Re: [emacs-humanities] Keeping this mailing list on-topic.

[Krishna Jani]

On 1/21/23 23:22, Karl Fogel wrote:
> On 21 Jan 2023, Edgar Vincent wrote:
> > Hello Bastien, hello everyone,
> >
> > While I understand that off-topic subjects may be annoying to 
> > subscribers,
> > I tend to agree with Bastien, especially given the fact that the 
> > traffic on the list
> > is very low.
> >
> > This is the reason why I answered the email about Zizek: I am 
> > interested not only
> > in using Emacs in the context of the humanities, but also in other 
> > people using it said context.
> > I assume that most people using Emacs are IT professionals, and few 
> > of us
> > have a background in the humanities or the social sciences. This list 
> > can thus serve as
> > as gathering point for this small minority of users.
> >
> > Perhaps there could be another list called 
> > “emacs-humanities-offtopic”? I don’t know
> > what the general policy is.
> >
> > Wishing you all a nice weekend,
>
> I think that's a fine solution.
>
> If most people here agree, would someone who has the power to change 
> the list topic on 
> https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-humanities please edit 
> it?  Maybe something like this:
>
>  This list is a gathering place for people using Emacs in the
>  Humanities (a.k.a. "Liberal Arts") and related domains.  Usage  of
>  Emacs in the Humanities is the thing subscribers have in common,  but a
>  given conversation on the list may or may not involve Emacs  itself.
>
> (Feel free to redraft, of course; I'm just offering a suggestion.)
>
> Subscribers like me can decide whether or not we want to unsubscribe 
> from the list, now that its purpose has changed.  It's fine for a 
> mailing list to evolve.  Such evolution usually involves some 
> negotiation, and my post was a contribution to that negotiation.  The 
> negotiation does not have to reach my preferred result in order to 
> conclude successfully.
>
> Best regards,
> -Karl
>
> > Bastien <bzg@gnu.org> writes:
> >
> > > Hi Karl,
> > >
> > > Karl Fogel <kfogel@red-bean.com> writes:
> > >
> > > > But I would appreciate it if we could stick to the charter of this
> > > > mailing list: Emacs as used in the humanities.
> > >
> > > I understand your concern, but instead of trying to move off-topic
> > > discussions elsewhere, I would suggest to let the topic of this list
> > > evolve as “Emacs users and humanities”.
> > >
> > > This includes the topic “Emacs as used in the humanities” but is way
> > > larger, letting Emacs users discuss humanities among themselves.
> > >
> > > I suspect this larger topic better reflects why people subscribe to
> > > this list, as the recent discussions suggests.
> > >
> > > WDYT?
Hello,

I was very happy to see this thread and the responses on it because 
frankly, I too joined the list thinking I would meet and be able to talk 
to several technically inclined EMACS nerds who also have in a way the 
same background as I do. I think it is a great meeting place of these 
two different often unrelated fields and as Bastien rightly said I feel 
as though the members should let the mailing list chart its own course 
rather than forcing a set rule or topic. I feel as though this is more 
of a users group rather than a tech support forum, which mean that the 
users (to an extent) must have agency over what they wish to talk about.


--
Krishna Jani
Student Associate Member,
Free Software Foundation
kjani@member.fsf.org

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