[Buddha-l] What's the use of buddha-l?

[Richard Hayes]

Dear denizens,

Buddha-l was founded eighteen years ago (November 1991), when the Internet was a much different place than it is today. (For those who like history, a brief history of buddha-l is available at http://home.comcast.net/~dayamati/history.html) The purposes for which buddha-l were established are now being served by numerous other venues on the Internet, most of which do much better what buddha-l was meant to do. To refresh everyone's memory, here is what buddha-l is supposed to be all about: 

\begin{blurb}
Buddha-l functions as an open forum for informed discussion of topics relating to the history, literature and languages, fine arts, philosophy, practices and institutions of all forms of Buddhism. 

The primary purpose of this list is to provide a forum for reflective discussion. It is open to all persons inside and outside the academic context who wish to engage in substantial discussion of topics relating to Buddhism and Buddhist studies. 

Buddha-l is not to be used for proselytizing for or against Buddhism in general, any particular form of Buddhism, or any other religion or philosophy, nor is it to be used as a forum for making unsubstantiable confessions of personal conviction. Lively debate is welcome, but we aim for a deep concern both for the matter being discussed and for those participating in the conversation.
\end{blurb}

My own observation is that buddha-l, if it ever lived up to that description, has not done so for quite some time. It is no longer clear to me that buddha-l serves any purpose at all in 2009. It seems to me it has been superseded by other mailing lists, by numerous blog sites, by social networking sites and by countless repositories of reliable scholarly information. With such resources as wikipedia, Google scholar, facebook, blogger and wordpress providing easy access to information, misinformation, opinion and prejudice in much larger quantities than buddha-l can provide them, who needs buddha-l? It may well be time to lay it down and let it die a peaceful and dignified death. 

The decision on what to do with buddha-l, however, is not mine alone to make. At this stage of the game, I am interested in hearing from anyone who would like to weigh in on the question of whether buddha-l still has a niche in serving any useful purpose. If you have something to say about this matter, please send your thoughts to buddha-l itself or privately to me and/or to Jim Peavler (jmp at peavler.org). After we have gathered your thoughts, Jim and I will meet someplace over a plate of tacos and green chile stew, and we'll decide what do do. At least, we'll decide which coin to flip to decide the future of this forum.

Richard Hayes (rhayes at unm.edu)
Co-founder (with Jim Cocks) of the original buddha-l at louisville.edu
Co-moderator (with Jim Peavler) of the current buddha-l at mailman.swcp.edu