Should I shut down this list?

[Graham Mullan]

A couple of comments on Andy's post.

He is quite right about the archive, but having to update one's storage media every thirty years is probably OK. If you want a heated discussion on this topic, try Goon. At Hidden Earth he seemed to be extolling the virtues of papyrus!

I quite agree with Andy about Matrix. I've never used it and when it was suggested for this all I got was the same list of programs to install to run it rather than any clear idea of how to navigate around it. Having said that, I suggested Discord - largely on the grounds that my wife is an advocate - and it was pointed out that it, too, has flaws, though at least you can get in on a web browser without needing another program.

With regard to the email list as it stands, the thing is that Andy is just about the only person to use it properly: he only ever replies to the list, not to the previous poster as well and he always scrubs all the previous input, so you don't end up with multiple copies of posts in multiple copies of messages. If there was a way of ensuring that this could be done automatically, it would save much pointless scrolling.

A further issue with the list - though this applies more to the dedicated Survex & Therion lists - is the automatic scrubbing of attachments. Yes, we don't want our mailboxes clogged up with these but we do want to be able to get to them easily. Plain text emails don't help with this.

And a final word on email. Yes it is a marked improvement on parchment, quill and homing pigeons but those didn't tend to randomly end up in spam, unless that was the name of the sparrowhawk that brought them down.

Graham