Howdy Ya'll,
Political Puns Prologue: It has been said that the best form of government
is a benign democratic dictatorship, where things generally free-run as long
as everyone behaves, and the dictator exercises their absolute authority
very infrequently and always to the benefit of those being governed.
The fly in the ointment, historically, is finding benign dictators. ;-) I
think this list has been blessed by Tom's leadership over the years and I
wish him (and our list!) the best. We should be so lucky to get another
administrator as fair and stable as Tom has been.
Personal Opinions:
HOSTING: I favor hosting the list with an institution, not an individual.
The hosting of the list should be officially sanctioned and supported by the
institution, with clear guidelines as to succession should the Administrator
pass on or resign. In addition, a couple (a few? ... but not a lot!) of
official mirrors should be set up at other institutions to preserve list
continuity and integrity.
FORMATS: I favor text only, with URL's to attachments. i.e. you can post
ONLY text messages (no HTML), but include attachments in your post to the
List Server. The Server does not pass the attachments on to the subscribers,
instead it stores the attachment(s) (and virus scans!) and substitutes a
URL. That way the bandwidth stays lean and readable, while providing a
simple method of optionally exchanging (or ignoring) binary data. People can
still easily parse/search digests, etc, I would be surprised if open source
tools & PHP don't already exist for this and also provide a separate web
page to allow for and track threads.
RESPONSES:
"Scott Hannahs" wrote:
>... I counted the votes last night and it
>was a simple 5 to 4 decision!
RESPONSE->Scott, multiple personalities don't count...
1 body, 1 vote ;-)
"R. Glenn Givens" wrote:
>I think Scott & Michael and, if necessary, a few of
>the main contributors to the list should get together
>...& decide who will take over...
"Michael Aivaliotis" wrote:
>...the final choice I guess will be Tom's ... I will
>go along of course. ... So, i think if a change to
>the behaviour is required, we can take a poll and let
>the members decide. ... do I sound like a politician?
RESPONSE->"A committee is a life-form with six or more
legs, and no brain."
"Democracy is a poor system, the best that can
be said about it is that it is ten times better
than the next best system." - R.H. Heinlein
"Urs Lauterburg" wrote:
>My vote ... goes to Scott Hannahs, if he [and Florida
> State U.] is willing to dedicate [resources).
>Tom will have to decide to who he wants to hand the
>service ... over [to]. Whatever solution will be chosen,
> the list should by no means be split up again.
RESPONSE->I agree, Scott and Florida have my vote, but I
would encourage Tom (and Scott) to get Florida
to set up something official and written. Not a
lot of legalese, just commitment & common sense.
Cheers from the New England freezer...
Mike
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Michael C. Ashe Imaginatics
Control & Test Systems
11 Quinley Way
Waterford, CT 06385
Phone: 860-444-2141
Cell: 860-961-0876
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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