> Many of the lists/networks I subscribe to tend to be more anti-social
> than anything else. This one is far better than average.
Historically, this list has been unlike anything I've seen elsewhere. It's
as close to the "campfire experience" as you'll probably ever see on the
Interwebs. Other than the Oben experience (don't ask--you can pretty well
guess), it has been an environment made up of friends from various walks of
life. If there is any one stereotype, there are a lot of engineers on this
list. The non-engineers are various flavors of "Doctors" both medical and
educational. There are more bonifide SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) around
here than I see anywhere else. And most importantly, this group is made up
of many highly generous individuals.
All this has created a nice environment of people who pretty well like each
other and consider each other friends. I can't think of anybody that I
wouldn't put up for the night. OK, OK, I might have to think twice about
Andrew. ;)
The list has definitely evolved over the years. Before digital, it was all
things OM. When the E-1 came out, most of us did get one of them. Those who
didn't get the E-1 got the E-300. But that's where it started breaking
down. More and more people went Canon (specifically Canon for lens
compatibility and image-quality reasons). Most importantly, with this
transition, we lost the unified focus of the OM system as being the
commonality between us. It's not that we discussed OM all the time (this
list is more known for off-topic converstations than on-topic
conversations), but it was the one thing we all could find as an
overhanging banner or signature. Nowadays there are only a small handful of
us even using the OM system. With the exception of a couple of years, I've
been on this list since I think 1996 or 1997. It was right after the server
moved across an ocean for the first time. I remember Michael Covington
being heavily involved at the time and was extremely welcoming to me and
others.
AG
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