Ted and Felix, firstly let me say that it's nice to read your email concerning the list.
I guess lots of us lurkers think we are not eloquent enough to get into discussions. Perhaps some of us are not used to virtual exchange, or just cant bother to take sides that are so uniform. It might happen that we are killing the list if we don't let hyper active ones to act. At the end, lurkers are here to learn from drama of leftright hyper zigzag. Personally, I like some posts that some others don't and would hate to miss them. My daily amount of Morlock and Morlock-haters is something I love to hate. I would miss it. If that is what nettime is, so what? This said, I fully expect that other lurkers write and hopefully there is new wind in nettime sails, so am fully supporting your initiative. Kruno On Fri, Jun 7, 2019, 16:42 nettime mod squad <[email protected]> wrote: > Nettime is in bad shape, don't you think? > > It has still a lot of goodwill, and more generally there's renewed > interest in formats of exchange and collective thinking that > aren't defined by the logic of social media. But the dynamics that > social media companies exploit are hardly limited to a handful of > platforms. For example, nettime has its own 'influencers' -- a 1%, > so to speak -- who generate the vast majority of list traffic. > That's been true for years. The discussions they sustain may > variously seem interesting or annoying, but either way they've > become somewhat formulaic. An attentive reader knows more or less > what to expect based solely the subject and the sender; and even > meta-discussions about whether the list is dominated or by this or > that tendency are largely dominated by the same few people. > > Some might argue the debates that have animated nettime over the > last year -- the trajectories of postwar society, neoliberalism, > the 'digital,' complexity, surveillance and big tech, Brexit, > media and elections, Assange, even the Anthropocene in all its > terrifying inclusiveness -- are the defining issues of the day. > Maybe so. But if the nettime project had settled for a consensus > model of the defining issues of the mid-'90s, it would never have > gotten off the ground, and it certainly wouldn't exist almost 25 > years later. The challenge, we think, is to maintain a space that > attracts ill-defined ideas and uncertain issues -- things and > not-things that don't quite exist yet and yet haven't been buried > under torrents of authority and theory. > > So, what can we do? > > In the past, we've asked people to think about outreach -- say, > inviting new people from new contexts. It seems like that's had > limited success; but at a time when nettime has been limping > along, it's hard to get excited about inviting people to join an > environment so heavily defined by habit. We've also joked that > shutting it down before it fades into complete senescence might be > best. But that joke wasn't really funny, in part because it wasn't > meant to be: it was a way of expressing serious concerns about the > list's increasingly parochial status. > > Now, we have a simple proposal: let's switch roles. > > It goes like this: > > If you've posted more than others to the list in the last 60 or 90 > or 120 or 180 days -- the math matters less than the spirit -- take > a break. Let others define nettime, a space made up of nearly 5000 > subscribers. > > If you haven't posted to the list -- say, because it seemed like > your ideas, concerns, or whatever you want to share wouldn't fit > with nettime's habits -- maybe that will change. > > Think of it as an un-grand experiment: a way to see what else > might happen, who else might speak, what less familiar ideas, > perspectives, or styles might spring up. Maybe the list will fade > into silence, and we'll be left with a paradoxical object, a list > composed *entirely* of lurkers -- not such a bad non-end for > nettime. Or maybe not. There might be many ways to find out. For > now, rather than the 1% debating how narrowly to define good > manners, let's see if a different 'we' can change things. > > > -- the mod squad (Ted and Felix) > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: > On Fri, Jun 7, 2019, 16:42 nettime mod squad <[email protected]> wrote: > Nettime is in bad shape, don't you think? > > It has still a lot of goodwill, and more generally there's renewed > interest in formats of exchange and collective thinking that > aren't defined by the logic of social media. But the dynamics that > social media companies exploit are hardly limited to a handful of > platforms. For example, nettime has its own 'influencers' -- a 1%, > so to speak -- who generate the vast majority of list traffic. > That's been true for years. The discussions they sustain may > variously seem interesting or annoying, but either way they've > become somewhat formulaic. An attentive reader knows more or less > what to expect based solely the subject and the sender; and even > meta-discussions about whether the list is dominated or by this or > that tendency are largely dominated by the same few people. > > Some might argue the debates that have animated nettime over the > last year -- the trajectories of postwar society, neoliberalism, > the 'digital,' complexity, surveillance and big tech, Brexit, > media and elections, Assange, even the Anthropocene in all its > terrifying inclusiveness -- are the defining issues of the day. > Maybe so. But if the nettime project had settled for a consensus > model of the