[extropy-chat] Reccommendations for a mailing list

[Keith Henson]

At 04:38 PM 10/02/05 -0500, Fred wrote:

>I fondly remember the list as it was in its beginning.

Hi Fred.

It was an interesting list.  There were a fair number of new ideas that may 
have seen their early spread on that list.

>My memory
>(admittedly imperfect) of some of the differences between then and now:
>1.  Virtually everyone who posted a message on a topic knew what they
>were talking about.  If someone did not know about something then they
>would ask for a reference.  Argument by assertion and blustering
>bullsh1t were rare.

They did happen, but when they did the people who did so were usually 
slapped down quickly.

>2.  At the very beginning the volume was not very high but the quality
>was very good.  There were not a lot of time wasting posts which quoted
>an entire message with only a lame one line followup.
>3.  A corollary to #1 and #2 is that there were people who would read a
>lot and not post on every topic which came along.
>4.  People could read and comprehend what was written.  There was a lot
>less of the reply messages starting "Oh, you mean ..." followed by some
>bogus nonsense which was not even close to the original message.

I remember being involved in some extended discussions.

>5.  Virtually everyone on the list was well versed in and committed to
>individual liberty and an improved future.  They generally had a good
>understanding of a wide range of topics from free-market economics to
>pan-critical rationalism to technology and science.
>6.  Many of the people who posted in the first few years dropped off for
>a variety of reasons.  I see some of them socially and occasionally on
>other lists, they are still around.

There was some good stuff on that list.  There were also restrictions about 
how the material could be shared, but those restrictions didn't apply to 
the people who were on the list.  A lot of what was discussed on that list 
eventually made it into Extropian/Transhumanist web pages.  I kind of 
wonder if anyone has the list traffic in backups?  I found while sorting 
out old files that I had some of it.  Tim May probably has it all on some 
backup media.

Any of you old timers want to attempt to reconstruct the list traffic?  I 
can contribute some.

Keith Henson

>Fred
>
>
>
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