[MD] Changes in 2011

[John Carl]

Dan and all,

Dan:
>
> Yes it is noise, John. That is precisely the problem, and one that
> keeps me (and I imagine a lot of others) from posting more often.
> Maybe you like wading through post after post of one-liners and a
> constant barrage of u-tube nonsense, but I simply don't have the time.
>
>
John:

Well I still don't quite understand, but I guess I'll just have to take your
word for it.  I mean, haven't you people ever heard of skimming?

Me personally, I have a hard time communicating with groups of people.
Every single person has their own unique viewpoint and vocabulary so when
speaking to more than one person, you have to find that which is common to
both.

I certainly don't think everyone here is an idiot. Otherwise I
> wouldn't have hung around as long as I have. I do however think there
> are those here who could do better. And that bothers me. I see certain
> contributors who are actively seeking to better themselves, and it
> seems they are attacked and ridiculed over and over by those seeking
> some sort of weird status quo.
>
> Think about it, indeed.
>
>
John:

Such generalities as you offer here go completely over my head.  I have NO
idea who or what you are talking about and I find the whole idea of
criticising the contributions of others completely ridiculous anyway.  Here,
let me illustrate what I mean:

What I'd like to see in MD is really good writing and really good thinking.
The kind of greatness that we experience in the best books and the best
writers.  Right?

Well... duh.  Obviously we all want is to experience fantastic linguistic
formulations of everlasting wisdom and beauty but instead we're stuck with
each other.  People who are really, really great writers and thinkers are
uncommon and they have a lot more useful things to do with their time than
communicate with plebians like you and me, so it's just silly to criticize
anyone for falling short of the lofty standards of high quality we all have
in our heads.   I posted once a while back that if you want to find people
of Quality, then you probably should look elsewhere than a forum of people
seeking people of Quality.  People of Quality are not seeking Quality.  Why
should they?  They've already got it.  Therefore, the only people you'll
find seeking Quality are those that don't have it.

Think about it, indeed.

In the meantime, there is absolutely no way to mandate Quality.  You can't
say "you should say this" or "you should say that".  If one knew which words
were the right ones, then one would simply say them.  It's a process, a
working out.  An exploration and an attempt.  Any critique that asserts "you
should write better" is both obviously true and useless at the same time.
If you seriously think this list would improve greatly with a diminishment
of "noise" then I suggest you shut off your computer and stare at the blank
screen for a few months and see how great that seems.

Take care,

John