Perhaps we need to have a [email protected] for novices to ask questions, and make this list be member-only?
This list is valuable to me, since I do a fair amount of work with font and encoding issues. But I am not a member of the Unicode Consortium (for financial reasons) and would not wish to see this list limited to members of the Consoritum, if that is what you mean by member-only.
It is truly admirable -- and unusual in today's world -- that experts like Ken Whistler and others will answer a novice's question. Such answers not only get the right information into people's hands, but in my view enhance the reputation of the Unicode Consortium and the work of Unicode in general. The fact that everyone is welcome on this list seems to me fundamentally connected with the process of enabling people to use computers easily in whatever language they need, which (to me) is what Unicode is all about.
Those who know more can usually see where a thread is going and just delete those they aren't interested in.
David
