Stephen Harding wrote:

Guy Alcala wrote:

Would there be enough interest to do so, or are we willing to wait out the current
storm of political bumph? Let's see a show of hands as to how many people here would
want to start such a group. If there are enough, I might even be willing to moderate
it (more accurately, control the subscription list), especially if I could get a few
other volunteers to help screen subscription applications. I can think of several
regular r.a.m. posters who wouldn't make the cut, thus lessening the message volume
and aggravation level considerably, or we could put membership applications up to a
vote.

As one of the regulars that wouldn't make the cut,

Why wouldn't you? Are you a troll or loon, do you continuously post off-topic crap while
providing no valauble on-topic content, are incapable of reasoned debate so instead spew
personal insults, find it impossible to maintain basic standards of civil discourse, are
you a spammer? If you can answer no to all of the above (and the moderator has no evidence
to the contrary), you'd be in. You're not trying to make such a group elitists only, just
trying to screen out the more obnoxious wasters of bandwidth.


I have
to say I enjoy reading and sometimes responding to the
whackos.

Googlegroups is definiely the place for that.

Furthermore, there are several posters here that
are so danged knowledgeable in anything they write, that
it's like a "course in general knowledge", not just military
aviation.

A reasonable amount of off-topic drift is okay, at least in the mailing lists I've
subscribed to. It's when it degenerates into childish, repetitive name-calling and/or only
a few people are involved/interested that it needs to be taken off the group. Continuing
by private email is always an option, one I've pursued a considerable amount over the
years.

I'm sticking here and just ignoring the whackos, or arguing
with them when it suits me.

Whatever floats your boat.

This NG without a Michael Petukhov? No GWB nuking Iraq
with DU? No Confederate naval blockade of the North?

Just wouldn't be the same!

You say it as if that would be a bad thing;-) The biggest advantage to me of the
deja/google groups other than its accessibility is the archive search ability. It's the
closest thing in cyberspace to a permanent record, one that the average person can actually
use to find what they're looking for without having to winnow ALL the chaff.

Guy