North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

> How do we control the Mullah so he sends only to people who can't 
> honestly afford membership?  That is one problem. There are also just 
> as many, maybe more, dishonest Americans than in allthestans.


Personally, I think you're worrying FAR too much about this hypothetical 
band of rogue fruit-lovers who can't wait to get their hands on a 
bootleg copy of "Pomona." Are you also that worried about libraries? Or 
about members who pass their copy on to a friend after reading it? Most 
organizations - and even some businesses - consider this to be good 
publicity.*

And if you think about it, these fruit-enthusiast thieves would have to 
be current members of NAFEX, people actually dropping their membership 
because they can steal a free issue, before this would do NAFEX any harm 
at all. Assuming some mastermind actually bootlegs "Pomona" to 
fruit-lovers all across the world (the mind boggles), that actually 
means that he'd be fulfilling NAFEX's goal of education even better than 
we're doing now. How would this be a problem, even in the unlikely event 
it would happen? Are we just that obsessed with the idea that someone, 
somewhere might be getting something for nothing?

I don't know how many people are on this email list, but with all the 
great information available here, I suspect that it furthers NAFEX's 
goals even better than "Pomona," especially considering that the 
archives are available online. And I'm sure some people on this list 
aren't members of NAFEX. I wasn't, at first. But why is that a problem? 
Most of these people no doubt have a far more casual interest in fruit 
than our typical member, at least right now. If you kick them off the 
list, they won't join NAFEX. They'll just get their free information 
elsewhere. If the list stays open to them, they might get hooked on 
fruit, and THEN they're likely to join.

If you want to share your love for fruit, then share your love for 
fruit. Why the huge concern that someone might be getting information 
free? Or the really bizarre concern about bootlegging "Pomona" to the 
rest of the world? I just don't get it. Do you really think that 
increased restrictions within the group will *increase* membership? That 
was the whole point of this original discussion, that membership in 
NAFEX is HALF what it used to be. I suspect that the vast majority of 
the world - the vast majority of people even in North America - have 
never heard of NAFEX. Maybe we actually need a bootlegger to get the 
word out for us.

IMHO, making NAFEX more secretive and less open to prospective members 
is exactly the wrong direction. We don't join NAFEX because information 
is not available elsewhere. There's more information already available 
online than any of us have time to read. No, we join NAFEX to support 
the organization, to share our love of fruit-growing, and because we 
like the group and the people in it. There is *way* too much concern 
here that someone else might be getting something for nothing.

Just my opinion, of course. Things are different in the Internet age. We 
must recognize that and evolve, or die out like the dinosaurs.

Bill
Lincoln, NE

*PS. Many publishers post full copies of their books online - entirely 
free. Check out Baen Books, for example. ( 
http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm ) Sure, a lot of people 
probably read these for free and never buy the book. But they feel that 
the publicity is worth it. If you try a book online, you might become a 
loyal fan of that author. And most people WILL buy books. I've read 
these, because it's a great way to discover new authors. These are 
commercial enterprises, for-profit book publishers, who are posting 
these. Why would we worry more about disseminating free information than 
they do?

--
Men have a much better time of it than women; for one thing, they marry 
later; for another thing they die earlier. - H. L. Mencken