I lke the spirit of everything Allin says below, although I am still
pretty indifferent as to whether the archives and/or list should be
opened. However, I think it may not be appropriate to try to 'pin
down' Andrew's motives quite so precisely. In particular, in recent
posts, he has adverted to the problems of OPE-L being, apparently,
one of the few outlets for TSS work. This might provide a legitimate
motive for him wanting the archive (at least) open.
> To my mind, the sort of use that Andrew envisages for the
> ope archive, if it were opened, makes a pretty good argument
> for keeping it closed. IMO, the "proper" use of access to
> the archive would be (e.g.) as a source of problems,
> tentative arguments and so on, that might, say, stimulate or
> offer some direction to a good student. Andrew, on the
> other hand, seems to wish to use it as a means of pinning
> people to certain positions which he can then attack (or
> defend). This is obviously tempting, but seems to go
> against the spirit of the list. The putting of a position
> into reasonably well-defined black-and-white is the function
> of the print medium. If I publish a journal article I'm
> saying to the world, "This is my view; cite it, attack it or
> defend it publicly if you like." Sometimes I feel the same
> about my postings to ope and sometimes I don't -- they can
> be much more tentative than that (even if baldly stated at
> the time!).
>
> Allin Cottrell
> Department of Economics
> Wake Forest University
>
>
>
>
*===================================*
Michael@mwilliam.u-net.com
"Books are Weapons"
Dr Michael Williams
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