This message may, as much as I hope it doesn't, offend some people.
Maybe it should have been an anonymous post :-).  But in recent months I
have been growing more and more disappointed at the way the FML seems to
be ballooning in size.  Where I used to read it every day, now I usually
just delete it from my box because I don't have time to wade through it
(which means this all might have been said before, with me missing it;
if so I apologize).
 
For me, at least, the list's real value is as a conduit of information
that will help me as a ferret owner; information regarding health issues,
valuable products, legal issues, etc.  When the list was smaller, things
like cute stories about ferrets didn't take up so much space.  As the
list gets bigger, though, these things comsume more time and space.  And
while the loss of a pet is always very sad, even traumatic, a major
portion of the list now seems to be taken up by expressions of sympathy.
 
Please don't think that I have YOU in mind when I say this.  I have no
one in mind, because I don't really pay attention to signatures.  I am
talking about an overall trend, not specific people.
 
My suggestions:  Well, the last I knew there was no usenet group for
ferrets.  I know not everyone has Usenet, but if there were such a group
than those of us who do might be better served by it, with the FML still
as an alternative.  But my real suggestion is that people use
person-to-person E-Mail more for relating stories to their friends and for
expressing condolences.  And that we all be a bit more terse.
 
Again, this is not meant in the spirit of a flame to anyone.  It is meant
as a suggestion about how we can all make the best use of a valuable
service that we all benefit from.  But I am putting on my asbestos suit,
just in case someone doesn't see it that way :-).
 
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Dale Miller, University of Pittsburgh
Sile et philosophus esto.
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[Posted in FML issue 1152]