Re: Regency discussion group

[email removed] (Roger Sanger) writes:
> I was wondering how the TML and the TNE-pocket were formed.
> Would it be difficult for someone (such as myself) to administer
> another discussion group, say, one on the Regency?

Although I realize that you question was directed at James (and I don't know
how TML was formed, since I haven't been here that long), I can answer about
TNE-Pocket and GDW-Beta.

In the case of TNE-Pocket, the list has its origins in the complaining,
moaning, and wild speculation that went on here on the TML during the months
leading up to the publication of Survival Margin and then Traveller: The New
Era.  An interesting discussion had just finished, where the members of the
TML all pitched in a collective effort to detail a sector.  Then a new round
of (mostly pointless) discussion about the shape of the New Era arose.

At some point, the New Era and the subsector detailing project merged in my
brain, and I suggested that interested members of the TML join in detailing
an area of space in the New Era - a Traveller: New Era Pocket Empire.
George W. Herbert graciously offered to administer a mail reflector and
archive site out at ocf.berkeley.edu, and the rest is history.

I believe this all happened during a short period when the TML was down for
one reason or another.  The discussion was carried on "TML - Not!", and
should be in the TML-Not archives on sunbane.  One of the major reasons for
taking that discussion off of the TML was that it quickly turned to subjects
that weren't relevant to the TML as a whole - the Traveller equivalent of
"how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" (how many starships does
the Gralyn Union have in 1200, for example).


There is one other active Traveller discussion group, GDW-Beta.  This group
was originally formed by invitation to playtest and check Fire, Fusion, and
Steel prior to its publication.  In this case, the size of the group was
limited both at GDW's request and fit the group's planned activities.  That
initial function done, the group has generally settled into a rules and
design sequence discussion.

Because GDW-Beta operates off of my work site, I'm reluctant to expand the
membership greatly.  However, I have thought of a way that GDW-Beta can be
of more help the the TML community in general.  If you have a rules
question, send a copy of it to [email removed] and all of us on the
list will see it.  There's a good chance that some one of us knows or can
get the answer, and we'll get it back to you.


> Would any of you TML'ers be interested in having access to such
> an area?  Who wants a discussion area on the Regency?

Having been the instigator at least partly responsible for two discussion
gruops, I'm hardly the person to tell you "No" (and the Internet being what
it is, I certainly can't stop you).

However, I do suggest that a debate on the nature and structure of the
Regency is well within the TML's scope and charter, and is probably of
interest to the majority of the members of TML.  If it gets to the point
where Regency-related traffic threatens to swamp the TML, you can always
take it off to a separate discussion group at that time.

So, in short, my response is "Yes, let's talk about the Regency" and "No, we
don't need a special-interest group to do that, the TML is fine for now".


[email removed]
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