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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16925