Hi.

Here is my take on what is suitable discussion for the list.  It seems 
clear to me that computers in today's world are potentially as much a part 
of the ham shack as a power supply would be.  Technically, a power supply 
is not a piece of radio equipment, yet most of us use one and hardly anyone 
would view a discussion about a power supply as being off topic.  If 
someone were having a problem with one, all of us that had any suggestions 
for remedying it would feel free to comment.

Many of us use computers for logging, still others run digital modes with 
them, compute antenna headings for satellite work, use echo link, etc.  I 
think the people who think that computers are off topic need to step back 
and look at it with a more open mind.  And, if you are having a problem 
with the computer, you probably shouldn't title your message with "Off 
Topic" because that just agitates the list cops.

Having said that, I also think that people need to use restraint in the 
kinds of things they deal with on the computer.  For example, I'd love to 
know if any blind computer users have found a good screen reader friendly 
Bible program that supports multiple translations, but I wouldn't post that 
here because it is clearly not ham radio related.  Please, if you are 
tempted to reply to that, contact me off list.

Regarding the topic that was being hashed over, I saw a number of people 
who actually had some very intelligent points to make, and I was actually 
enjoying the discussion and learning something besides.  Yes, I work in the 
computer industry, and I still learn things from you guys from time to time.

Now, I will be the first to admit that there are topics on this list that 
do not interest me.  Personally, I couldn't care less about echo link.  And 
it gets a little tedious when a thread goes back and forth fifty times on a 
subject for which I have no interest.  But, you know what?  That is the 
nature of e-mail lists.

I personally think saying things like if we can't stick on topic then I'm 
leaving the list is infantile and invites the kind of response that it 
got.  Just saying "Can we stick to the topic without threats would be 
received very differently.

I have one more thing to say on this subject and then I will close and say 
no more about it.  The thing that makes me uncomfortable with this list is 
that some people would have us be so circumspect about what we say that it 
gets to a point where I might know the answer to a problem that someone is 
having but I don't want to say anything because I don't know who is going 
to jump down my throat over it.  And, there is probably five other people 
on the list who are looking at the responses because they don't know the 
answer and are just as interested as the one who originally asked the opinion.

So my challenge is this.  Can we do two things--be a little less picky and 
exercise some good judgement about what we want to bring to the list?

73, de Lou K2LKK



Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
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