Theos-Talk Archives (December 1994 Message tl00021)

Hi --

 a few comments as to the current list status:

 > from Martin:
 > This month I started to put a FAQ about spiritual resources
 > on the Internet in the talk.religion.newage newsgroup.
 > I did not mention the Theos-l mailing list.

 We have had *some* prior exposure on the news-groups, with no
 ill effect.  Also I have notified some groups (e.g.  Mystics
 Guide to the Internet) of our existence.  I do not see anything
 wrong with public exposure in (appropriate) places.

> Personally, I feel that some kind of access to a Theosophical
> list would be useful.  Many other groups already have open access
> to their lists.


 We have open access to the list (it is not private), in that
 anyone can subscribe through the Listserv address.  The only
 *closure*, or limitation, is that people can not send messages
 to our list UNLESS they are subscribed.  We occassionally get
 BULK mailings from programs which query listservers and send
 mail to all of the known lists at that node (then they move to
 another node etc.).  You have not seen these attempts *since*
 the sender-programs do not subscribe first.

 It seems that list terrorists aren't too interested in
 Theosophy.

 Some lists I'm on (most notably the UU discussion list) do get
 *attacked* regularly.  Attacks on the UU list usually are simply
 very rude e-mail, attacking (with vulgar language etc.) the
 fundamental positions of many people on the list.

 When this happens (on most lists) they are asked to leave or be
 civil.  Unreasonable offenders are dealt with by adding there
 address/name to the .ignore file for that list.  It is not
 really a problem, but it can be disturbing -- especially to
 sensitive people.

 I do not see any reason to hide the list's existence.  But, I
 would not want to *over-advertise* it either.  (no need to wave
 red flags in front of bulls :-)

 I say -- go ahead and post as you deem reasonable.  We can deal
 with any problems (if any!!).

 peace --

 john mead

 p.s.  by the way -- i plan to get our archives up to date this
 week.  This will include the essay by Martin (euser), and the
 Nov.  log files.