Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!crash.cts.com!bblue
From: bblue@crash.cts.com (Bill Blue)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
Subject: rec.audio.high-end
Message-ID: <9004071622.AA08851@crash.cts.com>
Date: 9 Apr 90 15:19:09 GMT
Sender: news@uwm.edu
Lines: 59
Approved: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

Moderator of rec.audio.high-end:

WHY did you allow the posting of that crap article from David Ornitz
regarding the Armor-all research?  I was taken in completely, wasted
considerable time reading and rereading, and replying to it, and
wasted a phone call to the east coast.

[I don't know who David Ornitz is; I've had some correspondance with Barry
Ornitz, and have sent a message to him asking whatinthehell is going on.
More later. -tjk]

The clues were *very* subtle (too much so), and the date on the
article WAS NOT APRIL 1!

[Hey, I missed it to. It's a rather well-known fact that "gullible" is my
middle name. -tjk]

When I spoke to him on the phone, David's comment (with a big grin on
his face) was that it was a 'tradition' in rec.audio.  IT WAS NOT
POSTED TO REC.AUDIO!

[The message came to me via "info-high-audio@csd4.csd.uwm.edu" which is the
address for the mailing list Info-High-Audio, which I started, and is
gatewayed each way to rec.audio.high-end. A query to the SMTP server at
kodak.com tells me that "nobody@kodak.com" is aliased to "/dev/null".
No doubt the name alone should have told me something. See my comment above.
-tjk]

The majority of messages in rec.audio.high-end could be classified AT
BEST as mid-fi articles.  A number of times I just about wrote you
expressing my concern at the low-end level of postings.  Now I'm
convinced -- this really isn't a high-end group at all.  And you're
not taking your job seriously.

[Job? What job? I do this for entertainment, which is what audio is all
about for most of us. Why didn't you write? How am I going to know what the
readers of the newsgroup want if they never tell me? You come up with a good
definition of high-end audio, and I'll use it. Religiously. Be prepared for
one article every two weeks. -tjk]

Lest you think this is just sour grapes, it's not.  I like a good joke
as much as the next guy.  But this Armor-all posting was a bad joke,
poorly executed as a joke, and approaching malicious in nature.  It
wasted a lot of bandwidth in a group whose moderator should have known
better than to post it.

[I agree, it's a waste. It was a poor joke, if joke is what it was. -tjk]

I believe the net is owed an apology by both you and David Ornitz.

[I'm sorry I'm a bonehead. I'm sorry you can't take a joke. I'm sorry I ever
got myself into this mess. Tell you one thing though... We'll be going back
to a digest format, so I can take my time and exercise a little more
control. If I ever get some time (fat chance), you'll see some stringent
guidelines posted which will be applied to all the incoming postings.

Please send me your comments, to "tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu"    -tjk]

--Bill Blue