Date: Mon, 16 Sep 1996 10:46:21 -0400

From: Jesse T Sheidlower jester[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]PANIX.COM

Subject: Re: Beware the flood....



Danny Long is exactly right. I too am amazed by some of the postings to

the list. However, since many of us are educators, and since we all care

about language, shouldn't we think of this "flood" as an opportunity to

create a forum in which we can distribute good information about language

to the cyber-public?



There already is a forum for this: the Usenet newsgroup alt.usage.english,

which gets a very high volume of postings (100-200 per day) on assorted

questions of English. Though there are a number of knowledgable people

who respond to these postings (some of whom are also members of ADS-L),

the overall quality is rather low.



I have always assumed that the purpose of ADS-L was to allow professional

or otherwise serious scholars of English an opportunity to communicate.

Its value for this purpose would be greatly reduced if it became an

public arena for the posting of any sort of language question.



Jesse Sheidlower

Random House Reference

jester[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]panix.com