I think it's very constructive of Danee and Sukie to put forth their
opinions that if you consistenty fund raise people will then sadly skip
most if not all of your posts and requests.  So people who do this, do
harm to themselves no doubt.  I feel this can also lower the quality of
the FML if requests over run the normal posting.
 
Ideas: 1) BIG, it would be grand fun and eye opening to many here if you
were to dig up and old FML from many, many years ago.  So that others
can see what it was like before all the advertising and how rich in
posts the FML was.  Sukie might even have a vintage FML for people just
for kicks that you could send out as well (off topic though, but still
interesting).  I'm sure people would be a bit dumbfounded to see the
difference between say a 1999 FML and todays.
 
2) what about the possibility of a rule, or a request here, that everyone
who wants to post any from of advertising must put forth a contribution
to the list.  A real post.  And the advertising must be shorter than the
post itself and put forth at the end of the post, or tagged onto the
post.  People will be more apt to see the requests as they will already
be reading the friendly non-advertising part of the post anyway.  It's
also considerate and less imposing to readers.  Instead of seeing "I'm in
trouble and need help", "I have these for say on ebay", "a raffle is
going on," etc ... you would have a post that is a greeting, update,
story, general hello, and then the next part of the post can be that.  I
think the FHL has a general rule where your signature and tag cannot be
equal to or longer than your actual post.  An excellent, excellent rule I
think.  It keeps clutter down, it keeps the list focused on its goal (to
discuss ferret health), it keeps it gripping to read, convient, and when
there is something on the end ... buddy it sticks out adn benefits the
poster.  So it's a win/win situation.
 
Wolfy
http://wolfysluv.jacksnet.com
 
[Moderator's note: The FML has definitely changed over the years.  Used
to be this was one of the few resources available online -- usenet being
the major exception I suppose, though that's a different story.  Yes,
there were some ferret boards on the pay services like GEnie, CompuServe
and AOL but you had to subscribe the service to use it, and the FML was
typically carried there too.  E-mail was more of a novelty then too, and
for many people the FML was one of a very few e-mails.  We mostly knew
each other and were hungry to exchange stories and whatever info we could
come up with.
 
Things are very different today.  The FML is just one of very many other
e-mails demanding our attention.  There's ferret info online everywhere,
including dozens of other mailing lists.  Many people who contributed in
the past are rather bored of that now, having said the same thing dozens
of times.  And seeing your name in the digest isn't a thrill anymore...
though I know that a large number of people often respond to others in
private.  Now, on top of all that, I'm much busier than ever before so
devoting time to things like preceeding all the advertising posts with
"[AD:]" is going to be difficult.  (It's harder than it sounds because
the change has to be made in two files which have to match exactly or
the FML won't get distributed.)
 
So the issue becomes "what do we want the FML to be?".  We're not going
to decide with this note, but I do need to point out, as others have,
that the FML is what all of us make it.  There are a few things I won't
yield on, like blatantly commercial posts from for-profit entities aren't
accepted and I don't plan to so, but there have been many other changes
which were incorported by popular demand.
 
I see my "job" as providing a clean, formatted and sorted digest each
day -- I spend time to do this so you don't have to spend more time
than necessary reading it.  And yes, I kinda guide things behind the
scenes, so I love hearing your suggestions and complaints.  But really,
all of YOU make up the FML and you do a great job.  Feel free to keep
refining the FML for the next 15 years!
 
Wolfy, to respond to your notes: ALL the FMLs are available all the way
back to issue number 1.  I do trim excessive signatures and such.  I'm
hesitant to apply rules requiring people to post (although most do) since
there is no automatic way to do that, plus then I'd have to decide if a
post was an emergency or not and besides, I just can't spend more time on
it right now.  None of this means it won't happen -- just telling you my
views on it!  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 4851]