List gatekeepers

[Joe Schallan]

I'll have to admit I get annoyed by posters who appoint
themselves gatekeepers of the list and lecture the rest
of us about what is and is not an appropriate topic.
Freedom of expression is held in high regard
in our group, and they are entitled to express themselves
in this regard.  Every list I've been on has its cabal
of gatekeepers who think they hold the patent
on what is correctly "on topic."  They have a
right to their views about relevance of topics, but
the bleating gets tiresome.

Why a discussion of resource allocation in an environment
of web-based electronic mail services is off topic is
beyond me.  In my library, people accessing sites
list Juno or Hotmail have impeded other users needing
access to web workstations for non e-mail related
work.  This cuts right to our allocation of web
resources, and this list is called web4lib, right?

Sure this topic has pulled us into a discussion of our
view of technology's role in the library.  But does web4lib
always have to involve just nuts and bolts stuff?
That is valuable, and the technical knowledge of
fellow listers has saved my behind more than once,
but a menu of nothing but technicalities becomes
about as interesting as reading car or golf magazines.

We're librarians, for heaven's sake, not electrical
engineers.

More to the point:

1.  Web4lib is a relatively inactive list.  The volume of
messages is quite low.  I can't imagine that a spirited
discussion of a topic many listers obviously care about
would tax this list.

2.  Roy Tennant, who has a right to rein us in, hasn't,
at least yet.  He's the listowner.  He'll let us know.

3.  I assume everyone has a delete button.

If a thread doesn't strike you as relevant, don't follow it.

Joe

PS.  No doubt as tiresome as the gatekeepers is the lengthy
bleating from individuals who complain about the gatekeepers. <g>

PPS.  Check out this month's Car & Driver for a really gripping
piece on exhaust manifolds.





 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joe Schallan, MLS                             jschall at glenpub.lib.az.us
Reference Librarian and Web Page Editor
Glendale (Arizona) Public Library                        (602) 930-3555