Hello all,
 
I just wanted to add my $0.02 to the discussion about brevity and
purpose.  I am still a novice beekeeper, entering my third year, and I
have found some of the "chatting" on BEE-L about beekeeping practices
all over the world to be invaluable.  How else would I have learned
about Top Bar Hives, which I am planning to start this spring??  Of
course, I realize that I am not one of the "purists", utilizing the list
to discuss pure biology, so my affirmation of this practice will
probably hold little weight with the scientists, researchers, and other
professionals on the list.
 
A while back, Allen proposed splitting up BEE-L, having a separate
mailing list for the science-oriented and one for the beekeepers,
hobbyist, commercial, sideliner, just interested.  At the time, I didn't
think that this would be a good idea, as I thought of BEE-L as a kind of
"ask the experts" type of forum.  I can see now that I was mistaken, and
that the "experts", by both their silence and their migration away from
the list, feel that way as well.  How difficult would it be to start
another mailing list, either exclusively for researchers/scientists, or
for the general beekeeping public, as BEE-L appears to be today??  Would
it help solve this seemingly unsolvable problem??  I do think that Allen
has a good idea with his web page, but some of us have little or no web
access, even today.  I think that an email solution (whatever it may end
up being) should be the way to reach the maximum number of beekeepers
who would benefit.
 
Just my opinion of the situation, FWIW.
 
Kevin Palm
Grafton, Ohio