North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Greg Miller" <gsmiller@cet.com>]

Robert,

One word describes the issue of NAFEX membership as a 
prerequisite to membership on this list:  AMBIVALENCE.

There are NAFEX members adamantly opposed to use of a list 
*with the NAFEX name* by those who are not NAFEX members.  
Others think there should be more open discussion, with the idea 
being to utilize the broadest base of expertise.  There have been 
SPECIFIC exception granted for members of other fruit culitivation 
organizations, including BCFTA and Oregon Home Orchard Society 
(sorry if I got that last name a little bit off.)

It may be the natural evolution of dissemination of information to 
move to an electronic means, but the interests of those who pay 
dues to NAFEX and who don't subscribe to this list need to be 
respected too.  Most people find this list because they belong to 
NAFEX.  In many ways it is a service of NAFEX.  There are 
legitimate concerns that taken to an absurd extreme, contributions 
to this list may diminish submissions to POMONA, which is the 
official publication of NAFEX.

As long as this list uses the NAFEX name some balance needs to 
be exercised, and to date publicizing this list has been one of the 
concessions.  Although there isn't any way to completely contain 
any information on the internet, there isn't an easy way to find this 
list outside of the info in POMONA.

It isn't an accident that this list has ALWAYS been unlisted in its 
various incarnations on onelist, egroups, and now yahoo.  
Circumventing that practice by publicizing this list through other 
routes may raise the risk of more heated discussions regarding the 
rules for inclusion on this list, which always carries the risk of a 
more restrictive policy.

The dues for NAFEX are pretty minimal.  I don't lose any sleep that 
referring someone who has a genuine interest on fruit cultivation to 
join NAFEX is overly demanding.  The other thing people should 
consider is that there is still a lot of good stuff that shows up in 
POMONA that never makes it to this list.

Greg Miller

On 11 May 2001, at 14:44, Robert H. wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> On occasion I bump into people on the net who are looking for info
> general fruit growing or a specific fruit issue. I usually tell them
> to look at the NAFEX website and think about joining if your serious
> about it. I hope this is a way of helping in the payback of all the
> info I got from this group. But I havent mentioned the onlin forum but
> once. 
> 
> I know when I first joined this forum there didnt seem to be any
> membership requirements. I dont know what the rules are about this
> forum.  Will it be ok if I tell non-members about this forum, or do
> you all wish to keep this forum for memebers only?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
> http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 
> 
> 



 

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