X-Message-Number: 16925
Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2001 11:52:53 -0700
From: Lee Corbin <>
Subject: What's "on topic" is, and should be, very broad

Robin Helweg-Larsen wrote

>This discussion is not off-topic in the larger picture: we all have to deal
>with the realities of human psychology: the us-vs-them way of understanding
>the world, and the advantages and threats that it involves.  It will still
>be there when cryonauts are revived in 200 years' time.

And Mike Perry wrote

>Here on Cryonet we are sensitized to the problem of off-topic
>postings and the subject in question doesn't involve cryonics.
>We justified our attention to it on grounds of our consideration
>of the whole immortalist perspective, which requires us to ask
>how people of the future might think of us, which leads to
>considering the track record of the human race in the century
>just past.

I don't think that we should be so sensitive to the few
misguided individuals who used to complain so vehemently
about "off-topic" posts.  They don't seem to understand
that a list with some variety draws vastly greater numbers
of readers.  I'm sure that they've experienced---but have
somehow forgotten---seeing discussion lists become moribund.
When there are too few postings, people get the idea that
nothing is happening on the list, and they aren't rewarded
for bothering to subscribe or even read the thing.  I myself
am not greatly experienced, but it seems to me that Cryonet
holds a healthy balance; you never know for sure what will
show up, or how amusing it will be.  And because you sense
that it has a large audience, you also sense that important
messages concerning the very most hard-core issues will be
posted here, especially if the poster has any desire to reach
a fair number of people.

So I suggest that so long as it has ANY implications or
relationships to cryonics at all, people shouldn't hesitate
to post here.


(Of course, on the other hand, this, like everything else,
can be abused by people with poor taste or bad judgment.)

Lee Corbin

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