For more than a decade, pen-l has been growing in terms of the number of participants and the quality of the postings. The list has given me great gratification. I have met wonderful people. I have even had the privilege to spend time with some of you because of our acquaintance on pen-l. I understand that others have had similar opportunities.
Over the last few weeks, our system has been down on week ends because of upgrading. This down time has made the list more sporadic. [The good news is that our software has been upgraded and I think that we will be able to fix our headers problem so that you will be able to identify the source of our messages.]
In addition, two of our most valued participants, Lou Proyect and Doug Henwood, have begun lists of their own. Both of these lists overlap with the purpose of pen-l. As a result of the down time and the popularity of the two new lists, a lot of energy on pen-l has dissipated.
I want to know what direction we should take. On another list, Barkley Rosser has said, and not without reason, if the new lists, kill pen-l, so be it -- the logic of the marketplace of ideas. Off line, Jim Devine told me that he thought that pen-l serves a different purpose, creating a different type of space than the other lists.
I thought that I should pose the idea to you and to cross post this message to the two other lists in order that we can decide what course of action to take. If the collective wisdom turns out to be that we should let pen-l expire, then in advance I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for making pen-l the valuable experience that it has been.
If some of you from the other lists want to try out pen-l, you are welcome to do so. Just send a message to listproc at galaxy.csuchico.edu sub pen-l YOUR NAME
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-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu