[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

new list, old lists


Folks,

I'm signed up on the toapa list, but that doesn't mean that I or any of
the other members are going to abandon APD.  Maybe some of us will.  Maybe
some of us won't.  The future is a little cloudy.

There are quite a few reasons why others might want to consider signing
on.

APD spun off from rec.aquaria back in spring '95 to get away from the
background noise that came from combining divergent interests in one
huge newsgroup.  Since that time the traffic on APD has tripled.  It would
be interesting to check the numbers.  I wonder if APD might be carrying
almost as much traffic as all of rec.aquaria was handling back in '95.

APD now features a truly huge amount of noise; repeated, diverse and
divergent topics flowing like a mammoth community stream of consciousness.

I'm tired of the noise.  I'm tired of the repetition.  I don't want to
wade through wiring instructions, chemical analysis or (yet another)
technical rehash of the effects of light spectra on plant growth. It is no
longer interesting, it stopped being educational and it isn't amusing.
Some of you agree.  I'm pretty sure that others don't.  Fine.

"Aquaria as art" has a small voice in the din.  It is so little discussed
on this list that we don't even have a working vernacular.  We don't even
have the ground work laid to start meaningful discussion.  Part of the
reason for that is that part of the APD audience is openly hostile to the
concept of aquaria as art -- not just insensitive or unaware, but openly
hostile.  Another part of the APD audience is simply naive.

The recent thread is a great example.  It started with a short and
constructive exchange about aquascaping and was immediately buried in
personal assaults and wholly pointless defenses.  It's blown into one of
the biggest conflagrations that this list has ever seen.  And its useless.
It's unconstructive.

In the midst of all that Diana Berberich posted a letter full of
marvelous ideas and constructive thinking.  Did anyone respond?

APD makes it nearly impossible to have a meaningful exchange about
aquascaping as art.  The conversational traffic on that topic is almost
non-existent so moving the conversation to another list will have *no*
impact on APD.


Roger Miller