21-11-03 16:54, Egijus complained:
> Piotr Gasiorowski have restricted all my e-mails to the list.
No. I've rejected several of your recent postings, but not all of them.
I've approved those of them that could imaginably serve as starting
points for meaningful discussion.
> I think he have done that, because he is Polish.
No. I did so because you had nothing interesting to contribute, and as
the list's moderator I have to react if any member continually pollutes
the forum with irrelevancies. There's absolutely no merit in informing
the list time and time again that "we have such and such a word in
Lithuanian", or pointing out that some placenames in Romania and Hungary
seem to you similar to some words in Lithuanian or Latvian.
The root *nokWt-/*nekWt- happens to have reflexes almost everywhere in
Indo-European. Imagine that once it has been mentioned, a German member
rushes to tell us for no good reason that German has <Nacht> for
'night', a Russian immediately tells us about <noc^>, a Spaniard about
<noche>, a Norwegian about <natt>, a Romanian about <noapte>, an Italian
about <notte>, etc. It's a bit like saying, "And we have a McDonald's in
our town ..."
> Polish people always
> don't liked Lithuanians.
This is a demonstrably calumnious stereotype. According to a recent
public opinion survey, conducted jointly by Czech, Hungarian, Lithuanian
and Polish organisations in all the four countries, 46% of Poles
definitely like Lithuanians, 24% feel indifferent about them, and 23%
dislike them (the respective figures for Lithuanian attitudes towards
Poles are 43% [+], 22% [0] and 30% [-]). Lithuania ranks as the eleventh
best-liked country in Poland. We'll soon be in the European Union
together, and I'm happy I've lived to see it.
Although I happen to be among the 46% of my compatriots whose general
sentiments towards Lithuania are friendly, I haven't got a tribal
mentality or a nationalist mindset. I don't categorise people according
to where they come from. I may like or dislike individual Lithuanians
according to what they are as human beings. The very last thing that
matters, as far as I'm concerned, is that you are Lithuanian and I am
Polish. There are three or four moderated members whose messages often
get rejected, and at least one of them is Polish. Does that make me a
Pole-hater?
> I was trying to send this information to
> the list:
>
> ">Proto-Albanian: nakta:
> Meaning: night
> Hello,
>
> Lithaunians have NAKTIS, Latvians have NAKTS and Prussians
> have NAKTIN for NIGHT."
OK, you've sent this priceless piece of information now. I'm sure
everyone is excited. But for reasons given above don't expect me to
approve any more such postings. Learn the proper style of discussion or
find a different forum to post to.
[So much for Egijus and his allegations. The rest is a general
announcement.]
This is also the last time I'm replying to a complaint about moderation
on the list. I've created a new, completely unmoderated forum, as free
as Hyde Park's Speakers' Corner:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist_admin/
I cordially invite all Cybalist members to join it if they feel like
discussing our administrative problems in public. Any critical remarks
about the job I'm doing here will be welcome on cybalist_admin, and I'm
not going to punish anyone in any way for anything said there.
Let's keep Cybalist clean.
Piotr