Re: Replies to posts

[Steve Krause <skrause@bgnet.bgsu.edu>]

Wow, as someone who hasn't taken a math class since high school, being 
called Mr Prime Number is a little scary-- I'm not even sure I remember 
what a prime number is...

On Wed, 14 Dec 1994, Wendy Wagner wrote:

> Mr. Prime Number (aka Steve Krause),
>     First, how is my stance (supporting a change in the list processing
> program) exclusionary? How is wanting people who are asking for syllabi to
> take the time and energy to send these posts privately exclusionary?

What I mean is that to suggest we limit how much gets posted here because 
there are some (maybe even a lot) of systems that can't handle the volume 
of mail is exclusionary.  One of the cars my wife and I share is a 
Hyundai Excel that simply cannot go faster than 50 without being a little 
dangerous.  But that is no reason for me to suggest we ought to limit the 
speed limits on the Interstate to 50.

>    Second, you wrote: "And if your system is being stretched to the point of
> breaking because you have 60 email messages a day, then there is something much
> more seriously wrong than being underfunded." First, I received 135 messages
> in one day last week. Second, perhaps you will explain your comment that there
> "is something much more seriously wrong than being underfunded." What exactly
> do you think is wrong? Be sure to answer in words of one syllable, because I
> am not sure my "system" can handle anything more complicated.
> 
Well, I am not _really_ a systems expert (nor do I play one on TV), but 
e-mail (since it's just ascii text) takes up compartively little disk 
space.  For example, I have a WWW page that has a number of graphics and 
such on it, and a typical full color photo takes up about 40-100K.  Most 
e-mail messages that I get are between 2-5K or less.  I know people here who 
have let their e-mail go or else are on A LOT of lists who routinely 
have 500-1000 messages in their in-boxes, not to mention the people who 
routinely save ever e-mail they've ever sent or received.  So I guess 
what I'm saying is 60 to 135 messages doesn't seem like that much to me, 
so either a) there is something else wrong with your school's system or 
b) you're getting ripped off.  Now again, I'm by no means an 
honest-to-goodness expert, but I really would suggest if they are giving 
you a hard time about 130 or so messages or other issues along those 
lines that you ask _them_ to explain the situation to you in simple 
language.  That's something I try to do here all the time-- go to the 
_real_ computer geeks and try and interpret ;)

The other suggestion that I have (and I think someone else suggested it) 
was to set your e-mail for wcenter on "digest."  That way, instead of 
getting 135 messages about whether or not to change the way that messages 
are delivered on the list, you get one message that has 135 different 
entries within it about how mail is delivered.  Same amount of disk 
space, but fewer messages.  That might cheer your systems people up a lot.

Last but not least, let me say that while I know you mean no harm in the 
"mr prime number" label, I think this is an issue that we in humanities 
need to address carefully and directly.  The fact of the matter is a lot 
of us who are here (and many more of the colleagues we know who aren't 
here) are scared to death of computers and won't have anything to do with 
them.  "I teach lit-er-a-ture," I hear these people say.  Well, I don't 
think this-- meaning the internet-- is going away, and I think we have 
the choice of using and exploring and most importantly _mastering_ this 
technology, or we will continue to be at the whims of systems 
administrators who know as much about Hamlet as I know about prime 
numbers.  Like the old saying goes, lead, follow, or get out of the way, 
and I think it's time we start thinking about option number one.

==============================================================================
Steve Krause * Department of English * Bowling Green State University * 
Bowling Green, OH * 43401 * (419) 353-5104 * skrause@andy.bgsu.edu
* Now also available on WWW at http://www.bgsu.edu/~skrause/Steve.html *
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