[stylist] Off-Topic Discussions

Wed Jun 8 19:33:14 UTC 2011

Hi Jacqueline,
You raise an interesting question. I know that the stylist posts are kept
online, but I don't know if they are available for public perusal. I
certainly hope not. Anyway, I would submit that posting something to this
forum is equivalent to e-mailing your work to a friend or sharing your work
with a local writers group, which are not considered publishing as far as I
know. If this is not how the industry views it, I personally would like to
go on a campaign to enlighten them. Many of us are not involved in local
writers groups because of transportation issues or because we aren't
comfortable reading our work aloud. This group is an adaptation which allows
blind and visually impaired writers the opportunity to share their work with
fellow writers and seek criticism and suggestions -- which is what the
industry advises all writers to do.

It must be said, however, that posting your work online, as opposed to
e-mailing to a list which is a subsidiary of a nonprofit developed to
promote the rights and well-being of blind people, is an entirely different
matter. Articles I publish on sites like Suite 101 have to comply with their
guidelines; in this case they must not have been published elsewhere. Some
sites and publications (Readers Digest, for instance) take previously
published works, so that's another matter.

Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jacqueline Williams
Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 1:05 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] Off-Topic Discussions

Donna,
Thank you, but no apology necessary. I am a learner about procedure.
I am glad that I did comment on your story chapter. If I do not critique or
comment on everybody's work it is because there are so many e-mails that
there is not enough time to go into depth, and I do not just like to say,
"Wonderful" without saying why it is.
A question for you and everyone: I have been told that when you put a poem
on the internet, it is considered as being published, and you should not
then be sent to a contest. This seems a severe restriction when wanting
serious comment from fellow writers. 
How do the rest of you deal with this problem. I assume that everyone would
like to be published but still want to share their efforts short of
publication.
This is in your e-mail, Donna, because you seem to be very knowledgeable
about writing issues. It takes awhile to put together e-mails with names
when remembering all the content.
Thanks for your help.
Jacqueline Williams 

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Donna Hill
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 2:59 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] Off-Topic Discussions

Jacqueline,
My apologies to you as well. I did not intend to start a discussion, merely
to impart blindness related information. 
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jacqueline Williams
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 1:30 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] Off-Topic Discussions

Neil,
I agree with you. Just from a practical standpoint, my e-mails are almost
hopeless to keep up with even when dealing with writing. And that is what I
want and need.
If a person wants to comment on food politics, then a suggestion might be to
put it in a poem or another publishing form. Then it can be legitimately
critiqued without getting into our own views as an argument.
Jacqueline Williams

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Neil Butters
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 8:57 AM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] Off-Topic Discussions

Hello,

I would like to address the use of this mailing list for off-topic
discussions, such as the recent NYC Blind Vendors postings and other
non-writing related topics.

Shouldn't this list be restricted to writing topics only? I'm getting a
little bit tired of being flooded with off-topic back-and-forths, political
commentary, arguments and the like that belong elsewhere. Does anyone else
feel the same way? Shouldn't these posts be discouraged, or am I missing the
point of this list.?

One way we could deal with it, if people want such off-topic diatribe to
continue, would be to include the "Off-topic" designation in the subject to
tell readers that the post has nothing to do with writing. This doesn't
really solve the "problem," though, since we could still receive many
off-topic messages.

Neil

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