ftp and sci.bio.paleontology

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First, new additions to the ftp site.  Rex Doescher has kindly provided an
update of his list of e-mail addresses of paleontologists.  In addition,
Rex has also sent me his paleontological phone and fax lists.  These have
been placed in MS-Word files and put into the ftp site in the /lists
subdirectory.

With regard to sci.bio.paleontology, I certainly think it is in PaleoNet's
interest to have as many serious students of paleontology using it's
facilities as possible.  Right now we have somewhere between 300 and 400
subscribers with new people coming on board (literally) every day.  On the
other hand I am sensitive to the worries about cranks, flamers,
creationists, etc. My experience has been that a few of these people can do
a lot of damage to a listserver; even to the point of making discussions of
some topics more or less forbidden.  I don't want to see that happen to
PaleoNet.

Given the nature of the responses on this question posted to PaleoNet
before Christmas (during the voting period for sci.bio.paleontology) I was
somewhat surprised to see many PaleoNet subscribers among those who voted
for creation of sci.bio.paleontology.  For those people, of course, their
vote, and the reasons for it, are their own business.  Nevertheless, I
would be interested in knowing more about how PaleoNet subscribers who
favored the creation of sci.bio.paleontology feel regarding its
relationship (if any) with PaleoNet. Where these votes intended to promote
paleontology in general or did they express a desire for (expectation of?)
affiliation between sci.bio.paleontology and PaleoNet?  PaleoNet is a
community and we're not going to do anything to change it's basic structure
if there is a consensus against such a change.

A change of this type would be a big step for PaleoNet so let's get a
response on this question from as many PaleoNet subscribers as possible.
We can put it to a formal vote if you think that necessary.  Like the
Public Broadcasting System in the USA PaleoNet belongs to its community of
subscribers.  How do you want PaleoNet to respond to this opportunity?

On a related matter, the long awaited PaleoNet digests have entered the
testing phase.  I expect them to be available before the end of the month.
The digests will accumulate PaleoNet messages over a 24 hour period and
then send the accumulated messages to subscribers as a group.  This will
allow subscribers much more control over the PaleoNet messages they
receive.  More in formation on the digests will follow soon so watch this
space.

Norm MacLeod


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Norman MacLeod
Senior Research Fellow
N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (Internet)
N.MacLeod@uk.ac.nhm (Janet)

Address: Dept. of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum,
                     Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD

Office Phone: 071-938-9006
Dept. FAX:  071-938-9277
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