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The Western Canon Mailing List
Moderator: Paul John Barnette Jr.
Activation Date: March 8, 1997
Current Date: May 3, 1997
Current Membership: 43
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Dear Paul,

My name is Matthew Morrissey of Boston Massachusetts.  I was delighted
to hear of - and preview - your enlighting site. My interest in
literature primarily is personal but I do hold a BA in English-with
plans for Grad. school in the fall. 

How is participation?  How many are on the list?  How many readings
has the group done?  Would it be possible to e-mail them if the 
number is not to great?  It would be most interesting to me.  At any 
rate, thanks for your good work and I look forward to reading along!

Sincerely,
Matthew


Response:

Thank you for your kind words about my site. Let me try to
answer your questions one at a time.

(1)How is participation?

If  by participation you mean the frequency at which list members
post to the group then I would have to say that thus far the level of
participation is far below my expectations. I decided to assume this
is because of the youth of the list and am going to wait and see if
the number of postings increase over the next couple of months. In 
order to help facilitate this increase I plan to make one original 
posting per week to the list myself. If only half of the current 
membership would make one posting a week, either an original one or a 
response to a previous posting, this would generate around 80 postings 
a month. This would in my mind be the sigh of an active mailing list.

(2) How many are on the list?

Currently there are 43 members of the mailing list. The current 
membership is displayed in the top header of each posting.

(3) How many readings has the group done?

Thus far we have completed the first reading selection and are now 
starting on the second. During the month of April the first selection 
was Thorstein Veblen's "The Theory of the Leisure Class". The current 
selection during the month of May is John Milton's "Paradise Lost".

(4) Would it be possible to e-mail them if the number is not to 
      great?

If  by this you mean that you desire to obtain all the addresses 
of the members of this mailing list, then I have to inform you that I 
have decided not to make that option available to anyone for reasons 
of personal privacy. The only person who will have access to 
everyone's email address is myself and no one else. I realize that 
many if not most of the automated lists have a command whereby anyone 
on the list can obtain a complete listing of the email addresses of 
the members, but I personally I find this to be a an infingement on 
the privacy of the list members. With this said, however, there is 
nothing to stop anyone on the list from  voluntarily giving out their 
email address to others on the list if they so desire.

Paul John Barnette Jr.


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