tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Feb 28 10:53:05 1995

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The listwoner speaks (Was: From the Edge of the Galaxy)

Okay, after seeing the discussion on the list about the posting of Glen
Proechel's stuff, and receiving several complaints in private email,
here's what I have to say on the matter.

When I first saw the catalog-style posting of all that Glen had to offer,
my first reaction was "What is this blatantly commercial posting doing on
the list?". Which is very true -- I feel like I'm reading a catalog when
I read that posting.

Then, after I calmed down, I took a look at what this list is all about.
It's about the Klingon language -- Learning it, studying it, improving it.
Unarguably, the items that Glen offers for sale are useful in the above
context. And I ask myself, if it had been Krankor who was offering something
for sale here, would I have gotten complaints, and been upset about it 
myself?

Then I look at the Klingon Language Institute, itself. The KLI regularly
uses the list to do the same thing -- The posts aren't blatantly commercial,
but the idea is the same.

I realize that a good portion of the objection comes from someone in the
"enemy" camp of non-KLI people using the KLI mailing list to advertise 
themselves. Reasonable, right? Wrong. One VERY important fact that many
people (including myself) overlook is that THIS IS _NOT_ A KLI MAILING
LIST. At the moment, the list is run on the KLI machine. Also, at the
moment, most of the people here support the KLI, not the ILS. Regardless,
this list is for the KLINGON LANGUAGE, not for any specific group of people.
Glen's postings are as at home here as Lawrence's are, providing that 
both follow the rules.

Thus, I have this to say: The posting on Glen's behalf was very on-topic,
according to the rules for the list. The only thing that I might consider
being against the rules were some of the followups that were obvious flames.
It's THOSE that don't belong here.

I do ask this, though: In the future, if anyone has something like this 
to post, PLEASE try to make me feel like I'm not reading through an 
online catalog. There's commercialism, and then there's _COMMERCIALISM_.
That's all I ask. Certainly not unreasonable, I don't think.

									-WW

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