re: nn.database. I haven't got anything yet, but will we be sending
directly to that address, or to a 'faciliator'?
Best wishes for successful reconstructive surgery on gnosys, and a
quick recovery from no-sys.
-----
Comments from Gary:
It always helps to have someone else check. Yes, the listserv "review"
command will refuse to disclose the names on the NATIVE-L and NAT-1492
lists. Many or most people may not expect or desire this level of privacy,
but I feel that the default condition should be to *not* make public the
fact of one's participation in what can be seen as a politically-oriented
kind of activity. NativeNet covers a broad range of topics, of course,
but it would always be possible for someone to just run down lists of
addresses for the purpose of sending junk mail - or whatever. It doesn't
so much matter if particular fears are justified, I just feel a person
has a right to privacy unless she or he voluntarily relinquishes it.
This issue comes up in the context of the informal survey I've been talking
about with a number of NativeNet members who have expressed an interest in
the subject (others can still join by sending me a note - and you can get
copies of articles already distributed). We haven't worked out the details
yet, but we've been talking about this issue a bit among ourselves as it
relates to the purposes of the survey. We would like to ask a number of
questions to help people to learn more about one another so we can develop
stronger relationships among ourselves centered around common interests,
and new specialized mailing lists can be established to help facilitate
more specific exchanges of information and ideas. Also, it would be handy
to know something about a person just in reading his or her articles, so
as to know the degree of authority with which a given person might be
speaking. We thus confront the issue squarely in considering this survey
project. (We may end up doing a very informal survey soon and a more
carefully developed one in the fall, but we haven't really decided yet.)
Turning to the matter of the "nn.database" mailing list, I'm running it
in an unmoderated fashion, so anything sent to that address will auto-
matically be passed on to everyone on the list without manual intervention,
unless I get curious and happen to peek into the queue of articles waiting
to be processed, but I'm trying to restrain myself from doing so.
Thanks to Kerry and to everyone else, especially NativeNet member Floyd
Davidson in Alaska, who owns a couple of these strange 3B1 computers,
and has given me some sage advice for dealing with my problem, so I can
cut down the risk of accidentally making it worse. I hope I can keep
ol' gnosys running until the weekend and do an orderly shutdown at that
time, but don't be too surprised if I'm forced off the air earlier.
Thanks again to everyone for your compliments and warm wishes!
Gary