Admn: Need your help to fish for more brains

[Sanjeev Sabhlok <sabhlok@almaak.usc.edu>]

Dear friends,

There are many, many, people whose involvement in this list is crucial,
but who have neither heard about this, nor have the time to examine the
goals and features offered by IndiaPolicy, nor know how to subscribe even
if they have e-mail. 

As a result of the switch to moderation, I have now got access to a set of
commands which enables me to subscribe people myself. I do not wish to do
this, ordinarily, since (a) it will simply increase my work and (b) it
could be construed as a non-voluntary thing, whereas the fundamental
concept we are promoting is individual choice and freedom. 

However, there are cases where that might be a better solution in the
interest of getting the involvement of some very competent people whose
spare time is being wasted on non-policy matters, such as having coffee
with friends in the evening (!). I would like to request you to write a
mail to your personal friends whom you think to be valuable in terms of
their potential to contribute to the quality of discussions and the points
for the 'manifesto' and reqeust them to let you know if they have any
objection to joining the list. If you do not receive any objection from
them within say, 10 days, you could send me their email addresses. I will
then re-confirm their 'no objection' from them before finally subscribing
them manually. 

I am enclosing a copy of the mail I had sent out to some of my own
"selected" friends a while ago, as an illustrative mail. 

Also, I think it is essential to help the existing subscribers set up mail
filters to ensure that all mail from india_policy goes straight into a
sub-folder to prevent cluttering up the main mailbox. I am familiar with
the .elm methods, and know a bit about procmail. I would appreciate the
computer techies on this list taking the time off to send me the
filteration techniques on various mail software such as Eudoro, yahoo,
hotmail, etc., so that I can make a web page on filters, to help the
members of the list streamline their mailboxes. 

SS
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[copy of my letter: only for illustrative purposes]

Subject: No objection ?

Hi,

You perhaps are aware of the indiapolicy discussion list about which I
must have sent you mail some time ago. In the meanwhile much water has
flown (the list is 3 months old now) and we have about 70 members
including many Professors, journalists, civil servants, engineers,
doctors, chartered accountants, advocates, business managers, chambers of
commerce rep., etc., many living in India itself. Many more are keeping in
touch with the list through its web page which receives about 200 hits
from **different** hosts (i.e., different users) each week.

The list has been converted into a moderated one in order to prevent
inappropriate postings. I think that the quality of discussions has been
constantly rising and the sense of purpose is getting further refined. 

You have not yet joined the list. I think there are essentially two
reasons for people not joining the list: 

a) they are too busy and have no time to participate
b) they are unable to subscribe due to the intricacies involved.

I have now got access to commands which can be used by me to subscribe
people to the list without their having to do so themselves. I am sending
this to you to request you to send me mail IF you DO NOT want me to
subscribe you. If I do not receive such mail within 10 days, i.e., by the
22nd of July, then I'll take the liberty of subscribing you on my own. I
will then assume that your subscription is voluntarily motivated. 

Of course, you could subscribe before these 10 days by going to the web
page of IndiaPolicy and following the instructions there.

By the way, there are tools available called 'filters' which can sort your
mail from indiapolicy into separate folders automatically and thus prevent
your regular mailbox from getting overloaded. And, you could participate
in whichever thread of the discussion that you feel comfortable with. So,
technical issues are manageable, I think.

The web page is www.indiaconsult.com/indiapolicy/

With regards, and hoping that everything is going fine, as usual,

Sanjeev






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