I occasionally get a bit mystified by how some of you end up in NCN. Now,
most of you seem to be happy to be here, and I get much positive feedback
from you. But I also sometimes get terse messages from people I haven't
been in touch with before, just saying something like "UNSUBSCRIBE". I will
then usually write back and inquire what it is the person wants to
unsubscribe from, if he/she is tired of NCN or simply is overloaded with
e-mail messages for the time being, or is changing e-mail addresses, or
something like that. And usually that gets clarified. But just as often I
get back another terse, but more irritated message saying something like "I
SAID UNSUBSCRIBE, DIDN'T I?!!!"
Now, everybody's of course free to be here or not be here as you choose,
and that really isn't any problem either way. But I guess I my feelings are
a slight bit hurt when I notice that somebody is just regarding NCN as some
irritating anonymous mailing list out there that is invading their space
unasked for.
I suppose that the newness of the Internet, and the ways this medium is
different from other ways of communicating has something to do with it.
Some people seem to end up here without remembering how, without knowing
what this is, and without quite realizing that we're all real live and
caring people.
Most recently, today I got an angry letter from a member who held me
responsible for all the spams (junk e-mail) he was getting in his inbox,
accusing me of selling the NCN member list to junk e-mailers, and otherwise
burdening him with a limitless stream of unwanted e-mail messages. In case
you are in doubt, I would never dream of selling this list of addresses to
anybody. Somebody who signs up as a member could potentially type in all
the addresses in some junk e-mail program, but I find that somewhat
unlikely, and certainly not something I would in any way condone.
So, for those of you who are getting this message and you don't know why,
let me explain:
You at some point signed up as a member of the New Civilization Network,
most likely by filling in information about yourself in a web page and
asking to become a member.
As part of NCN you automatically get messages from the ncnmain-l mailing
list. You can probably recognize these messages in them having
"ncnmain-l@newciv.org" in the TO field, but some e-mail programs are more
cryptic about it and don't make it quite clear. The messages on this list
go out to the close to 800 people who are members. The attempt is to keep
the traffic on this list relatively low and of high quality.
If you don't want to be part of something like that at all, if you thought
you signed up for something entirely different, just send me an e-mail
message and I will remove you from the list. If you've forgotten what NCN
is about, refresh your memory on the web pages at
http://www.worldtrans.org/newcivnet.html
If the volume of messages on this particular list is too much for you, but
you still think NCN sounds like a good thing, you're welcome to ask to
temporarily get off this list, but remain in the member directory, to be
available for networking with other members. You can then check messages
through the on-line "Member Lounge" area when you feel like it.
The New Civilization Network has nothing to sell, nothing to push on you,
and no agenda you have to adopt. A few individuals provide the facilities
of NCN as a service because they think it is worthwhile. And a lot of
people seem to enjoy hanging out in some of the different spaces of NCN, or
just to receive some hopeful and constructive news once in a while.
To all of you: I'm glad you're here. I'm even more glad if you consciously
choose to be here and NCN is somehow helpful to you.
- Flemming
o o
/ \------------------ Flemming A. Funch ------------------/ \
/ * \ World Transformation/New Civilization/Whole Systems / * \
/ * * \ ffunch@newciv.org / * * \
o-------o----------- http://www.worldtrans.org/ ----------o-------o
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Dec 07 2000 - 23:22:11 PST