Subject: (urth) chastened apologies, sort of

From: Damien Broderick <damien at ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au>
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 11:51:39 +0000

Hi all

My strange post re:reposting was almost certainly badly misjudged on my
part, and probably misunderstood by list members.  I've been gently chided
off-list for clogging URTH's scholarly arteries with such personal matters,
and advised to toughen up.  (I'd rather not, actually.)  Here's what the
British Parliament would call a `personal explanation'; it will sound more
po-faced than I actually feel, because I guess this *is* a serious issue:

I was complaining at having some of my subscription-list words being used
without my permission (against me, as it happens, but that's not really the
point).  This was particularly galling given that I'd announced that I
would shortly ask permission of everyone concerned in a project that would
involve citing them from the list. 

My complaint, and the reason I raised it on URTH, was that `MegaLiz' had
access to material I'd posted *in the expectation that it would not be
quoted elsewhere without my permission*, and this anonymized prankster
specifically sourced it to a subscriber.  I've now been informed by
`MegaLiz' that `she' did indeed obtain the quote from someone on the URTH
list.

I'm sorry if I, in turn, offended against the rules of the house, but I've
been off my oats lately after an operation that interfered with my ability
to type - which is the equivalent, I suppose, of being forbidden my drug of
choice for a week.  Still, it seems to me that if we can't trust each other
not to repost without permission (leaving aside the type of use, parodic or
otherwise, of such cites), people will feel constrained in what they post
here.  

BTW, I've now boiled down the Delage collage to about 6.5K, and it makes a
fascinating sequence...  Those cited will hear more soon.

Seeyuh, Damien

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/