ES - Warnings on the Elfsea List

[Paul Mitchell]

Galen here!

Sharon R. Saroff recently said:

>At 10:25 AM 2/3/99 -0600, you wrote:
>>  Friends, 
>>   I got rid of 
>>the headers because the message had been forwarded a few times. 
>>Ly Elizabeth Hawkwood  Aspartame - The Silent Killer   I have spent several
>
>
>I am going to speak to this only briefly.  There is a lot of good
>information on the Internet for those of you interested in pursuing this
>further.  
>
>When aspartame first came out my endochrinologist told not to consume it
>under any circumstances.  When I was pregnant with Natalie my OB told me
>the same thing.  There are studies that are coming out noting a
>relationship between the consumption of large quantities of this sweetener
>and brain tumors in humans.  THey are still looking at its affect on
>pregnant women and their unborn children.  Actually aspartame is on the
>questionable list when you're pregnant.  One has to wonder sometimes why
>the FDA is so quick to approve things like this without fully studying
>their effects.
>
>Sindara
> 

And Brenda L Chan recently said:

>>This sort of e-mail is the 90's successor to junkmail chain letters.
>>It's part of the fear industry, and I don't appreciate finding it in
>>my e-mail.
>>
>>Besides, I don't want this list to become a forum for warnings about
>>the dangers of caffeine, italian food, alcohol, tobacco, marajuana,
>>Chevy trucks, fast food, Firestone tires, computer viruses, stupid 
>>legislation or whatever else one of us has become upset about.
>>
>>Thanks!
>>
>>- Galen
>>List Administrator
>
>Ouch......
>Well I don't know Galen..........
>My Kung Fu Teacher has his very own PhD and is a MASTER of the Human Body
>in and out of motion.............
>I was warned of this product and I was told/ordered.......not to use it
>because of the problems with the interference with the
>body............and timing.......
>This one..........well.........for all it's worth.........
>I won't be toasting you on the list field with Diet anything in hand in
>the month of JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    For all it's worth and with due
>respect........
>You can get me for this when you see me............but of course you'll
>have to catch me first...........
>
>bree~

Please allow me to apologize.  I am sorry.  I obviously have failed
to make myself clear.  It was not my intention with my previous post
to wholly rebut the assertions Elizabeth had posted.  I did intend
to point out that those assertions are not matters of settled fact,
which they are not.

But my true purpose, in which I failed, was to make clear that the
merits or dangers of Nutrasweet are not a suitable topic for this
mailing list.

For instance, if I were to reply to the above-quoted posts, I 
would have to point out that in addition to all the good 
information, there is also a very great deal of bad "information" 
on the internet, and then I'd have to take us even farther afield, 
by asserting to Sindara that the reason "why the FDA is so quick 
to approve things like this without fully studying their effects" 
is that they are a government bureacracy, and are therefore not 
to be trusted with your health and well-being, much less that of 
your child.  And I'd have to ask Bree in what discipline her Kung 
Fu teacher earned his Ph.D., what was the topic of his dissertation, 
and what studies he has done or read on the effects of Aspertame, 
because I simply am not impressed by the logical device called 
the "appeal to authority" when the "authority" is a somebody's 
Kung Fu teacher, said to have a Ph.D. in an unspecified field.  
(I'd also have to invite her to fighter practice to console my 
defeated opponents with the fact that it could be worse, I could 
give up my Diet Pepsi.)

Now, of the 105 people on this list, how many are really interested
to get advice second-hand from Sindara's endochrinologist, or to hear 
me rail against big government, or read the cirriculum vitae of Bree's 
kung fu master?  (Or read my boasts of fighting prowess?)  That's a 
rhetorical question, so don't post your answer; I'm making a ruling here.

The rule here (and if it's a new rule, so be it), is not to post
things that are _intended_ to be alarming.  That's part of why
no virus warnings have _ever_ been allowed on this list (the
other part is that virus warnings are almost universally bogus).
We don't bring such topics up at moot, do we?

The latest chicken little food alarm (and in the case of aspertame,
not "latest" at all, I've been hearing it since my ex was pregnant
with my 10-year-old), or somebody's legislative alert, or bogus
virus warnings, are all intended to make people upset, usually without
presenting all the information.  Don't get me wrong, I'm all for
getting upset and running off in all directions; I just don't
want the Elfsea list to be the forum of choice for that, because
soon all other commerce will be drowned out.  And I happen to think
that linking 105 people the way this list does is a useful tool,
one that has come in handy for this barony on one or two occasions,
like when we put together an entire heraldy collegium in just a 
couple of days without holding a single meeting.  We can't do
that sort of thing if people are deleting 90% of their list traffic
unread because we're warning each other about life.

So we won't.

Now, for those unclear about just who I am to be making these
"rulings" about what you can and can't post, let me make that
clear as well.  I am the List Administrator.  I started this
list, and I administer it.  I made the rules for it, and I
run it.  I have the command passwords that allow me to sign-up
and remove people from the list.  This is not a democracy.
It is a wholly voluntary association, sponsored by Ansteorra.org,
which is a privately-owned server which donates some of its
resources to various SCA branches and members.  If I seem
heavy-handed, it's because I don't want to see the Elfsea
list go the way of the Ansteorra list, with it's incredibly
high traffic and appallingly low content, including e-mail
snowball fights, chattering about trivia between pairs who
can't be bothered to type personal e-mail addresses, and 
warnings like (and including) the aspertame warning we saw
yesterday.

So we don't need to see any more postings about aspertame,
or other such food, drug, computer virus, or political
alerts.  I will cheerfully discuss this issue with anyone
via private e-mail, at any of the addresses below:
<paul_mitchell at filemaker.com>
<pmitchel at flash.net>
<20thYear at Ansteorra.org>
Or you can talk to me in person.

I do apologize if the tone of this note comes off as
less than friendly, as I do not wish to be less than
friends with any of you; but as you can see, I feel 
strongly about this.

Thanks,

- Galen
ListAdmin
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