[school-discuss] On- and off-topic

[Doug Loss <drloss@suscom.net>]

I've been asked to reiterate the purpose and goals of this mailing
list, which seems to me to be a reasonable request.

This mailing list is an open forum for members and supporters to
discuss actions and goals of the Schoolforge coalition.
Schoolforge's mission is to unify independent organizations that
advocate, use, and develop open resources for primary and secondary
education. Schoolforge is intended to empower member organizations
to make open educational resources more effective, efficient, and
ubiquitous by enhancing communication, sharing resources, and
increasing the transparency of development. Schoolforge members
advocate the use of open source and free software, open texts and
lessons, and open curricula for the advancement of education and the
betterment of humankind.

As you can see, our purpose here is to work toward the acceptance of
open resources in primary and secondary education and to extend the
utility of those resources to this sector.  Messages that do any of
these things are on topic; ones that don't, aren't.

We're not tedious, niggling proctors who frown on anything that
might be slightly out of line.  There's certainly room for the
occasional off-topic message in the interests of friendship and
cameraderie.  But it's probably best for us all if we practice some
discretion in our posts and rein in any off-topic threads we're
participating in before they get too lengthy.  After all, we're all
interested in the stated topics of this list while anything
off-topic is guaranteed not to interest a good portion of the people
here.  That's why I'm not posting pictures from my trip to Greece!
(Trust me, you wouldn't want to see them--we're lousy
photographers.)

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Doug Loss                 All I want is a warm bed
Data Network Coordinator  and a kind word and
Bloomsburg University     unlimited power.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Ashleigh Brilliant