I do not see SCIT as a wild beast or as a shrew or as a
garbage ridden street, as was described in the last couple
of days. I do not see autocopying as a way of sanitizing
SCIT either. (Ironically, at least two of the posts from the
allegedly wild, unsanitary SCIT were posted in this mailing
group as fodder for further discussion in the last week).
I agree with aravinda in her description of SCIT as
being anemic and as needing a transfusion to keep it vibrant
and full of zestful life. I also think that one of the
unintended side effects of the establishment of TELUSA is
that a significant portion of what little lifeblood is left
in SCIT three months ago has been siphoned off. Topics and
posts that could have enriched SCIT remain confined to a
small group.
The very openness of SCIT that is bothersome is also
its real strength. When SCIT has a lot of Telugu content, it
attracts more Telugu readers. The more readers there are,
the more activity there would be. New people appear on the
net with interesting contributions about Telugu literature.
If SCIT continues in its current vein of low Telugu / non-
Telugu ratio, there won't be many lurkers and precious few
new posters. The net thrives when new frequent participants
arrive and replace the inevitable decline of the old
frequent participants. (The same would hold true for TELUSA.
Of the 70 or so people that receive the digest, there are
less than a dozen that regularly participate. TELUSA would
need regular inflow of new blood too. It would be difficult
if SCIT doesn't attract new participants.)
To address an issue raised by Sri Palaka Rao and
seconded by Ramakrishna garu: There has been no 'tacit
agreement or resolution' to the autocopying question.
Authors copying to SCIT was one of the suggestions put
forward like the other suggestions (to try autocopying for a
limited time was another proposed solution). A few days ago,
aravinda asked ratnakar to collect votes to bring this issue
to a resolution. I think ratnakar agreed to do so. We can
now bring this issue to an actual resolution.
'Why don't we leave it to authors to cross-post'?
-------------------------------------------------
I was skeptical of the authors themselves crossposting
as a solution. The last three weeks reinforce that
skepticism. Since the UTexas gateway (and others too) has
been closed, many TELUSAers find it difficult to post to
newsgroups. Posting through Telugu Digest (which used to
post through the now defunct UTexas gateway) robs the posts
of their individuality - even the subject heading does not
appear on the net. I found it difficult to post to SCIT even
follow-ups to my own posts. Since the idea was put forward,
only a few TELUSAers have copied their TELUSA posts.
Won't the 'wild denizens' of SCIT bite our head off if
------------------------------------------------------
we cross post?
--------------
Palana, Sreenivas Paruchuri, I and aravinda and a few
others have been posting to SCIT. In the last three weeks, I
haven't seen anybody attack any of their posts. Some of them
have been civilly greeted, some of them did not get many
follow-ups, but none of them were made fun of or were abused
or attacked. Most of the people who post frequently now in
TELUSA used post regularly in SCIT. I do not recall any of
their 'literature related' posts being attacked in SCIT.
The coziness of the listserv is a myth
--------------------------------------
There is also this repeated assertion that somehow
autocopying to SCIT would rob the TELUSA posts of their
spontaneity and the risk-taking because of the familiarity
and coziness of the listserv. We don't even know half the
people that are receiving TELUSA posts. Many of them have
neither posted, nor introduced themselves. Despite that,
except for a couple of posts that didn't even belong in
TELUSA (they were personal e-mails really), I didn't see any
posts that appeared here that wouldn't have been appropriate
on SCIT if there was no TELUSA at all (with the exception of
the debate about SCIT). As I said before, I would not advise
anybody to post anything on TELUSA that they would not feel
comfortable posting in any public group.
Over the last three weeks since this issue has been
brought up, there have been a few (thankfully, not many)
posts that seemed to say 'So what if SCIT has not much
Telugu content? We don't care and don't bother us about it'.
Given that the entire charter membership of this group is
based mostly on acquaintances made and strengthened through
SCIT, it was quite surprising for me to hear that.
Ramakrishna indicated earlier that we are neither
elitist nor secretive about our existence. However, many of
the arguments I see seem to have one or both of those
qualities.
I would request all of you to give autocopying a try.
It may surprise you by working.
Regards. --- V. Chowdary Jampala