On Mon, 1 Mar 1999 15:33:25 -0500 John Haeussler wrote:
 
> Greetings fellow Hockey-L-ers...
>
> INTRODUCTION
> This is my first post in almost a year.  Frankly, I haven't had anything
> worthwhile to say.  No disrespect intended to current posters, but the
> previous sentence seems to be universally true.  (Raise your hand if
> you remember when Hockey-L was great...)
 
It's nice to have you back, but I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to
say.  I have been a subscriber to this list for four years now, starting as a
lurker and am now a fairly regular contributor ("contributor" is a key word in
this post).
 
The rise in the popularity of our little game combined with the explosion in the
level of and access to technology over the last four years has seen a concurrent
growth in the number of outlets available for providing and receiving
information on the internet.  USCHO provides us with links and data that up
until now were unavailable to the
masses.  And within their web site resides a message board.  Because the message
 
board is so easily accessible, many people make use of it to express their
opinions instead of this list.  That's their business.  Is USCHO's message board
 
a quality outlet?  Not FWIW, but that's my opinion.  If those folks weren't
posting there then many of them would be posting here.  Give me a listserve any
day; I prefer to receive these posts in the form of "pushed" email as opposed to
 
clicking on a web site.
 
Likewise, people come and people go.  They find other interests or don't take
the time to write muses for the world to read, or dare I say it, get a life.
When I
first subscribed to this list four years ago I looked forward to receiving
upwards of 40 emails a day on college hockey (my wife got totally fed up with
me).  A lot of it was pure drivel (like I care what the jackpot was for State
U's 50/50 raffle or how bad traffic was on the way to the game), and a lot of it
 
was great fun.  I honestly wondered whether Mike Machnik had a job.  Mike
single-handedly accounted for 75% of the verbiage that was posted on the list.
He's
an USCHO guy now (although he can be read here today), but I know that he and
several other former posters like John are
reading this now.  Maybe this will shake up some former contributors (there's
that
word again), or get some lurkers out from under the shadows.
 
Do I remember when Hockey-L was great?  It's still great for me.  Sure the
content is down, but does that mean I have received a lower level of information
 
from the net?  Is there no longer a soapbox available to all who wish to have
their say?  The people who post here do so because they enjoy it and are willing
to
CONTRIBUTE to the enterprise.  If this is unsatisfactory to you, then I suppose
you are right, you still do not have anything worthwhile to say.
 
--
Edward N. Moller
Controller
Mount Ida College
Newton Centre, MA  02459-3323
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Tel (617) 928-4515
Fax (617) 928-4746
 
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