[pf] Back on list

by Kaleopono

15 December 2000 20:17 UTC

Aloha, everybody.  Yesterday I bit the bullet and devoted an hour or so to
try to track down why I wasn't receiving Positive Futures messages.
Checking my deleted items folder, I found that the last message received was
on December 7, early in the morning.  I went to the Topica website and found
that I was still registered as a Topica user.  And I was able to read
Positive Futures messages at the website...but boy, was it a SLOW process!
Finally, I determined that none of the posts I had submitted from December 8
through yesterday, the 14th, were posted to the list.  These posts were
mostly forwards of news clips similar to those I have usually sent in the
past, some with brief comments, but there was also a piece on brainwashing
that took some time to write.

I want feedback from the rest of you.  Should I repost the stuff I sent that
didn't get through?  Or just forget about it?

Also at the Topica website, I checked my registration as a participant in
the Positive Futures list.  There are three required fields highlighted in
red:  the first two were complete, but the third, my name, was not.  I tried
to enter my name, but this generated an internal server error at
Topica...their computer wouldn't accept it.  Only as I was backing out to
the main menu did the exclamatory error message appear that my user account
had been disabled by the list manager!

Well, I contacted the list manager, Tom Gray, who asserts vociferously that
he did not freeze me out.  The change was unilaterally Topica's.  This is
the first time this has happened to me but I recall that other Positive
Futures list members have been frozen out with no warning in the past.  I
have asked Topica tech support to get to the bottom of this and do whatever
is necessary to make certain that no list member is ever again dropped
without warning and without consent.

Perhaps they will willingly do this immediately.  But perhaps not.  Is this
a concern to you as a Positive Futures list member...a matter of principle,
equity and justice (and also simply tightening up on careless business
practices)?  Do you feel like I do that this recurring problem which is so
time-consuming to correct is inexcusable?

Kaleopono