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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0760  Friday, 9 November 2007

From:         Hardy M. Cook <editor@shaksper.net>
Date:         Friday, November 09, 2007
Subject:     Explanation: Missing Submissions

On occasion, I receive a query from a member who has made a submission 
to SHAKSPER but who has not seen that submission posted to the membership.

By way of possible explanation, the inbox for my editor@shaksper.net 
account is the place where all submissions to SHAKSPER end up before I 
edit them into digests to distribute to the list members.

For many reasons, high among them that SHAKSPER has been around for 
eighteen years, my editor account receives on average 1,000 SPAM or 
administrative messages per day. I try to delete these messages as 
rapidly and as efficiently as I can, striving nonetheless not to 
inadvertently delete a legitimate message to the list or to me. However, 
with such a large number of messages to wade through every day, I 
obviously make mistakes and inadvertently delete some legitimate messages.

Another explanation for my possibly missing a submission for the list 
involves the new procedures Eric and I initiated so that listserv does 
not distribute SPAMs to members of the list. These procedures create an 
additional step for me, confirming the validity of a submission to the 
list once I have sent it for distribution. I have on some occasions sent 
a digest for distribution but not confirmed that message, resulting in 
that digest that I thought I had been distributed not actually being 
sent out to members.

A third, but rare, explanation for why I submission might not get posted 
to the membership is that I have simply ignored that submission without 
writing to the submitter to explain my reasons. My ignoring a submission 
rarely happens; and when it does the reason is most likely that I have 
found the submission either too offensive even for me to distribute or 
that I have corresponded with the submitter on numerous occasions in the 
past to explain my reasoning only to discover myself in a conversational 
loop with the submitter, a loop of e-mail exchanges in which I explain 
and the submitter responds because he or she either does not understand 
my position or will not accept my decision. My years of 
editing/moderating this list have taught me the dangers of trying "to 
fight" with a tar baby and taught me that some persons are so convinced 
of the "rightness," the "correctness," the TRUTH of their 
interpretation/theory/position that the generally accepted methods of 
academic discourse or evidence or, for that matter, facts cannot sway 
them to deviate or accept that others, perhaps less enlightened than 
they, might not agree with what is so obviously clear to them.

In any case, should you not see a message you have submitted to the 
list, you should resend that message, indicating in the Subject Line 
that what you are sending is a RESUBMISSION. Please don't write me to 
explain why I did not post your submission; just resend it. If I have 
made a mistake and overlooked your submission the first time, I will 
distribute it with my next series of digests for the list. If, on the 
other hand, I have ignored your submission the first time, the chances 
are very good that I will ignore it again. If you cannot figure out why 
I might have rejected your post, you may write me to ask, but again 
please don't assume that I will write back automatically. My time is 
very precious now.

Hardy M. Cook
Editor of SHAKSPER


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S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, editor@shaksper.net
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>

DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the 
opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the 
editor assumes no responsibility for them.

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