Moneta was created as a closed list where only list members could
view the posts. There were no limits on who could join, so anyone
who made the effort to join could see them, which means the posts
have always been a public archive. The reason for a closed list was
to limit spammers ability to harvesting e-mail addresses from the
list, which made sense at the time. Unfortunately, some aspects of
the world we live in have changed, making it necessary to open the
archives to the general public.

That change arrived as small group of bloggers who joined Moneta in
order to sifts the posts for information they could use against the
coin collecting community. This is not really a problem as long as
they quote people correctly, in the context of what was said. Their
problem is that there is so little of actual use for them in the
posts, that some have taken to misrepresenting the statements of our
membership by quoting either out of context, quoting incompletely,
and occasionally simply lying about what was actually said.

To give an appearance of credibility they provide links to the
original posts, but seem to understand that most of their target
audience are not Moneta members, and probably will not join Moneta
just to view a single post. Since they have no reason to believe the
blog is misleading, and with a closed list they cannot view the
original posts to find out, most will just assume the bloggers are correct.

The Moneta-L moderators and list owners have now discussed the
situation. As of this moment Moneta is no longer a closed list, and
anyone following the links on those blogs will be able to see the
original posts.

It is important for all list members to remember that anything you
post has always been archived as a public record that anyone who took
the time to join the list could access. People still need to join to
post to the group, and the only thing that has changed is that others
can also read the posts without the added complexity of having to join.

Robert Kokotailo (moderator).

Robert Kokotailo
Calgary Coin

WEB SITE : http://www.calgarycoin.com
VCOINS ANCIENT : http://www.vcoins.com/ancient/calgarycoin
VCOINS MODERN : http://www.vcoins.com/world/calgarycoin


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]