"Michael J. Smith" wrote:
>
>
> The academic lists are by far the worst, although classics-l, the
> Greek and Latin list, gets surprisingly heated sometimes. By contrast,
> the mediaevalists' list, medtext-l, is so soporific that it ought to
> be a controlled substance.
Both the main academic lists I am on, Milton-L and C18-l, can get quite excited over "off-topic" posts, or at least some/many of the posters will. But both occasionally, nonetheless, can (as you say) "get surprisingly [and enjoyably] heated." The Pound list has been quiescent for a couple years now, but when it was active almost no one ever complained about off-topic and {perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not) the list was solidly anti-imperialist. And (NOT surprisingly, but perhaps so to some) one thing that was not tolerated was any whiff of anti-semitism. I'm on a couple other lists that are infested with cultists, so very little useful conversation of any sort occurs.
Carrol