Alpine-L ListServ retiring January 2018

[TheOnionMan]

Below is a message sent to Alpine-L membership announcing the retirement of the Alpine-L ListServ as of January 2018

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Dear Alpine-L members,
 
This message announces retirement of Alpine-L as of Jan 2018, 22 years since inception in 1995. It also marks my upcoming 7-year anniversary of stepping up to the plate assuming Co-List-Owner of Alpine-L, Jan 2011.  I posted vigorously on this platform for many years, and a friend of founder Harry Dewey, but it seems time to move on with current technology.

Regrettably Alpine-L has fallen into disuse.
2017: not counting auxiliary announcements by stalwart regulars Cliff Booker & Margaret Young, Alpine-L had a mere 9 member posts in all of 2017.  The two resources mentioned in Cliff & Margaret’s posts can be found elsewhere with URLs provided below.

Useful links moving forward after Alpine-L retirement:
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AlpenPix photos (recent photos appear at the top of the listing)
http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/Temperate/index.php?gal=AlpenPix

Parent to Alpine-L and other botanical ListServe groups is FloraPix.nl
http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/

SRGC - The International Rock Gardener - Index to monthly free e-Newsletters
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=international

Alpine-L archive message links (two versions, the first one is my preference)
http://mailman.science.uu.nl/pipermail/alpine-l/
http://www.mail-archive.com/alpine-l@science.uu.nl/index.html

Sincerely,
 
Mark McDonough
Alpine-L list-owner
antennaria at aol.com
Massachusetts, USA
***your Alpine-L account settings***
     http://mailman.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/alpine-l
***Alpine-L archive message links***
     http://mailman.science.uu.nl/pipermail/alpine-l/
     http://www.mail-archive.com/alpine-l@science.uu.nl/index.html

[Diane Whitehead]

Thank you for posting this as the message hasn't reached me yet.

Will the archives remain?  There is so much information stored there,
though it is not easily searched.

I guess I should start downloading information I want to keep.  Yesterday I read
a thread on Castilleja germination  (Jan 2012)

[TheOnionMan]

Will the archives remain?  There is so much information stored there,
though it is not easily searched.

Yes, archives will remain, thus the reason for including the links as a reminder. And I agree, too bad the info is not searchable as it's locked up within the Utrecht University list-serv servers, but at least it's reachable. LOL, I just re-found my spoof on the Alpine-L post on Aquilegia genus revision, which is also located in this forum.

[brianw]

Posting hasn't reached me either.
My first discussion group in its 1st or 2nd year from memory, on dialup connection probably ;-)

[TheOnionMan]

Looking into why the announcement apparently has not successfully sent, I think I've located the problem.

Update: successfully sent announcement 12/04/2017

[Maggi Young]

Your rather sad announcement reached me by email, McMark.

[TheOnionMan]

Your rather sad announcement reached me by email, McMark.

You were among 19 Alpine-L members set for "no mail" status, so I individually copy-&-pasted all those addresses into a separate email sent from my AOL email.  According to Eric, the only two ListServs still active are Trillium-L, and Arisaema-L specifically for their seed distribution, the others have "dried up".  True that it's sad, the end of an early technology era.

[ranunculus]

I'm not surprised or disappointed, this excellent resource has run it's course and has served it's purpose for many years ... we must be be so grateful to Harry, Eric and Mark for their remarkable efforts over the years. It was fun while it lasted and of great value to rock gardeners everywhere. Hopefully Alpenpix will continue to offer some delights to aficionados for many years to come?

[TheOnionMan]

Hopefully Alpenpix will continue to offer some delights to aficionados for many years to come?

I imagine AlpenPix will live on. Looking at this tremendous resource, and as Alpine-L members will surely know, you were hugely instrumental in feeding that resource with your wonderful photos of alpine plants in the wild. The site does allow adding notes and comments, thus in itself has some ability to offer discussion potention.  AlpenPix uploads and links can still be posted on horticultural social media such as SRGC Forum (yay) and Facebook plant groups, probably reaching a much larger audience than Alpine-L with diminished membership under 400 members.

Everyone, take a tour around AlpenPix, well worth spending a few hours perusing wonderful alpine plant portraits, a large number of super photos by Cliff. 
http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/Temperate/index.php?gal=AlpenPix