A response to Jerry and Riccardo and in general on the function of OPE-L.
I think a discussion of this kind is most valuable for just what it is
turning out to be: a wide-ranging, informal, relaxed and engaged
discussion of questions that interest the participants.
I'm not so enthusiastic about proposals to create more structure or more
ambitious goals for this list, such as writing papers, or a book, or
distributing working papers for comment (though I see nothing wrong with
subsets of the list members doing these things, if they are inspired to).
Speaking at least for myself, an increase in the expectations of list
members would make participation a lot less possible and attractive.
I agree wholly with Jerry on keeping the list closed and relatively
small, for the reasons he outlines, and I don't see anything undemocratic
or even particularly unfriendly or exclusive about doing that. Perhaps we
should try to spawn some daughter lists if there's demand for them.
Duncan