My only objection to it has been the automated deluge of them that follow a
sign on or return. That is really overkill at this point.
The solution seems to be what Edouard was trying to do, and others may
follow-up on: to put the S-Ds on a web server where people can go look at
them when they want to, one by one.
The procedures for the S-D and sign-on are a bit complicated, and newcomers
to internet mysteries do get thrown off by them sometimes. Maybe that is a
barrier to participation we don't want, but maybe it's only a minor
irritation and people persist and get it right.
I do like to read the newcomer's S-Ds, and doing so regularly helps give me
a sense of where the composition of the group is going, what are the trends
in new members, etc. (e.g. I think we've had a lot of new people coming in
lately with interests in 'clinical' sorts of work).
Another potential difficult with the present procedure is that people write
their S-Ds before they really know who they are writing to and 'what we
expect' beyond what the instructions call for. Writing an S-D is rather a
good exercise in self-analysis and identity-construction, I think. It has
been for me the 2-3 times I've done it here.
What might be valuable is for newcomers to re-do their initial S-Ds after
they have been here for a month or two. They might then be better able to
tell the rest of us what they are interested in that they can guess we
might also take some interest in. And that might lead to a lot more
follow-up messages and new conversations.
But with these minor suggested ammendments to the procedure, I do think
that it is valuable, and I'm glad that Mike instituted it.
JAY.
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JAY L. LEMKE
CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
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