Folks, let me remind everyone that we are a considerable number of
people - now well over two hundred - and that represents a
_staggeringly_ wide range of interests.  The digest can only talk about
so many things at a time, and once a conversation starts about a
typical topic, it tends to follow that topic for a while.  If it so
happens that it is not a topic that certain people don't care about,
the old-timers know that it will eventually peter out and, like any
good conversation, other topics will take center stage.  This list is
for _all_ kinds of automatic music.  Of late there has been some
discussion of MIDI and tips on how to get a player piano "just working"
- that in no way indicates that there are not people here who have an
_absorbing_ interest in careful, delicate, historically-accurate
restorations of classical automatic instruments.  And it is a damn
shame to leave the list before that particular topic pops up again.
The digest format means you only have to deal with just one sniveling
little message a day - all you need to is scan the contents that Jody
thoughtfully adds to the top and use it to decide if there is anything
of immediate interest.  If there isn't, delete it.  You can get a new
copy from the archives that Jody maintains for us.  What could be
simpler?  What could be less of an imposition?  Jody is the only one
doing any real work.  God knows I wouldn't mind seeing a lot of
newsgroups that work as well as this list does.

The list never "diverges" from anything because it is the sum total of
_all_ our interests.  It does move from one conflux of interests to
another as time goes by.  It certainly doesn't talk enough about music
boxes to suit me - but that's partially my fault, and eventually I'll
get around to posting some music box stuff and perhaps we'll get some
good conversation going on that.  And that's my advice to Robin:
don't just wait around for someone _else_ to bring up a topic you want
to talk about.  If you want to talk about something, TALK about it.
Chances are a lot of us will join in.  Just start a new thread.  You
don't need to argue or be confrontational, all you need to do is to
crystalize a new topic and let the rest of us go with it.

Too many people unfamiliar with the net leave lists and newsgroups in
disgust because they don't talk about what _they_ are interested in
without ever understanding that you need to _contribute_ to and
_maintain_ a discussion like you do any conversation.  What would the
family dinner table be like if everyone waited silently for someone
else to discuss something _they_ were interested in, and then leaving
when someone else starts talking about something they don't care
about?  So it on the net.  This forum is what _WE_ - each of us
individually - make of it.  No more - and certainly no less.

regards,¶
Larry Smith