[extropy-chat] META: ExI List Quality & Future

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

I think Perry made a very good point in the quoted message to the polymath list.
Pat of the value of the extropy list is that everyone can join and try
it. Many people lurk for some time and then start posting. If
newcomers see that their post are received with interest and trigger
interesting discussions, they will stay on the list. If they see that
their posts are always ignored or their arguments always dismissed
without discussion, at some point they will give up and find other
things to do. This is a spontaneous selection mechanism.
Of course you can build an invitation only list and invite known
people who, in your experience, have interesting things to say. But
how can you know if *unknown* people have interesting things to say?
The only way is trying them. Some will stay (spontaneously) and some
will go (spontaneously).
This is one of the reason why I would prefer the ExI list to stay open.
G.

On 3/8/06, Damien Sullivan <phoenix at ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 07, 2006 at 02:54:58PM -0800, Damien Sullivan wrote:
>
> > desired purity, but I don't know.  Maybe it was too small, or I didn't do
> > enough to spark discussion.  Anyway, figured I should add the data point about
> > extropian-derived salons.
>
> Or maybe Perry Metzger's prediction of eventually staleness and outliving
> utility simply came true:
> http://www.mindstalk.net/polymath/polyarc/0003.html
>
> Last paragraph seems apropos to the discussion.  Though I'm less certain that
> a large list has to have a lifecycle; organizations don't have to act like
> organisms.
>
> I don't think I ever did bring in "fresh blood".
>
> > As of my writing this e-mail, the archives are back up:
> > http://ofb.net/~damien/polymath/
>
> Hey, that's not the URL I wanted.  This is:
>
> http://www.mindstalk.net/polymath/
>
> -xx- Damien X-)
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