Hi, all. The Parkinsn list was indeed locked yesterday and today until
Ivan phoned and told me about the problem. I had been away all yesterday
and didn't check my email at all until after Ivan's phone call. There is
a limit to the number of messages permitted to be posted to the list in a
24 hour period (to prevent someone from bombarding the list). When this
quota has been reached, the listserver program locks the list and sends
me a message to 'free' the list. There were 41 messages in the queue to
be distributed when I freed it.
A few suggestions: Do not feel you have to respond to each and every
message posted to the list. If there are two or three that you would
like to respond to, perhaps you could combine them (and combine the
subject lines) into one message. That would reduce the number of messages
but not the volume of information.
RE: Harrassment by email. As I understand it, the internet is not above
the law in any country. People who distribute child pornography via the
internet are arrested & imprisoned the same as they would be if they were
peddling it in some back alley. Harrassment and stalking are crimes
whether on the internet or on the telephone or in person. Report them.
Let your service provider know; let the stalker's service provider know;
let the police know...I believe that it's a federal offence so in Canada
notify the RCMP...in the United States notify the FBI and in other
countries, notify your federal police agency. We are NOT the wild, wild
west of two centuries ago. If anything, I would rather compare us to
'Star Trek'...we are going where no one has gone before...and we're not
going to let the bullies win.
This list consists of around 2000 individual adults (not all of whom are
active participants). That means there are at least that number of
opinions about the purpose of the list (maybe we should double that for
when we are 'off' and when we are 'on'). My purpose in starting the list
was encompassed in the name of the list: Parkinson's Information
Exchange. If it's about any aspect of living or working with Parkinson's
either as a patient (I hate that word!) or as a caregiver, it fits the
definition. Humor is definitely part of living with Parkinson's.
Availability and cost of treatments are part of living with PD. Sexuality
is definitely part of living with PD. Emotions are also part of living
with PD. So, that means there's a wide variety of topics that are well
within the original goal of the list.
One of the very few things that are NOT acceptable is insulting another
list member. You may not agree with him/her & that is acceptable. You
may not not like him/her & that is acceptable. However, you may NOT use
this list to post juvenile insults about another member. If you are
angry at what another member said, deal with it as you would as an adult if
you were face to face..not by using the list as graffiti on a bathroom
wall. Sorry for ranting, but that kind of bullying really gets to me.
We're all in the same boat, folks; we're on the same team; we're battling
the same enemy; let's do it together each in our own way.
Barb
Home: 905-627-1832
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Barbara Patterson [log in to unmask]
HSC 2J22 905-525-9140, ext. 22403
School of Nursing
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