New list / new rules (RE: Request for Info)

[Ruth Laila Schmidt]

Dear members of the list,

I agree with Juergen Neuss. Things have gotten to the point where the first
thing I do every morning is delete a great many messages posted by a
relatively small number of people - without reading them. I probably miss
some messages of genuine interest, but I don't have time to sort them out
from the polemics.

With best wishes,

Ruth Schmidt
>
>George Thompson wrote:
><<<Dear Indology List Members,
>As a sincere student of Old Indo-Iranian literature, I am seeking an
>e-mail list devoted to the dispassionate scholarly [that is,
>philological] study of Old Indo-Iranian texts like the Vedic Rgveda and
>the Avestan Gathas.
>I know that this sort of thing is not appropriate on your list, devoted
>as it is to partisan personal attacks, but since it is *fairly close* to
>your stated interests, I thought that some of you might be aware of
>*other* lists where people like myself might find informed discussion of
>relevant matters.
>I'd be grateful for any and all recommendations (...)>>>
>
>
>I fully agree with George Thompson's view of the nature of our list, or
>rather what this list has degenerated to. When I joined the list about
>two years ago, most of the topics discussed were of interest to broader
>circles of indologists and most messages contained profound and
>interesting views and informations.
>These times, after three days or so, hundreds of messages pile up in our
>Inbox folders, which are for their most part, to be frank with you, of
>no value to most of us (I assume), or at least to me.
>The administrators of this list have several times tried to reduce the
>amount of postings of individual members, and they also have shut down
>numerous threads which were, disguised as scholarly discussions, only
>meant for personal, religious or political attacks on other members.
>Although efforts to protect the original intention of this list were
>obviously in vain, the administrators are definitely not the ones to
>blame.
>I am sure many former members of this list have already cancelled their
>subscription. Like George Thompson I wonder where these scholars
>currently discuss matters and whether there is another indological list.
>If so, would somebody be kind enough to inform me (privately) about it?
>Alternatively, would it be possible to reorganize this list, or set up
>another one with a set of somewhat stricter guidelines regarding
>subject, content, length and amount of messages?
>Be sure that I feel very uncomfortable writing this (last) message,
>before I cancel my subscription in a couple of days. But in my opinion
>this is not a scholarly forum anymore.
>
>Thanks for reading.
>
>jneuss at zedat.fu-berlin.de
>
>--
>Juergen Neuss
>Freie Universitaet Berlin



***********************************************
Ruth Laila Schmidt
Dept of East European and Oriental Studies
University of Oslo
P.O. Box 1030 Blindern
N-0315 Oslo, Norway
Phone: (47) 22 85 55 86
Fax: (47) 22 85 41 40
Email: r.l.schmidt at east.uio.no