NavList:

Matus Tejiscak, you wrote:
"I've been reading (and occasionally participating in) NavList only for a couple of years"

And while we're here, thank you for your contributions to NavList discussions! This is a community, dependent on those who join the show. The cast of characters changes with the passing years, but we're defined by community.

You added:
"I think it's safe to say that this place has been kept up mainly (only?) thanks to Frank's persistence and long-term work; running the infrastructure, moderating messages, posting discussion hooks."

Thank you! I do a great deal of infrastructure management. That could be farmed out. For example, many years ago we were hosted under Google Groups. Then later under a mailing service called "freelists". But it's been my services for many years, and my approach has stood the test of time. Thank you also for noticing something that I consider important: "discussion hooks". I do try to start new topics and threads on a regular basis and count that as part of my role as group manager. They don't all work. Some die out quickly. But no problem! We've all experienced that... You craft an interesting message, but then it draws few (or zero) reactions. There's no magic to this. Sometimes, the lack of replies means the topic wasn't sufficiently intriguing, but even more often it means that a post was self-contained and complete ...no reply needed!

You concluded:
"To celebrate this occasion, I sent a small contribution for NavList ops."

Thank you so much, and thanks also to the others who sent NavList Operations contributions this month. It helps tremendously, and it also has the benefit of convincing me that my work is worth my time. Money does that! For any of you who are not in the mood or in the financial place to send a donation this month, I'll say now that I intend to put out a formal call for NavList Ops donations in September. It's very easy now. I added newer credit card processing and bank processing, in addition to the PayPal-based system that I used for many years. I know some of you were previously turned off by the prior system.

The future of the NavList community is limited by a number of factors. The long slow decline of celestial navigation as a practical tool and as a subject of entertainment for enthusiasts continues... It may even be accelerating. In addition demographics work against us. As we age as a group --and certainly this group skews "toward the right" on the age spectrum-- previously active followers shift into "retirement" mode and find other things to do with their time. Or health concerns keep them away. Or they simply get their fill and move onto a new fun obsession! And on top of those factors, the evolution of the internet creates centrifugal pressures. For many years commercial social media have drawn people away from single-topic, website-based online communities, like NavList, and now AI chatbots can provide the sort of discussion interactions that were once the unique attraction here.

The future of the NavList community depends on interesting conversation, skill and conversation above and beyond the "consensus engines" of AI chatbots, and it also depends on drawing in new participants and followers. Smart people with interesting stories, ideas, and skills matter. That's what has always made the NavList community vital and fascinating. I'm doing what I can on that front, and I have invited a number of people who have recently become very active NavList contributors (welcome! you know who you are!). And we continue to draw new members who discover us on their own --drawn in by the gravitational pull of the long archive of discussions that we have held over many years. I do believe there is a strong future for this community, but there's no question that it takes effort to keep it alive. We hope for the best!

Frank Reed