Re: <nettime> closing nettime-l, uh?

[Andreas Broeckmann <ab@mikro.in-berlin.de>]

Folks, I'll quickly respond and make some suggestions:

- I'd hate to see the list go, but like others here, I myself cannot 
take the responsibility for running it;

- being a list moderator is a lonely business, I know this from my own 
experience; it can be a burden, and very frustrating; and it can be 
disheartening to have people show up once a year or so making grandiose 
proposals about how things should be changed and the community 
activated, when most of the time a third of that "community" does not 
exist (filter to trash), one third is asleep (read:never), and the main 
part of the last third is lurking; (and I have myself experienced a 
"take-over" of a list [hostile, in that case] - of the Syndicate list in 
2001 - which was a painful experience and left the list in tatters - it 
was a huge waste at the time...)

- somewhere here, there is also the important question of ownership; the 
social psychologists among you will be better at explaining the 
problematic difference between the ownership of this list felt by 
lurkers (even longtime sympathetic ones like myself) for whom the list 
is part of their lives, and the sense of ownership that grows out of 
year in, year out, day to day, responsibility for keeping something 
going; (maybe you can compare it with the love for a child of a distant 
uncle/aunt who shows up once a year and gets only the Insta snapshots, 
and the care of a parent who is there every day, off-camera...)

- in all of this sudden lurker-support, please, don't forget the 
recurring discussions about how Nettime is also dramatically 
non-diverse, and in many ways dysfunctional; an honest, open question: 
how much of this new outcry is pure nostalgia in the face of something 
that should be allowed to ago? (Marie Kondo says: say thank you to that 
old t-shirt, fold it, and then gently put it away...)

Some suggestions:

- I suggest to try and arrange a friendly transition of the list 
maintenance, away from Felix and Ted; I assume that they would be ready 
to help in all of its steps, and that they would also still be there 
afterwards, in case there are issues that need that kind of 
"grandparent" help;

- importantly, I suggest to try and find a transition moderator who can 
steer this process in the coming months, without becoming part of the 
new team her/himself; (I'm thinking of people like Adam Hyde, or Mitch 
Flor, but I'm sure there are also others);

- I suggest to set up the process in a way so that this transition 
mostly runs off-list, with regular reporting on the list; you need to do 
this in a small committee with committed people;

- ideally, part of this process would be done in a real-life meeting, or 
at least in hybrid form; maybe somebody here has resources to invite a 
handfull of people for a few days, for the Nettime Transition Sprint?

Best regards,
-a


Am 11.05.23 um 21:10 schrieb Geoffrey Goodell:
> Hi Felix and all,
>
> No.  Let's not close the list.
>
> I believe that Jan's offer of help is valuable.
>
> Why is it not sufficient?  Is it because it does not come with a server?
>
> Well, I have a server that can be put to good use here.  I'll be able to sort
> out the details by tomorrow at the latest, but there is no reason why we cannot
> install Mailman and some MX records.  Really, this is not a big deal.
>
> Are there other kinds of volunteers needed?  Really, let's be explicit.  We
> have the capacity.
>
> I look forward to coordinating with Jan, and perhaps others, to make this
> transition a success.  I do not seek to usurp anyone's authority here: I am
> happy to do this to be helpful but will gladly support others to make this
> happen instead, if others are more appropriate for the job.
>
> But what I can say is that nettime-l will continue, barring some explicit
> attempt to block it.
>
> Please let me know:
>
> (a) If you want to help me, or
>
> (b) If you think you can lead/run/support this better than I can (I won't argue
> with you if so.  My goal is for nettime to continue.)
>
> Best wishes and thanks again --
>
> Geoff
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