defining issues of the mid-'90s, it would never have > gotten off the ground, and it certainly wouldn't exist almost 25 > years later. The challenge, we think, is to maintain a space that > attracts ill-defined ideas and uncertain issues -- things and > not-things that don't quite exist yet and yet haven't been buried > under torrents of authority and theory. > > So, what can we do? > > In the past, we've asked people to think about outreach -- say, > inviting new people from new contexts. It seems like that's had > limited success; but at a time when nettime has been limping > along, it's hard to get excited about inviting people to join an > environment so heavily defined by habit. We've also joked that > shutting it down before it fades into complete senescence might be > best. But that joke wasn't really funny, in part because it wasn't > meant to be: it was a way of expressing serious concerns about the > list's increasingly parochial status. > > Now, we have a simple proposal: let's switch roles. > > It goes like this: > > If you've posted more than others to the list in the last 60 or 90 > or 120 or 180 days -- the math matters less than the spirit -- take > a break. Let others define nettime, a space made up of nearly 5000 > subscribers. > > If you haven't posted to the list -- say, because it seemed like > your ideas, concerns, or whatever you want to share wouldn't fit > with nettime's habits -- maybe that will change. > > Think of it as an un-grand experiment: a way to see what else > might happen, who else might speak, what less familiar ideas, > perspectives, or styles might spring up. Maybe the list will fade > into silence, and we'll be left with a paradoxical object, a list > composed *entirely* of lurkers -- not such a bad non-end for > nettime. Or maybe not. There might be many ways to find out. For > now, rather than the 1% debating how narrowly to define good > manners, let's see if a different 'we' can change things. > > > -- the mod squad (Ted and Felix) > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: > On Fri, Jun 7, 2019, 16:42 nettime mod squad <[email protected]> wrote: > Nettime is in bad shape, don't you think? > > It has still a lot of goodwill, and more generally there's renewed > interest in formats of exchange and collective thinking that > aren't defined by the logic of social media. But the dynamics that > social media companies exploit are hardly limited to a handful of > platforms. For example, nettime has its own 'influencers' -- a 1%, > so to speak -- who generate the vast majority of list traffic. > That's been true for years. The discussions they sustain may > variously seem interesting or annoying, but either way they've > become somewhat formulaic. An attentive reader knows more or less > what to expect based solely the subject and the sender; and even > meta-discussions about whether the list is dominated or by this or > that tendency are largely dominated by the same few people. > > Some might argue the debates that have animated nettime over the > last year -- the trajectories of postwar society, neoliberalism, > the 'digital,' complexity, surveillance and big tech, Brexit, > media and elections, Assange, even the Anthropocene in all its > terrifying inclusiveness -- are the defining issues of the day. > Maybe so. But if the nettime project had settled for a consensus > model of the defining issues of the mid-'90s, it would never have > gotten off the ground, and it certainly wouldn't exist almost 25 > years later. The challenge, we think, is to maintain a space that > attracts ill-defined ideas and uncertain issues -- things and > not-things that don't quite exist yet and yet haven't been buried > under torrents of authority and theory. > > So, what can we do? > > In the past, we've asked people to think about outreach -- say, > inviting new people from new contexts. It seems like that's had > limited success; but at a time when nettime has been limping > along, it's hard to get excited about inviting people to join an > environment so heavily defined by habit. We've also joked that > shutting it down before it fades into complete senescence might be > best. But that joke wasn't really funny, in part because it wasn't > meant to be: it was a way of expressing serious concerns about the > list's increasingly parochial status. > > Now, we have a simple proposal: let's switch roles. > > It goes like this: > > If you've posted more than others to the list in the last 60 or 90 > or 120 or 180 days -- the math matters less than the spirit -- take > a break. Let others define nettime, a space made up of nearly 5000 > subscribers. > > If you haven't posted to the list -- say, because it seemed like > your ideas, concerns, or whatever you want to share wouldn't fit > with nettime's habits -- maybe that will change. > > Think of it as an un-grand experiment: a way to see what else > might happen, who else might speak, what less familiar ideas, > perspectives, or styles might spring up. Maybe the list will fade > into silence, and we'll be left with a paradoxical object, a list > composed *entirely* of lurkers -- not such a bad non-end for > nettime. Or maybe not. There might be many ways to find out. For > now, rather than the 1% debating how narrowly to define good > manners, let's see if a different 'we' can change things. > > > -- the mod squad (Ted and Felix) > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: >
# distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
