Re: Progress

[John Aspinall <jga@xxxxxxx>]

Matt Gokey <mgokey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> makes a pertinent observation:
>I have been a bit of a silent observer lately and have found the flood
>of recent message threads interesting at times for sure and I am
>planning to respond to many of them soon.  But oftentimes I get the
>feeling of we've been here before.   I have been a member of this
>mailing list for a relatively short time (yr+?), and have found that the
>discussion rarely proceeds through an idea or question in a coherent way
>or to a satisfying depth and the same or similar topics surface again
>and again.

I think this observation is right on the mark.
(note to non-English speakers -- accurate)

I think at least two factors combine to cause our current state:

(1) The varying experience of the list members.  There is very little
shared background knowledge that a poster can count upon.  The result is
that postings with serious innovative technical content get bogged down in
discussions about vocabulary, and derailed on tangential issues.

(2) The small size of the (active) list membership.  A productive
discussion needs a critical mass of informed, active participants.
Combined with factor (1), the sheer lack of numbers means we can't sustain
a discussion.