john_SPAM{at}wilkins.id.au (John Wilkins) wrote in
news:ccei6h$mj6$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org: 

> This will be my final post to sbe. I am sure you are all relieved. I
> shall not reply to philosophical claims made with philosophical
> questions. After this post, I shall unsubscribe to the group, so any
> replies you want a response to will need to be cc'd to me.

I cannot begin to say how sad, and angry, this makes me.

>From time to time I take measures to "steer" threads, and even to call 
an end to them, despite the fact that this is technically beyond the 
purview of my powers as given in the newsgroup charter. This is 
potentially a slippery slope, however, and I have been loath to moderate 
based on the tone of an article -- people here certainly post 
irritatingly sneering, facile, twaddle, and so long as it's "on topic" I 
feel my hands are tied. 

This is the result -- useful, helpful, trained people throw up their 
hands and depart, leaving us largely in the hands of interested amateurs 
and tyros. Is this what we want? Are we better off without Wilkins? Of 
course not.

Consider, then, not only what you say, but how you say it. Civility, 
rather than catcalls. No brickbats, no bloviating. Give it a try.

-Josh
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