Re: The List

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Chip Atkinson <chip@xxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Stan.

In the past we've taken a poll of the list members and the majority of
people wanted to keep the topic fairly narrow -- tesla coils.  HV is a
pretty wide subject and the decision was to keep two lists.

Back in the ancient days before the web became popular even, there was a
"tesla coil" list, USA-tesla.  When I and some of the other early list
members were first on it, it was more or less on topic and useful.
However, it didn't take very long and the discussions went far astray into
"new-agey" stuff, and even included a discussion on merkaba breathing and
how whales could do it naturally and transport themselves off the earth,
etc.  Needless to say, the utility of such a list to those interested in
tesla coils and how they work was rather low.

At that time I decided to start my own list dedicated to scientific
discussions of tesla coils, their construction, operation, and principles.
My main motivation was my own interest in coiling and how to get sparks
out of them.  The only requirement of the list was that the discussion
stay on topic.  I had seen the USA-Tesla list go from useful and
informative to utter ruin just because of straying far off topic.  Flame
wars also degraded the quality of the list.

Having seen a reasonably good list get destroyed, I decided at the outset
that this list would stay on topic and flame wars would be extinguished
quickly.  Because of this relatively high signal to noise ratio, we've
been able to retain knowledgable coilers and keep the "value" of the list
high.

I personally feel that the members of this list are nothing short of
amazing, both in their knowledge and dedication.  I don't know if you were
on the list at the time, but when the previous server died, there was a
tremendous outpouring of financial and purchasing assistance.  I was able
to purchase a $5000 server for only $1000 out of my own pocket.  Check out
the web site for the list of contributors for more information.  Not just
money goes into a good list, but people's time as well.  By contributing
their observations and findings as well as asking questions that others
have, the entire community increases the value of the list.

Anyway, my feeling is that a narrower focus makes the list more useful.
Others may wish to provide their opinion and I'm always open to hearing
what they have to say.

Chip

On Thu, 22 Feb 2007, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: Stan <wsmg@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hey All,
>
>         This list of friends(coilers) is awesome! When your thinking
> sparks Marx generators and Van DeGraff generators and anything else
> to do with sparks seem to fit in and this is where everybody wants to
> look and talk about coils and SPARKS. Why not just let it be
> here(HV-TC) on 1 list? It would be 1 less place to monitor  and 1
> less place to look?
>
> Stan
>
>
>