From: Fred Camper (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Sep 05 2008 - 10:44:16 PDT
One reason many people stop reading FrameWorks, either for long periods
of time (as I have) or permanently, is that so many posts that be fine
if exchanged between a few friends are just RUDE when sent to 700 people
located all over the world.
Of course politics is relevant to film. But I think everyone on this
list knows who Obama is, and, being on the Internet, knows how to find
out more about him if they want to. We don't need to be told to support
him, or to not support him, or to buy Obama buttons! If everyone on this
list posted about everything that interested them, we would all be
overwhelmed.
I prefer to read decently written posts that are well informed. Having
seen "Satantango" twice, complete, and on film, I don't need to read a
post from someone who has seen an hour or so of it on video. What's
great about FrameWorks is that so many people here have specialized
knowledge of various aspects of experimental cinema. What wrecks the
list is people posting opinions about topics they don't know much about,
plus personal trivia. If everyone remembered that a FrameWorks post goes
to 700 people all over the world, and composed it accordingly, rather
than treating the list as a chat group and writing personal messages and
random details about one's life and thoughts, the group would once again
be as useful as it was in its early years. I joined in 1996, and at
first, I tried to read every post. Now I don't bother.
Fred Camper
Chicago
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.