I suppose at this point it is a little late to take a moderate position on
this topic, but I'd like to weigh in for the middle.  While I also had to
download the two files (I use Outlook Express on a PC) and was a little
peturbed at the wasted time and breach of a general rule of nettiqutte (if
not breaking, to my knowledge, an actual list rule) I am embarrassed as a
museum professional by the rude post by Mr. Friedman.  Certainly this topic
could have been discussed more constructively and politely. (No matter how
inane Museum-L chatter can get, at times, I always advise people to keep
reading.  It can sometimes let you know just how low discouse in the
profession can get and prepare you to deal with it.)

To Mr McCollum:  I too thought your attachment was excessive, however, Mr.
Freidman does not speak for me. You obviously spent a lot of time compiling
a file that was helpful to some of our fellow professionals. You should be
commended for your leg work and commitment of time and energy to the
profession.  However, I had to tie up my phone line with both files as I
believe others did.  I would suggest in the future posting a small exceprt
or abstract and giving people the option of asking you directly for it.
Then you could send it one at a time or collect the addresses and bulk mail
it at the end of a couple of days or a week.  (I too thought the web idea
was sort of like hunting mosquitos with a bazooka, unless you already have a
web or ftp site)  Many mail programs also have the option (usually listed
under mail actions or in the case of Outlook "in box asistant") which will
automatically send a file if an email comes in with a specific subject line.
I have used this option before and it is very useful.

And Mr. Freidman:  I don't care how long it took me to download Mr.
McCollom's files, I would rather spend 20 minutes on his message than 2
seconds on yours.  Your message was every much a breach of list ettiquette
as Mr. McCollom's, perhaps more and was by far the bigger waste of time and
bandwidth.  I just can't understand why you and others would rather respond
in a rude, unhelpful way than in a politely constructive manner.  If your
goal is to change posting behavior the latter is MUCH more efficient than
the latter.

Just one Matt's plea to keep public, professional discourse on at least a
moderately polite level.

Matthew White
Director of Education
B&O Railroad Museum
901 W. Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21223
410/752-2461

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Friedman <[log in to unmask]>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.museum-l
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Saturday, September 18, 1999 9:54 PM
Subject: Problematic posting


>I was just wondering if anyone else had a problem with a person recently
>posting a message in MIME format, in excess of 700,000 bytes.
>
>Shouldn't internet (and newsgroup) courtesy make it customary to post
>such a huge file to a personal website - and then just post the URL, for
the
>couple of people interested enough to check it out...at their own time and
>speed.
>
>Why such a person would think that this file would be important to anything
>other than a small portion of the 2,000+ group on MUSEUM-L daily- is beyond
>me, and I wonder if the moderator was watching that posting .
>
>I enjoy reading this newsgroup daily, but it angers me when I think of the
>thousands of minutes wasted on that download to all the busy people on this
>list....I just wonder if the Internet as a whole can continue to remain so
>unregulated.
>
>Mark
>
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