Herman asked:
> Does Springboard still exist?
The Springboard list was closed some time ago after more than a year of no activity. At the time it cost me extra. The extra cost is no longer a factor, I can start as many lists as folks have need for. All I ask is that someone besides me act as administrator of any new lists. That was the case previously, the folks behind Springboard volunteered as administrators. I am happy to administrate oe and dialogue but don't wish for more administrator work (not that it is too hard).
On the discussion of oe vs dialogue lists:
Blessed are those pragmatic folks who subscribe to both lists and don't mind double posts. They shall inherit the kingdom of heaven! :-)
I am in the process now of extracting and studying who is on which list. My impression is that most people don't want to miss news of order folks, but not everyone likes the discussion on dialogue. Ideally everyone would be on oe, which has lower traffic (except when we are discussing the difference between oe and dialogue <grin!>) and so is easier to tolerate, and those who want the discussion would also join dialogue. That way double posting of important news (e.g. deaths) would not be necessary. But the reality is some folks are on oe and not dialogue, some are on dialogue and not oe, and still others are on both.
The original concept was to have an oe and ica list. We called ica "dialogue" only because at the time the relationship between many order folks and the official ICA was more strained than it is today with Terry at the ica helm. We didn't want any confusion of our community list with the institutional ica, so we chose a different name. Even though relationships are good now, that separation is probably still a good policy. In any case, dialogue has evolved to more of a discussion list than a community news list, and has less to do with institutional ica.
One detail. I approve requests for subscriptions. Since there are spammers who try to join the list, all I do is send an email asking what the person's relationship to oe or ica is. The spammers never reply, and it is always obvious when the person is a non-spammer who really wants to communicate with our community. When that is evident, I approve the request. I don't have any criterion which list they join. But if we get a consensus on the distinction, I could inform new folks, and they could respond accordingly.
Tim