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Good point. However, list-groups probably still have useful functions, partricularly in the case of JISCmail with its archive. I also suspect discussion would remain thin because of time constraints and the atomisation of discourse. I wonder if a group blog would help address the latter, and partially address the former. Once we start considering the question of encouraging and maintaining discussion it is useful to look at what exists already, and to note the opportunities and constraints therein. There is a diverse range of geography-relevant blogs and projects out there already. I've come across several, including: http://www.whereproject.org/ http://www.spaceandculture.org/ http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/ http://hood.theory.org/ http://space.frot.org/ The thing missing from these is a wider participation and sense of context - an example of which is apparent here: http://www.crookedtimber.org/ Note that the description of Crooked Timber reveals a cross-disciplinary community: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crooked_timber My take on this is that it fosters both specialised and general discussion, giving the thing sufficent appeal to people outside of any given area of interest. Helps to keep it ticking over. The hitch is that group blogs like Crooked Timber require more attention in terms of setup and management. If the options are a) a low-maintenance mailing list/bulletin board, or b) a high maintenance facility like a weblog, my guess is that the discussion will remain sparse until someone takes up the latter as an institutional project. David > -----Original Message----- > From: A forum for critical and radical geographers > [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ben Newham > Sent: 22 May 2005 02:48 > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: List/Forum > > An email list seems somewhat old-hat today. I think it would > be more productive to have a proper forum running the > vbulletin forum software or something along the same lines > (ideally open source and therefore free of charge). It would > certainly make the disscusions easier to navigate and I think > would probably result in more active discussion. > > Ben Newham >