carnegie Deli
in New York City. As Sandy says, she's far from the shriveled little old
lady she would have you believe with her posts. Alas though, she still refuses
to pose nude for my camera.....now Sandy, on the other hand....but that's
another story hehehehe (just kidding Sandy)

As I travel around the country, I try to meet people from the list. Some
are very much like what you would expect from their posts on the list—others are
quite different. When you actually meet people face to face, with rare
exception, you go away feeling richer from getting to know them and seeing their
work. Our impressions from the list are not always accurate and I would dare
say that we would all like more people than we think we would if we met them
face to face—and we would probably be more polite with them onlist as a result.
  A very few we might just stone to death. hehehe

I have even had dinner with T-Rex, though obviously that did nothing to
prevent the frequent necessity for a vigorous degassing.

This is not to say that some of the very people you enjoy and love will not
sometimes piss you off with their posts. I am sure there are folks that I
have irritated with my humor (or attempts at it) over the years I have been on
the list—or maybe they just find my laugh annoying. hehehehe.

Normally I just read what interests me and delete the rest. I can even live
with some of the bickering that occurs. I do however agree with Camden that
healthy arguments are fine—it's when it turns personal that it gets nasty.
If people could just avoid that, it would solve 99% of the list problems.
Then there are those rare occasions where the personal attacks go way over the
top. I am not in favor of censorship, however there have to be some rules in
a community, be they ever so basic, or the community will not survive. I
have yet to see anyone banned from this list by Gordon that didn't deserve it.

So when people regularly fly under the radar of "behavior worthy of banning"
and are just plain irritating but not "bannable"—you have your delete key.
It's not that difficult to know who these people are in a list. You can figure
it out with a #2 pencil. It's the old Sociogram. You write all the names
from the list in a circle. Then when you see a post that has a hint of
nastiness in it, you draw a line between the two people. In the end, the
person(s) with the most lines connecting them to other people win.... or lose.

There is one anomaly on this list and it is both a blessing and a curse—the
abundance of talented gum printers. I don't know exactly what it is about gum—
perhaps it is the abundance of variables that are so difficult to control
that eventually drives them over the edge...... were there Platinum Wars at one
time? Cyanotype Wars? Well, I suppose this isn't unusual.... just log on to
APUG and type "DIGITAL ANYTHING" and see if you aren't pounded to the
consistency of a bowl of gruel in less than a nanosecond.

I will confess that I too have my weaknesses and frailties. There are times
at 2:00 am or 3:00 am when I read a post and I just can't let my finger hit
that delete key. Something stirs inside and I make that initial mistake of
whacking the REPLY button. On rare occasion I cancel the reply or better yet,
put it in the "Send Later After Brain Is Engaged Basket." But sometimes both
of these options fail and I send a response to the list that would better
have been sent privately to the person.... or maybe not even sent at all.

And I try not to make any sort of political comments on the list, since I
know that saying things like "This administration is the scariest thing I have
ever seen, has hijacked our country, attacked the Constitution, turned the
Corporate Predators loose on the citizens, squandered our country's respect and
leadership in the eyes of the rest of the world, and violated the Geneva
Conventions" will only cause a great deal of angst among list members and tons of
email to respond to and besides that is not the topic of this list..... it is Alt
Photo. So, how bout that Palladium stuff, don't it make great hand made
prints?

Best Wishes,
Mark Nelson, FRPITA

Precision Digital Negatives--The Book
PDNPrint Forum at Yahoo Groups
www.MarkINelsonPhoto.com

In a message dated 7/28/06 5:47:11 PM, sanking@clemson.edu writes:

>
> Judy,
>
> Although we have not always agreed I think you area a fabulous
> person. And more beautiful, interesting and intriguing  in real life
> than on the list! I only spent a few hours with  you, many years ago
> in NY, but the experience is one I treasure.
>
> I understand your frustration in the present situation, but you are
> not alone. Just look at recent comments by Don, Mark Nelson and me
> with regard to the present situation. You have folks here, many,  who
> agree with  you and are on your side.
>
>
Received on 07/28/06-08:32:55 PM Z