Syndicate: some general list-related stuff

[Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@v2.nl>]

dear friends,

these times are very hectic and intense, and i would like to raise a few
general points.

a lot of people are subscribing to the list in the last days (5-10 every
day), i guess because it is one of the open public forums for getting
information about real people concerned about recent events in yugoslavia.
this and the fact that all the focus is now on this one issue, means that
the nature of the list is changing quite a bit; we will have to see later
what it will become, but for the moment i guess we will just have to go
with the flow ...

for those who have subscribed only recently: the Syndicate list is a
channel used by a network of 360+ media culture and media art related
people in and beyond europe who have, for over 3 years, been communicating
through this list about events and projects they are involved in. a lot of
the list members know each other personally, they have met in different
places and have often done projects together. this is why some things will
appear very personal, others cryptic. take it for what it is.

something that i am in two minds about is that postings from the list are
channelled to other lists and also put on websites as 'real info'. i guess
that, given the semi-public nature of the list, this can hardly be
prevented, but people who post stuff should bear in mind that there are now
plenty of strangers listening in on this conversation. if you see this as a
problem, we should discuss this. my own feeling is that we have a primary
right to defend a certain degree of intimacy, even if this sounds stupid
given the online archive etc. we are getting far more exposed than ever
before, and i am concerned what that can do to the network.

the list is open, so please remember not to send subscribe-messages to the
list directly:

To subscribe to the Syndicate list, please, write a message to
	syndicate-request@aec.at
with the following text in the body of the message:
	subscribe your@email.address
To unsubscribe:
	unsubscribe your@email.address

also, when responding to messages, be careful not to send a copy of the
entire previous message - don't waste bandwidth! and don't even try sending
attachments, or the Great ASCII Avenger will come upon you!

and finally, a message to those who have discussed the legitimacy or not of
the NATO airstrikes, and the peacefulness or not of the yugoslav
nation/government/army. we must have these arguments, but remember not to
take the war here. i am fascinated to see to what a large degree some of us
are still tied to the opinions generated by our physical environments,
russian opinions, greek opinions, french opinions, german opinions,
yugoslav opinions. the basis of this conversation must be mutual respect.
people draw different conclusions from the situation they observe, and they
act in ways for which they have to take responsibility. my idea of
friendship is that you can disagree, but not drop the respect for your
friends. this is not any old public forum for discussing political matters:
this is the syndicate mailing list, and we are gearing up for our next
meeting in belgrade or budapest, and we keep our friends posted about our
bit of reality. don't take the war here.


yours, with love,

-a