Re: [asa] Archives on the web

James,

While I can certainly see some benefit to restricting the ASA list
archives to members, I am more inclined to keep it public. An
unmoderated list, like a post on a web discussion forum or on Usenet,
is a valuable literary deposit for those who want to see the whole of
an issue as viewed at that point in time, warts and all. I know that
there are things I have said in the past in a public forum that I
later regretted (and which anyone with enough interest could probably
unearth), but I also know that minds should be allowed to change --
and there is significant benefit even for "lurkers" or Web searchers
to have a flavor of the spirited discussion available through ASA.
Maybe not always constructive discussion, but always spirited! Before
joining this list or ASA I happened upon the archives, and they were
quite useful to me.

Now, I do think there could be more room on the ASA site for others
who have other views but choose to participate more in meetings, say.
Perhaps posting meeting proceedings, or formal abstracts or papers,
would balance the public face of ASA with its list and better
illustrate the diversity of views within. (Are we already doing
this?)

Chris

On 3/28/07, James Mahaffy <Mahaffy@dordt.edu> wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I am wondering about feedback on having archives of the ASA be public
> as ours are. I always think twice before I post knowing that anyone in
> the world can read what I say. If it were not public and just internos
> I would be a bit more open. Actually if someone wanted to judge asa by
> our archives on the list I suspect they would not get the right
> impression. Of course serious people would realize this is an
> unmoderated list. Nowadays it is fairly easy to have good archives but
> have them either public or private.
>
> Am I right that any ASA post one the web can be shared without asking
> the author? Or is there an accepted protocol?
>
>
> --
>
> James Mahaffy (mahaffy@dordt.edu) Phone: 712 722-6279
> 498 4th Ave NE
> Biology Department FAX : 712
> 722-1198
> Dordt College, Sioux Center IA 51250-1697
>
> To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
> "unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
>

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Wed Mar 28 12:12:18 2007