[seul-edu] 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 originally was the (the first and for quite a
while the only) discussion list for those interested in using Linux
for education. This covers all aspects of educational uses of Linux,
by teachers, parents, and students.  In the years seul-edu has been
in existence many other groups have sprung up with similar
interests, diluting the discussion on each mailing list or web forum
since there were so many of them.  For that reason we formed the
Schoolforge coalition so we could have a central place for the
general Linux in education discussion.  With Schoolforge's creation,
the purpose of this mailing list changed somewhat.

The seul-edu mailing list is currently primarily for the discussion
of various SEUL/edu projects.  These include the ISO project, the
Educational Application Index, the Casestudies project, and our
eventual LUG educational support materials project.  We haven't been
militant about moving general discussions on Linux in education over
to the schoolforge-discuss mailing list, but that's probably a
better place for them.

As you can see, our purpose here is to work on spedific SEUL/edu
projects.  Messages that do this 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