Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lewis Reich" <lewreich AT javanet.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Eric Rasmusen <erasmuse AT indiana.edu>
To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 11:20 PM
Subject: Re:flames and purpose-of-the-list disputes


>    Biblical Hebrew  is a subject that (a) it's
> easy to get into interpretive arguments about,
> and (b) it's important to talk about with people
> of radically different beliefs.  This means
> posting on this list requires considerable
> delicacy.  Most of the  disputatious postings
> I've seen in the past few months have been
> legitimate in substance but wrong in phrasing
> and in not adapting a scholarly tone of
>   "Given my Assumption X, which you of course
> might not share, here is how this word ought to
> be intepreted."

An excellent suggested formula for respectful disagreement!


>  Perhaps it would be useful for the listmaster
> to send every new subscriber a memo on
> netiquette as it applies to this particular
> list,

In fact the list moderators are presently discussing the mechanics of
ensuring that new subscribers receive a copy of the list guidelines and the
list staff's e-mail addresses.


> with lots of examples of good and bad
> posts, and examples of how a bad post could have
> been rewritten to become a good post. Such a
> memo would take considerable work to write,
> though. Perhaps the listmaster, if interested,
> could solicit off-list examples from those of us
> on the list, and use that material? (Or perhaps
> someone would volunteer, off-list,  to do this.
> But we don't want such proposed  examples to be
> posted on the list itself, since that would just
> increase the frivolity.

That would indeed involve a great deal of work.  However, if any listmembers
have samples that would be useful, please forward them to me and I will
share it with the other members of the list staff.  If we receive enough
appropriately useful and instructive material, we could include it either in
the welcome message or as part of the list site.

Thanks Eric, for your thoughtful suggestions!

Lewis Reich
B-Hebrew List Staff