I feel your pain...but last time I heard, there were about 10 million
people who subscribe to this List...that's a lot of eyeballs. It's not
like the old days. I am usually a "direct replier" although I
occasionally make blanket replies...but still I think the List has a
lot of value.
It's actually more efficient if the person asking the questions
collates the replies and posts a summary. I believe some Lists
encourage only that. In a perfect world, it should be done the way you
describe.....but how are you going to change human nature? Why not
settle for a two tiered system....let people reply as they wish but
encourage strongly 1) everyone to reply to the List and 2) the
receivers of "direct" replies to make a summary and post the summary to
the List.
I would not want to discourage people from sharing their valuable
knowledge just because they don't feel like blasting it to a somewhat
anonymous group.
>Hello! OK I can't stand it any longer. Kate Zhang's willingness to
post
>her direct responses and last week Rod McCoy's similar offer confirm a
>suspicion that much
>VALUABLE information is being exchanged behind the scenes. WHY? The
power
>and value of this bulletin board forum is completely eroded by this
>growing stealth
>response syndrome. For those people who either prefer anonymity in any
case
>or for those who desire it as a function of the poison of their
response
>there is the
>ability to post your query and your response via the ombudsman
account.
>
>I am hoping my frustration is shared by a sufficient number of you
that we
>can arrest the decay of this forum and breathe new life into it.
Regards,
>Mark.
>
>Mark W. Crankshaw
>Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry Laboratories
>Department of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology
>Washington University School of Medicine
>660 South Euclid Avenue, Campus Box 8103
>St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
>
>voice: (314) 362-0285
>FAX: (314) 362-4698
>email: crank@pcg.wustl.edu
>web: http://pharmdec.wustl.edu/pnacl.home.html
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