Dear Qalam members,

William Bright wrote (on November 10, 2001)

> seshat, don't you think you could call a moratorium, or cease-fire,

or

> cooling-off period? i haven't had time to do anything else
> for two days except eat, sleep, and follow this controvery.

Sorry for replying with such a big delay, but I am experiencing
problems with my mail account (no, it's not the fault of the high
traffic on Qalam, it's just a technical problem :-).

As for your understandable request: no, sorry, I cannot. My policy
here is to be a neutral observer. I only intervene on administrative
issues, or upon violations of topicality or netiquette.

Generally speaking, how could I ask people to quit an *on-topic* and
*polite* discussion?

Moreover, try and understand my position in the current case: I
opened this forum because I wanted to see interesting discussions
about writing systems. Well, as far as I can see, this *is* a very
interesting discussion about writing systems!

You and Daniels are the authors of one of the most authoritative
books on the topic, and you are discussing your taxonomy of writing
systems with some of your most careful readers.

If I wished to stop such discussions, why should I wish to maintain
such a mailing list!?

BTW, although the discussion is only involving a minority of the
members, everything suggests that the "silent majority" are listening
with interest... And they are certainly doing an effort too, in order
to follow and understand the subtle diatribe.

> by "follow", of course i mean not just reading what's on the list,
> and occasionally writing something - but what is more time-

consuming,

> searching in my books and files to answer questions that have been
> raised, or to check erroneous and/or misleading assertions.

We are all extremely grateful for the careful (and unpaid!) job that
you are doing.

But, please, everybody also take your time to follow your normal
occupations! :-)

> of course, by the time i find the facts i need, someone else has
> usually provided them on the list.

Well, that is the price you pay for writing well-informed posts,
rather than making undocumented assertions. If you wish to be quick,
just say the first thing that passes through your head. :-)

Needless to say that we all thank you for not following this
suggestion!

> let's all take a break!

Yes, feel free to slow down, but not because the moderator ordered
you to do so...

In order to slim down the discussion, I could suggest to avoiding
ping-pong discussions such as: A says "white", B replies "black", A
says "white!", B replies "black!!"... But, honestly, I have not seen
many instances of such a pattern: most posts I have seen add new and
meaningful arguments to the discussion.

Also, please everybody minimize you quoting rate: it is often enough
to maintain a minimal part of the previous post to make clear which
statements you are replying to.

Regards.
Seshat (Qalam admin)