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I have to admit I was taken by surprise by the new Change to the list. I want to commend John for all his hard work as well as the product he produced I presume with Barb's knowledge and cooperation. There are several points I would like to make. The change certainly makes it easier to monitor the list without bogging down one's email capabilities. I think we have lost a lot of participants because of that. I think that the issue of privacy is much more one of perception than reality. Simon's archives make everything we have written on the list available to everyone with a computer. Also with 1700 list members everything we write is immediately going out to the equivalent of a large auditorium full if people who aren't screened at all. That hardly is privacy. I think this difference in perception plays a large role in the differences some of us have had. Some people have related to the list as if they were in their living room at a book club meeting with 10 to 15 people in it and topics of mutual interest would be brought up some related to the book and some not. Then somebody stands up and says lets take a poll of how many people want to talk about the book or something else. In a small group depending on how it is done it might be seen as out of place or impolite. But in a group of 1700 in an auditorium filled with people who were told there would be a discussion of a particular book and the topic kept changing so that the book was being discussed - sometimes about things that you wanted to hear, sometimes about aspects of the book you didn't want to hear and sometimes about auto mechanics, recipes or other subjects that you may or may not be interested in. Unless you are very interested in the book or l the diversions you might well get tired and feel it is not worth the considerable effort and leave. With these different ways of viewing the list, if one sees the contributing members sitting on living room furniture in a theater in the round and we are only vaguely aware of the audience, we may act as though we are actually in a living room. I think John has turned up the house lights and is getting the same reaction as if (Like the movie the Truman Show) we are finding out for the first time that there is a large audience out there some enjoying the show, a few cheering. a few heckling, but a large number overwhelmed with information both relevant and irrelevant to their interests. Of course there is a legitimate function of meeting and having freewheeling discussions but don't think that you are in your living room with 15-20 people when you have an audience of 1700 or more people . Folks, there is an audience out there and if we act as if there is not we are deluding ourselves and cheating them, When I started asking questions about the list by doing polls, I was attacked by a few people as to their usefulness and validity and told "the list is the list" and this is what Barb Patterson wants it to be END OF DISCUSSION- Now some of the same people are asking why the change wasn't discussed- when Barb and John apparently collaborated on adding a new "module" which makes the list more accessible to more people. Data gathering about what members wanted the list to be and what they valued most in the list was "shouted down" by a few voices. which were so strident that I backed off -for a time- to try off list to mend fences. Well now it is done. Unless Barb changes her mind, that's the way it will stay. Or maybe somebody wants to take a poll. Find out how to preserve the good points of the old list including the camaraderie and spontaneity while recognizing that we are 1700 strong and what we have to say for better or worse is available for the world to view. Charlie-- ****************************************************************************************** Charles T. Meyer, M.D. Middleton (Madison), Wisconsin [log in to unmask] ******************************************************************************************