[Reader-list] A REMINDER: How to tackle spam on the reader list

[Iram Ghufran]

Dear S. Fatima,

As Vivek very clearly stated, his email is written only as a list member 
and not as a representative of the Sarai Programme.
He is entitled to his opinion but they necessarily do not reflect 
Sarai's position on any issue.
Lets keep in mind that Vivek is a member of the list and not the list 
administrator.

Best regards
Iram


S.Fatima wrote:
> Dear Vivek
> I don't want to mock your message, and although I too
> get very irritated with the kind of mails you're
> talking about, but I feel that your message reflects a
> rather elitist attitude of Sarai.
>
> We are treating Sarai as a kind of Pukka sahib's club
> where those not wearing shoes and tie are by law not
> allowed. At the same time we are magnanimus enough to
> not impose that law. If someone enters without shoes
> and tie, we let him come, we make a noise about it,
> but don't throw the person out. We apply filters to
> avoid looking at them, and sarcastically call them
> "bullshit". To me that sounds like hypocracy. I would
> rather have that person not enter the club at all than
> allow him in and call him names.
>
> If the reader-list is used for "a very high and
> nuanced level of discussion", then let us allow only
> those who are interested in maintaining the decorum.
> If you allow anybody and everybody to subscribe and
> post, then it is like a street. And on the street you
> are likely to meet all sorts of people, and cannot
> tell somebody to keep off the street.
>
> The reality is that the noisy street exists outside
> our club, and is full of sights and sounds that we do
> not wish to see/hear. We want to quitely sit and talk
> about those sights and sounds in the club. How long
> can we ignore the reality.
>
> S.F.
>  
>
> --- Vivek Narayanan <vivek at sarai.net> wrote:
>
>   
>> Dear readers of the reader list,
>>
>> Please note, first of all, that I speak as an
>> individual and not as a 
>> member of any organisation.
>>
>> As many of you know, there have recently been many
>> attempts to hijack 
>> and dumb down the discourse of the reader list. This
>> has been done by a 
>> small palmful of individuals ---- some of whom post
>> as many as five 
>> times a day, with comments that are, by turns,
>> inane, shallow, offensive 
>> or agressive.  These individuals may have a right to
>> their right-wing 
>> politics, although they are far from representative
>> of our 1000+ mostly 
>> quiet or pertinent members.  However, it has become
>> very clear to me, at 
>> least, that this small group of hijackers with
>> knives is not interested 
>> in nuanced or complex debate, merely in sloganeering
>> and various forms 
>> of aggression and sabotage. 
>>
>> This upsets me, since the reader-list is normally
>> used to a very high 
>> and nuanced level of discussion, as evidenced in the
>> patient, detailed 
>> and endlessly fascinating postings of independent
>> research fellows, 
>> whether formally funded by Sarai or not, or in the
>> recent exchange of 
>> different views that began with Yousuf Saeed and
>> Sadan Jha.  That was a 
>> discussion where the answers were not necessarily
>> clear, and where the 
>> discussants weren't merely interested in beating
>> down their opponents' 
>> views with a concerted barrage of emails.   It was
>> the kind of 
>> discussion where people think carefully before they
>> write.
>>
>> This new phenomenon of windbags and Hindu terrorists
>> hijacking the 
>> reader list not only upsets me, but it also bores
>> me.  And it seriously 
>> clutters up my inbox.  I have a feeling that many on
>> this list feel the 
>> same, and that the recent upsurge has simply meant
>> that people 
>> eventually do not read any mail from the list,
>> missing the good stuff. 
>>
>> At the same time, deep in the spirit of the reader
>> list is the idea is 
>> that no one should be excluded from membership or
>> from posting.  I 
>> understand, and stand by that.
>>
>> Those who wish to continue receiving postings from
>> the saboteurs are, of 
>> course, welcome to do so.  And to respond to them,
>> too.  I however, am 
>> no longer interested in reading mails from some
>> individuals whose 
>> postings I don't find productive or instructional.
>> Even if there is much 
>> mail on the reader list that I do want to read.
>>
>> I would like to remind all of you who feel the same
>> way that there is a 
>> very simple solution for individuals who would like
>> to declutter their 
>> inbox from some of the unnecessary emails that drown
>> out the valuable 
>> voices of the reader list.
>>
>> The solution is: you can use the message filters in
>> your email client to 
>> block email from certain senders, filtering by name.
>>  This means that 
>> any emails from a certain name will be filtered. 
>> Check your help files 
>> on how to do this.
>>
>> In Gmail, click on  "create a filter", next to the
>> search bar at the top.
>>
>> In Yahoo, click on options --> filters
>>
>> In Thunderbird, simply right-click on the email id
>> at the top of the 
>> message and click on "create filter from this
>> message".
>>
>> If anyone else wants to give a quick tutorial on how
>> to use filters on 
>> other mail programs, please do so as part of this
>> thread.
>>
>> You can set it up so that messages from all the
>> people you don't wish to 
>> read or spend time deleting go straight into your
>> "trash" folder; or you 
>> can create a new folder--called "bullshit", for
>> instance-- and have 
>> those messages alone go directly into that folder.
>>
>> No doubt the aggressors will try to respond to this
>> message by sending 
>> one or twenty abusive emails.  Unfortunately, I will
>> not be replying to 
>> these messages because I won't see them.  They will
>> be in my "bullshit" 
>> folder.  Why not make your reader list experience
>> simpler and less 
>> cluttered in this way?
>>
>> And now-- I'm off to read Partha's reply to the
>> complex, ongoing thread 
>> started by Yousuf Saeed in response to the Hindustan
>> Times' article on 
>> "The New Muslim".  Not to mention important recent
>> research postings by 
>> Jenny Chitra, Zubin Pastakia, Harilal Madhavan,
>> Raman Chima, and many, 
>> many others.
>>
>> With regards,
>> Vivek
>>
>>