X-Message-Number: 4365
Date: Sat, 6 May 1995 22:57:25 -0700
From: "Kevin Q. Brown" <kqb>
Subject: Re: cryonics.politics

In message #4356 "Keith F. Lynch" <> asked:
>Is there still a cryonics.politics list?  If so, then I think that
>would be a good place for it.

I never did move the "CRYONICS.POLITICS" list to cryonet.org, not only
because it would cost me more money to set up a second mailing list
and we didn't seem to have any immediate need for it, but also because
it wasn't clear to me what sub-list(s) would be most useful.  (Messages
3466, 3484, 3495, and 3507 give more information about the thinking at
the time.)  Also, the term "cryonics.politics" was in practice closer to
a euphemism for "cryonics.infighting.and.character.assassination" :-(
and I hope we don't go back to that.

The main question now is whether or not there should be a sub-list
and, if so, what should be its purpose.  Considering the threads we
have had lately, I can imagine some people opting for/against including
the thread on uploading/philosophy/theory-of-computation or, now,
how cryonics relates to government/politics.  Also, some people might
instead want a "mail reflector" list that distributes each message as
it's received (rather than accumulating messages for a once-a-night digest)
although I'm not sure that cryonet.org/c2.org is yet ready to handle
that much email traffic during prime-time.

Fortunately, we can have a somewhat market-based solution; those people
who want messages on a topic X to go to a sublist can pay to have it
created.  Some people will want a forum that _includes_ topic X and
therefore be willing to pay for it.  Other people will want a forum
that's _free of_ topic X and therefore be willing to pay for it.

Another mailing list on cryonet.org/c2.org will cost at least $3./month
and possibly $5./month or more, and that's assuming a major cost-saving
trick of allowing each person to subscribe to only one of the two lists
and writing software to do auto-forwarding from the main list to the X list.
(Each mailing list costs 10 cents/month/subscriber in addition to some
fixed charges, so it's best if the content is arranged so that each
person needs to subscribe to only one list.)  Frankly, I have had too
little sleep lately to have much enthusiasm for doing the administrative
and programming work for this, especially if the funding pays for less than
two years of the second list, but I might change my mind after a good rest.

Another possibility is that someone else could set up a customized
email service from the main CryoNet feed.  I could "echo" CryoNet
messages as they arrive to one email address, but not to the
approx. 250 people on the entire list.   Hopefully, any replies
to mailings sent via such a customized service would go back to the
main CryoNet list so that we don't unnecessarily Balkanize
cryonics-related communications.

                                   Kevin Q. Brown
				   
				   


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