Replies to Taxacom...

[Peter Rauch]

I prefer to see the replies go to Taxacom. There are over a 1000 subscribers
on Taxacom. Most are silent, some post occasionally, a few of us post
more often.

The 800 or more silent ones are either extremely effective and content
with using the Delete Key, or they actually enjoy lurking and perhaps
learning --learning about systematics, about systematists, about some
of the fun things, the quirky things, the silly things, about history,
about what others think even when they know the answer, etc,....

Some people post questions, not simply to personally get a reply but to
stimulate a discussion (this is a "discussion" list, after all, not 411),
with all the interactions and synergies that discussion provokes.

Personal messages, mis-directed messages, spams, and the like have no
place on Taxacom. Things biosystematic, things taxonomic, things
collection and biodiverse, do.

Every time this issue (of too much stuff, or too little focus) comes up,
I ask --How would you split the list into topical categories so as to
reduce the "noise" by segregating it into its own list(s)? And, do it
in such a way that most current subscribers didn't end up subscribing to
most of the subtopical lists anyway?  I never get more than a couple of
replies, and those replies never agree about what the "noise" is.....
Conclusion --there are 800-900 happy campers out there, some perhaps set
to NOMAIL or with a sore Delete finger, and a few others who rather have
things differently but aren't willing to speak up in numbers and solutions
that count.
Peter