Dear Barb--I really appreciate hearing directly from you about the change
in the list. I think many folks were surprised not to have some advance
"warning", and because it always takes a while to get used to major
changes---which this feels like to them---were awaiting some explanation
from you. It seems that the possibility had been on your mind for so long,
in working with John, that you didn't realize it was a sudden revelation
for everyone else.
I hope the benefits you seek in terms of greater awareness of PD and
accessibility of information to those who need it so badly will be
realized. I hope that we who were naive or uninformed about the hard
realities of internet communication have received a wakeup call and will
view it more realistically. I hope the list will continue to be the
wonderful resource it has always been, in its expanded form.
I do expect, though, that we won't know for a while just how things will
shape up--how many will, like the person who wrote to Janet P., decide not
to post to the list at all. Maybe they will reconsider later, after they
get used to the idea, and I expect you will be keeping an eye on how it
goes. Surely they will continue to READ the list, even if mostly posting
offlist, so that benefit will not be lost.
I hope , too, that everyone who has webaccess will take the time to visit
John's masterpiece, and this may answer some of the hesitations and
questions. So far as the "nature of the internet beast" is concerned
neither you nor John nor anyone can change the fact that total privacy just
doesn't exist, and we have to learn to ,live with that reality, like it or
not, if we use it at all. It is, truly, "a matter of degree".
Thanks again for all you do, and for your message to all of us earlier today.
Camilla Flintermann, CG for Peter 80/70/55
Oxford, Ohio
http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/members/camilla/one.htm
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