On Sun, 4 Apr 2004, Winship wrote:

> > She also alters the posts stored in the archives. I don't mean that she
> > goes in there to delete misdirected posts or near-duplicates; in some
> > cases she is altering the content of what the poster said by deleting text
> > or moving it around, with no notice that she has done so and that the post
> > isn't as it was originally sent. This is a professional list, and her
> > level of interference makes me extremely uncomfortable.
>
> Depends, I would say, on exactly what she does.  Deleting or moving what
> content?  Quoting from a prior posting?  Original material?  Exactly what
> and how?

Both quoting from a prior posting and occasionally original material,
especially when that original material is something personal and not
directly germane to the professional discussion it's attached to. In some
cases, however, that personal information sets or adds to the context or
makes it clear that the poster is being facetious or playing the devil's
advocate about the topic, and removing that kind of text can change the
tone of the post.

I don't know the exact extent of it, because I notice only what's done to
my own posts (which tend to be brief and to the point), but other
subscribers have complained about much more--so much editing that the
context is removed or made ambiguous and the post then seems to say
something other than what the poster intended.

I think I would be uncomfortable with the level of editing that you do,
too, Douglas. How do you find the time, even? (And do you really think
that all the time you spend on this makes a noticeable difference? Is it
time well spent?) I would take no pleasure in running a list that required
that much intervention. To me, an e-mail list is closer to a spoken
conversation than to a published work of writing, and subscribers should
be permitted to express themselves freely. Occasionally we have a
subscriber who causes problems, in which case we put that person on Review
until the problem is resolved. But we either forward his or her posts
intact (and let them go into the archives intact) or we send them back as
unacceptable.

> Is my memory faulty, or did you not bring this up the last time this
> sort of thing was discussed on LSTOWN-L?

I may have, but if so, I don't recall it.

I happen to be an editor by profession, so I spend my work days shaping
other people's writing. But I would never consider editing the posts to
one of my lists.

Jane