Take this as an analogy to CD forums. I think many of you fall into several of these categories. You know who you are....
How many mailing-list members does it take to change a light bulb?
1 to change the light bulb.
1 to post that the light bulb has been changed.
14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the
light bulb could have been changed differently.
7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.
22 to claim light bulbs were cheaper in 1973 after adjusting for
inflation.
5 to blame the Bush administration for allowing the bulb to burn out.
6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb".
2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is
"lamp".
15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that "light
bulb" is perfectly correct.
10 to post that this mailing-list is not about light bulbs and to
please take this discussion to a lightbulb mailing-list.
11 to defend the posting to this mailing-list saying that we all use
light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this mailing-list.
6 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to
buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this
technique and what brands are faulty.
27 to post URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs.
14 to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly and then post the
corrected URLs.
27 to post about links they found from the URLs that are relevant to
this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group.
19 to accuse the big light bulb corporations of depleting precious
vacuum resources.
4 to complain about Spain's new tax on used light bulbs.
3 to claim only the French make the best bulbs, and everything else is
"le crap".
5 Americans to remind the French they are making light bulbs instead
of candles because the US bailed them out, again.
33 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety
including all headers and signatures.
5 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they
cannot handle the light bulb controversy.
9 to call light bulbs "weapons of mass illumination" and to deny Iraq
had any WMI.
2 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"
4 to say "do a search on 'light bulbs' before posting questions about
light bulbs".
3 to spam the post talking about how light is pretty....
7 to ask what kind of lightbulb they should buy.
2 to get in a heated debate about which is better, halogen or
fluorescent.
3 to ask about how to get it to turn on.
4 to post that they are forming a light bulb co-op.
1 to write some long cynical diatribe metaphorically reflecting the frustration
of the whole experience. and
1 new mailing-list member to respond to the
original post 6 months from now and to start it all over again.
