An answer to John's [5499] and Paul Z's [5500]:
> Actually, I asked the same question as John--who is asking? Can anyone
> enlighten us on that? I would want to presume that this decision is not
> "much ado about nothing".
[Sorry, Paul for not responding earlier -- I wanted to listen to what
more members had to say on this subject before writing further, but ...]
Well ... I don't want to start naming names on the list. However, I will
say the following:
(1) A number of people outside of the list have appealed to me to make
the archives public. Mostly, these have been graduate students who
heard about OPE-L from the chatter on other lists.
(2) As the "public face" of the list, I have been on several occasions
personally and viciously "flamed" for the list policy on the archives.
(3) While many on this list haven't had any objections to the current
list policy on the archives, it is very hard to defend to those
outside of the list and might seem to some to support Andrew K's
characterization of OPE as a "secret society." While the explanation
for why the list itself is closed seems reasonable enough to most
non-members, a number of people have written posts on other lists to
say that our archives policy shows that we are "elitist."
(4) As for "much ado about nothing", let me ask the following question: do
know anyone, perhaps students, for whom the archives might be a
valuable educational and research tool?
In solidarity, Jerry