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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Ereskanti@***.com Ereskanti@***.com
Subject: The ShadowRN Mailing List
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 15:30:59 EDT
Okay, I'm not official. I'm not Gridsec, Admin, or anything else. But
something has to be said here.

ATTENTION ALL LIST MEMBERS!!!

Breathe a bit. The list is bigger than it has ever been (at least, to my
knowledge). It has a lot of people from a LOT of different places and is now
100% global in its' reach. It *IS* influential and it *DOES* have a
reputation. Like it or not, it is an "Internet Community", and occasionally
that means new members "move in to the community". We should do our best to
try and make their integration into the community good for everyone involved.

Do I think this means that people should come onto the list and immediately
starting inflaming things? No. Do I think this should take precedence over
the feelings, respects, or considerations of members? No.

I've been burning hours of time cross-referencing and lying through my teeth
to some operators and business people. I have found that some people are
coming onto the list are actually people whom have been on the list before in
a different name, and are not acting the same. Hell, last year I did it just
to see if something MC23 had told me was correct. He was right. And, for
those people who know MC23 and I's "reputation", you know that it is one
where we rarely, if ever, get along.

Folks, tension on the list, and in many other places, has been incredibly
high lately. Frank mentioned in a reply to Manx about the concept of
"Elitism". He was very right. And Manx was also right, no one should
blindly come onto a list such as this one and immediately start venting at
speed or with vehemence.

Bull (Steve R.) is an expressive kind of guy. I do like him, and I do
respect his opinions and his rights. And althought I don't agree with "the
other guy" (who's name I just can't remember ATM, sorry), I do think the guy
has the right to his opinion.

Look, we are all human. As the size and scale of a community, any human
community, gets larger, it gets more chaotic and even expresses dissonance.
But this tension is just lasting too long. I asked Dvixen a general opinion
concerning the tension and the list, how it was just *NOT* going down, and
she did agree. This is too much IMO folks. I'm not saying, in any way shape
or form, that I am better than anyone. But I am saying that we should all
take a look at what it is we are "saying" to each other. We all share a
hobby. We all play a game called "Shadowrun". Do we all play it the same
way? Hell NO! But we all play the game because we like the many facets of
Shadowrun as a gaming universe (I occasionally call it "Cosmology" on purpose
now). Not all of those facets are part of the same game group, BUT they are
part of the same overall Game. Perspective lends itself across the board.
This is no exception to the rule that I am aware of at least. It bends us
and decides for us how we are going to react to something, to anything and
everything in fact.

Mark F. recently made a request for "starting up a gun topic" or something.
Okay, his request, not mine. I don't often "do" that topic. I do like the
"Poison Ivy" thread however, and some ideas coming from that are really cool
and could help make for some good, future, material for the GAME!.

Do I consider myself an old timer? Not a chance!!!! Getting old means to me
becoming a "fuddy duddy" and "boring donothing". I plan on gaming
until my
retirement if I can get away with it ;-).

Do I consider myself a fan of FASA? In truth, not really. Of Shadowrun,
yes, most certainly, but not all of FASA as a company. I simply don't know
everything about FASA that there is too know. Do I know some of the
writers/developers? Yes. Do I know some of them on a personable, first name
basis. Yes. And the whole reason I do so is because I and they have
something common.

We play Shadowrun and We enjoy Shadowrun.

That is ultimately what this List is about, and I am requesting that
everybody remembers this simple fact/truth (one and the same here guys). Do
we enjoy the same edition of SR? No, obviously not. Do we agree with the
line developers and the other contributors? No, obviously not. Do we agree
that Shadowrun as a game has a lot of potential and lets us have some fun
while "kicking some serious ass?"

I once thought Obviously Yes. But what I've seen of late, I don't know.

-K (who has discovered that without a .Sig, this 'letter' has become
something more than *I* as a person am myself alone)
Message no. 2
From: Wildfire Wildfire@*************.com
Subject: The ShadowRN Mailing List
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 15:57:02 -0400
Ereskanti@***.com wrote:

<snip the whole letter>

Thanks, K. After the posts as of late, I was seriously thinking of
unsubscribing myself from this list. Your post gives me a little hope that if I
stick around, things might get better. I'm at the other end of the spectrum of
SR players. I started with SR2, haven't gotten a copy of SR3 yet, have never
played or GMed a FASA written adventure, and have no hopes of attending a gaming
con or meeting official FASA people in the forseeable future.

That doesn't mean I dont like to discuss and learn things on this list.
Personally I love the Plant discussion, and was bored to tears with the recent
gun discussion, but by the number of posts, people are interested in that, too.
I can honestly say that everything I know about IEs, Horrors, FASA Adventures,
SR3, MitS, and countless other things is what has been posted on the list.

I'd be great if the majority of discussions could just be about new stuff and
rules of the game. Yeah, they'll be disagreements, and yeah they'll be
discussions that people don't like, but it doesn't have to be what it seems to
become as of late, where by looking at the title of the post I can delete 75% of
all the messages I get because I don't want to read somebody
whining/ranting/cursing/accusing/being holier-than thou/etc to somebody else.

FWIW, I think people should post what they want to know about, even if its
already been said lots of times. So the older people see the same things again,
while the new people see it for the first time. Same thing happens if you sit on
a merry-go-round long enough.

Well, whatever. Just the 2• of a random lurker/poster...

Wildfire
Message no. 3
From: Bob Cauthron Wulfheim@********.att.net
Subject: The ShadowRN Mailing List
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 21:30:03 -0600
Ereskanti and Wildfire: well done posts there. From me at least, thanks
for doing so.
I am fairly new to the list, and primarily a lurker, as I am learning
the latest edition of sr. Lately I find myself automatically deleting most
of the posts to the list for various reasons. Unsubscribing is an option,
not out any strong personal reasons, just that I do not need to be on a list
where such things occur. There are many fine postings to this list, but they
seem to be lost in the maelstrom that has been here recently.
Mayhap this will pass quickly. Here's hoping. ;o)

Wulf

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These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!