[ExI] MAKE THE LIST GREAT AGAIN

[Giulio Prisco]

Well said Bill. I remember Max said once that the ExI list should
never become a Facebook group or similar. Then, should we try to
restart the fire here?

On Wed, Nov 16, 2016 at 11:34 AM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 16 November 2016 at 06:36, Giulio Prisco  wrote:
>> I thought of a new subject line for this thread that bears some kind
>> of affinity to the discussion that spawned it...
>>
>> The problem with the list is not too much politics, but too little of
>> everything else.
>>
>> When I joined in the nineties this list was my main source of food for
>> thought: Extropy, space, nanotech, the then emerging internet, life
>> extension, AI, uploading... And a lot of politics too...
>>
>> Most of us are still still around and writing about the same things,
>> only not here. The list has been mostly retired for years, apart from
>> occasional bursts of activity. I am still here for emotional
>> attachment, and I guess many others can say the same.
>>
>> I write and share a lot of stuff, but these days posting to Facebook
>> or Reddit is so much faster than posting to a mailing list, and
>> reaches many more people. Mailing lists are still the most
>> decentralized option, but alas not as good as contemporary centralized
>> alternatives.
>>
>> Should we try to restart the fire here? Or perhaps move to a Discourse
>> (http://www.discourse.org/) board (like the Boing Boing forum)? Or
>> some other platform? Or a subreddit? Note that Discourse and Reddit
>> itself are mostly open source, someone would need to do the IT setup
>> (and of course maintenance and admin) work.
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>
>
> Although I have a fair bit of computer experience I am opposed to the
> Social Web developments that are currently fashionable. People like to
> chat, but when everything is recorded and analysed it becomes an
> enabler for governments and corporations to control and manipulate
> populations.
>
> So I don't use Facebook, Twitter, etc. I occasionally read Reddit
> posts or watch YouTube videos, but never post there. And I have so far
> resisted getting a smartphone. (A device which offers up almost your
> entire life to official supervision and recording).
>
> Mailing lists are slower, but that is a good thing. Preparing an
> email, collecting references, considering options, all lead to a
> better quality of response. When the list degenerates into short 'He
> said, she said.....' type posts the quality quickly drops. That's why
> Exi has a recommended limit of 8 posts a day. Posting quick posts
> exceeding that limit means that you are spending very little time
> considering the content of what you are posting. And probably just
> trying to dominate the discussion and 'win' an argument.
>
> Posting to Exi is not just a discussion between two or three people.
> It will be read by many people who rarely post to the list but whose
> time is valuable and don't want to waste time on the puerile stuff
> that often streams through Twitter and Facebook.
>
> Horses for courses. Exi should be / is different and I like it that way.
>
> BillK
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat