>> ...Generally people react quite negatively to having
>> something taken away (much more so than to an a equivalent gain)...
>
>....And even when what is "taken away" wasn't theirs to begin with.
>
>It never ceases to amaze me how many people complain that something is
>being "taken away" when it was a freebie to begin with.
I agree it's neither fair nor rational, but that's just how people are.
It really is nearly universal; what's there to be amazed about?
>No one has any
>inherent right to post to a list maintained by someone else, and
>restricting the list will not alter one bit the right of non-members
>to form their own list--hell, I'll host it myself if they really want
>one. The question is not what the list posters want; the question is
>how ExI can best spend /its/ money. If a closed list is of the greatest
>benefit to ExI--not the posters, just ExI--then that's what they should
>choose to pay for, nothing more.
Of course it's ExI's decision. But since ExI has goals of outreach and
increasing membership, how people will react to their actions is a reasonable
part of their decision. A rational person has to account for others'
irrationality.