Hi: I have tried for several weeks to unsubscribe; have followed the instructions with no result. Is it possible that you can just unsubscribe me? Thank you. Karen _____ From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of James Homuth Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 4:51 PM To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Admin: Addressing a few things. Ladies and gentlethings, There's been a few issues brought to my attention over the last couple days, not the least of which is that whole problem of last night's unexpected cermin. As a result, I'll be addressing a few concerns here and now, and giving a bit of a reminder in the process. First and foremost, contrary to what is I'm sure becoming popular belief, the list moderator did not in fact fly the coop. I do have family, who I have been occasionally known to spend time with, and was therefore not near the computer while the list was having its small implosion. However, and leading into the second area of concern, that does not mean the problem hasn't been delt with. The original poster of those two messages has since been permanently banned from the mailing list. Hence the lack of any further postings from this individual. It was unwarranted, offensive to several people, and as was pointed out by a couple when it happened, more than a little off-topic. And, no longer an issue. This isn't the place to be sending emails of that nature, no matter how well intentioned, or how unintentional, it might have been. And, since this individual did not respond to attempts to contact him, it was ruled by me to be intentional. The matter has been accordingly delt with. Thirdly, and as a side subject to the above problem, I'll remind everyone here that flaming of any nature, in any form, and with any level of offensive language is not by any means tolerated. At all. Whether or not you agree with, appreciate, or otherwise, the message in question, responding the way a few of you did to it was by no means the way to handle it. If it offended you that badly, the appropriate response would have been to contact me directly, delete it, and move on. Some of you did that. And, while I didn't respond directly to emails sent to me on the matter, I did read them, and the matter was handled. Fourthly, a clarification of the definition of contact me. By contacting me, I do not mean send me an email, wait an hour and a half, and then email the staff who run the freelists.org website. They aren't there to handle issues internal to the mailing lists hosted by them. That's why those mailing list have their own admins. And, in fact, they will more than likely simply forward that email to the appropriate mailing list admins. As I have said, if your email doesn't get a direct response from me, that does not mean the matter hasn't been delt with. However, if I'm replying to every direct email I receive on the exact same issue, it will take me longer to actually fix the issue in question. Since in a situation like what occured yesterday, promptness is necessary, emails did not get a response until the matter was closed. And then, the response was sent to everyone affected--in this case, the list as a whole. I will point out something I've noticed in my time as list admin. This list is extremely self-regulating. Which, honestly, is not a bad thing. Off-topic messages usually go ignored, unanswered, and very occasionally a reminder is posted by someone to let the original poster know it's off-topic. That's not always something to be taken as a negative. A lot of the reason I don't come down hard as often as many moderators would is, quite simply, because I don't really have to. Yes, there have been a few cases where things have needed to be cooled off. But for the most part, discussion on this list is kept level-headed, mature, and most importantly, constructive. On any other mailing list, I'd of been in a little bit of a panic, and looking for someone to cover off temporarily for me while I stepped away from the computer for a couple hours. But most of you here don't need a babysitter, so I usually have nothing to worry about. Now, let's try and see about maybe getting back to that level of discussion, and letting some of these other threads that have sprung up sort of die off. This is an awesomely powerful forum, with collectively decades of JAWS experience, which gets tapped by new and veteran users of JAWS alike. Let's not lose that. I will be keeping an eye on things and make sure our preacher friend doesn't try to make a comeback under a different email address, but as for right now, let's try and put this out of the way where it belongs. If anyone has questions, my inbox is always open. In the meantime, how about business as usual for a while. James, List Admin Internal Virus Database is out of date. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.0.238 / Virus Database: 270.12.23/2106 - Release Date: 05/09/09 06:54:00