How many subscribers does it take... LO21432

Richard Charles Holloway (learnshops@thresholds.com)
Wed, 28 Apr 1999 14:38:36 -0700

Rick...

I got this in today and thought of you (since I suspect you see more of
what this joke tells us than you share with us on the LO list):

Mailing Lists

Q: How many internet mail list subscribers does it take to change a light
bulb?

A: 1,343 -

1 to change the light bulb and to post to the mail list that the light
bulb has been changed;

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light
bulb could have been changed differently;

7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs;

27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light
bulbs;

53 to flame the spell checkers;

41 to correct spelling/grammar flames;

6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb";

another 6 to condemn those 6 as anal-retentive;

156 to write to the list administrator about the light bulb discussion
and its inappropriateness to this mail list;

109 to post that this list is not about light bulbs and to please take
this email exchange to litebulb-l;

203 to demand that cross posting to grammar-l, spelling-l and
illuminati-l about changing light bulbs be stopped;

111 to defend the posting to this list saying that we all use light bulbs
and therefore the posts *are* relevant to this mail list;

306 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to
buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this
technique and what brands are faulty;

27 to post URL's where one can see examples of different light bulbs;

14 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and the post the
corrected URL's;

3 to post about links they found from the URL's that are relevant to this
list which makes light bulbs relevant to this list;

33 to link all posts to date, then quote them including all headers and
footers and then add "Me too";

12 to post to the list that they are unsubscribing because they cannot
handle the light bulb controversy;

19 to quote the "Me too's" to say "Me three";

4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ;

44 to ask what is "FAQ";

4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago on Usenet?"

143 to ask "what's Usenet?"

regards,

Doc

-- 

"Richard Charles Holloway" <learnshops@thresholds.com>

Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>