[Leica] changes in the LUG

[Summicron1@aol.com]

dear erwin and LUG,

Erwin recently wrote a long thing about how the LUG seems to have changed and 
posited that LUG users have gone through all their questions on topic and are 
now using the LUG as a forum for other opinions, having nothing else to talk 
about.

This is probably the case. The solution should be obvious. You guys who sit 
at a computer for more than half an hour a day answering the LUG, turn off 
the computer.  You guys who post to it more than once a day, take a break. 
You're letting it take over your life.

Make a new year resolution on October to only answer the LUG once a week. 
Spend the resulting time out shooting pictures, or reading a book, or getting 
to know your kids again. Only post something to the LUG if you have a 
specific question that needs to be answered or a specific camera topic to 
discuss. If someone puts something up that you feel a need to answer before 
your week is gone, make a note and wait. It will keep.

This will make the LUG a much more compact, friendly place and you'll be a 
lot less stressed out. You'll no longer feel a need to write three screens of 
argument getting people to realize how important it is that their filters be 
put on the lens small-end out (or something equally trivial.) Your life will 
be a calmer place. Your wife will quit looking at you funny.

I just signed onto the submini list, which allegedly has 200 members (LUG has 
what? 700?) and i don't even take the digest. So far I've only had two or 
three e-mails a day, the most was five. All were on camera topics, pleasantly 
read and dealt with. I've even managed to sell some of my excess Minolta 16 
film cassettes. ($10 each, guaranteed genuine if you're interested).

LUG could be like this if the members would quit trying to use it as a method 
of self expression and get back to using it as a way to talk to others with 
shared interest. Don't give it so much importance in your life.

Really, a good image is worth more than an opinion shared, and photography is 
a lot of fun to talk about. If someone disagrees with you on some other 
subject, leave them in their ignorance. You'll both be happier.

charlie trentelman
Ogden, Utah