RE: working to improve the infrastructure

From: Mike Cole (mcole@weber.ucsd.edu)
Date: Sat Jun 26 2004 - 12:46:01 PDT


Hi Eugene-- I will ask the programmer who is working on the site if we
can screen names. Since the archive is publically available and email
addresses turn up there, I cannot see what advantage there is to making
the entire list anonymous.

I guess if we cannot be public to each other, it may well be time to
close down xmca, so lets hope there is a techical fix. I am already
troubled by the extent to which xmca is a spectator activity -- for example.
some 35 people asked for a discussion of the Arievitch article, but only
a couple of messages about the article have been posted. Voting is
anonymous, posting is not.

I worry about the suggestion of posting publications on the template
we are planning to institute for a related reason. It appears that some
people are intimidated by the fact that there are faculty posting, or
if they are already faculty members, that there are more senior faculty
members posting, or........ whatever makes people think that rank matters
in this forum thereby ensuring that rank matters.

I share your concerns about spam and even more the extent to which my
emails are hijacked and turned into spam and virus carriers. But, as I
said in the opening, if that concern is general, time to get off email
and close shop.

What do you think?
mike



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Nov 09 2004 - 11:42:57 PST