READ THIS (sorry for the length)

[Dan Lee]

It's funny, just this week I thought about this
subject when setting up my new computer. I was trying
to figure out why this new version of Outlook wouldn't
let me delete whole threads, when it occurred to me
that when I first joined 5 or 6 years ago, I looked
forward to reading every single line of every single
message that came through.

When the forums first started popping up, I browsed
them to see what the buzz was about, but was turned
off by the all the misinformation being thrown around.
Lots of noise, not enough signal; too many newbies
asking the same tired old questions. I saw it as
exactly the opposite of what I enjoyed most about the
List and SE-R.net.  However, over time, the List
became less and less interesting as the content
stagnated. I started to see the List as more of a
place for the old-timers to keep in touch, rather than
a forum for the exchange of leading edge SE-R/SR20
knowledge. When I noticed that many of the drivers of
that knowledge began posting at the various forums, I,
in turn, began to follow the forums.

As for SE-R.net, I *still* see it as the web-based
presence for the mailing list, true or not. Yes, I'm
well aware that they are separate entities run and
owned by different people, but (to me) they will
always be inseparable, as they were (to me) the
original voice of the SE-R community. I think the
hand-in-hand growth and stagnation of the two cannot
be passed off as coincidence. This is not to say that
I believe one cannot flourish without the other in the
future, however.

I don't have any solutions that haven't already been
mentioned, and I feel that despite all I've said
above, I would surely miss the List if it were to go
away. I feel like I'm part of a family here, even
though I probably haven't posted more than a
half-dozen messages in the past year, and only a
handful of people would know who I am at a National
Convention. That's what makes this list special to me,
despite it's faults.

Daniel Lee
93 SE-R