This email is awfully late, but I have some thoughts about Kirby Olson.
I don't think he should have dropped from the list. He just needed
to have his ideas challenged.
I was in the process of doing that when he was eliminated. You may
be aware of the practice of socratic irony where you pretend to be
sympathetic to someone's point of view to get them to try to explain
their ideas. Not to spring a trap on them necessarily because they
may have some good ideas, but in order to better analyze their
thoughts. We're all on a search for the truth after all.
The best discussion groups I've been involved in had a leader or
moderator which, however, is impractical for this list. Maybe there
could be some "Rules of Discussion" established that participants
could read before taking part on the list.
As someone told me once, everyone has a right to express their ideas
with respect but everything should be up for discussion.
