> Actually we are about to make a change. To post to the Extropians list you
> will need to be a member of Extropy Institute, although non-members will be
> able to read only.
I may be a little premature in saying this (since you haven't given your
"hows and whys"), but I think this decision may turn some good people off
extropy. Having to pay to join an institute to participate on a
discussion has a culty feel to it, even if the justification is to reduce
the signal-to-noise ratio. Also, I don't think being a member of the
extropy institute implies you make less "noise." Some people may join the
extropy institute for the purpose of making some noise on the list.
Others, who would contribute a lot to the list, may not be interested in
joining the extropy institute, either for monetary reasons or because they
do not want to incur the wrath of those who would take out their petty
frustrations on the members of the extropian movement.(ie. misguided
neo-luddites)
One restriction I would like to see is allowing only list-members to post.
Restrictions beyond this may reduce the S/NR, but I don't think the
reduction noise will be worth the loss of perfectly good signals! ;)
Geoff