Changes in INDOLOGY

[David Magier]

> ... the signal-to-noise ratio on INDOLOGY is becoming too
> low.
> 
> In consultation with colleagues, I have decided that in the interests of
> academic probity, quality, and focus, the INDOLOGY list will in future
> be a closed list.  This means that people who have not subscribed to the
> list will no longer be able to post messages to it.

Dominik,

I'm sure I speak for most of our colleagues who are scholars of
Indology, when I heartily thank you for taking this important and
valuable step to restore INDOLOGY to the high level of intellectual
and scholarly discourse which it once enjoyed. Amusing as the spammers
and quacks have sometimes been, it's certainly high time we got this
forum focussed once again on the actual topic of Indology. No doubt
you will receive a barrage of flames and abuse from those who will now
be prevented from hijacking our mailboxes for their own peculiar
agendas, but rest assured we are behind you all the way.

If this partial step of limiting postings only to subscribers doesn't
work well enough to keep out all the cranks, I would personally
support the stronger step of turning INDOLOGY into a moderated
listserv (so that each individual message could be reviewed before
being allowed to go out to the list), as long as the moderator were
someone (such as yourself) known to be just and objective and clearly
committed to the scholarly enterprise of Indology. But I realize that
would entail much more work, and just might not be necessary.

Thanks once again for 'doing the needful' and for making INDOLOGY an
excellent forum.

David Magier
Columbia University