[il-talk] The In's and Out's of Il-Talk

[Robert Gardner]

Hi Everyone

This is Bob Gardner, your friendly Il-Talk moderator, the one who’s supposed to ride herd on you guys.  

The question has come up – again – about what is right or wrong to post on Il-Talk.  There are no overriding guidelines given from above on what should be on our list serve, so here’s what I’ve established over the years:  

*  posts should be blindness related.  Don’t send in posts about your pets or your favorite recipes.  
* no religious or political discussion, which usually ends up in what more accurately could be described as argument.  Find another outlet for your personal views in these areas.  
* no personal attacks of others on the list, or strident attacks on their views.  

That’ about it.  And of course, trying to keep everybody happy about what’s on Il-Talk is an impossible task.  Some would like nothing more than posts about NFBI meetings, resulting in a list serve with half a dozen posts in a month.  Others like to be chatty, and enjoy exchanging info with each other on what’s happening in their lives.  When it comes to health issues, or accomplishments, we have a long history of letting those posts go unchallenged.  Our list serve does a good job of putting “family” in Federationist Family.  

We recently had a brief debate about several articles posted to the list serve concerning riding on the bus by blind people.  I thought the little discussion was good, and maybe got our blood flowing here on January 1, recovery day.  

Just stay loose, people.  Remember, you can’t tailor Il-Talk to meet your own self-centered idea of what it should be.  Be tolerant, be kind, and live long.  

Bob