[at-l] Thoughts

[saunterer@jimbullard.org (saunterer@jimbullard.org)]

I've been thinking about what makes AT-L and ATML different and the 
metaphor that comes to mind is wilderness vs. garden.

Ryan acquired a piece of the virtual landscape and set it off as a preserve
for those interested in hiking and who wanted to talk about hiking. He let
that landscape seed itself naturally with whomever came in. There was no
promotion of the virtual landscape to attract a particular kind of hiker, no
preference for one species of hiker over another or selecting of any kind of
hiker for weeding out as undesirable. It's a "wild and natural" mail list.

WingFoot's piece of the virtual landscape is a garden. He puts up an
attractive web site to draw the kind of hiker he wants in his garden much 
like gardeners plant specific plants to attract certain birds or 
butterflies. He cultivates the virtual soil with special attention to those 
he finds desirable to keep them there and encourage them to grow into the 
kind of hikers he wants in his garden. He weeds out those he deems 
undesirable or fail to grow as he wants them to. Trailplace/ATML is a 
highly "cultivated and formalized garden" type of mail list.

This isn't intended as a value judgement but just as a way to understand 
the difference because they *are* different.  After trying both, I've 
decided that, like the places I prefer to walk, I like my mail list 
"wild".  YMMV

sAunTerer