Taxacom: TAXACOM -- the long goodbye

[Tony Rees]

Sad news of course, but thanks for all the fish! (to quote from a well
known novel...) Now we will have to find another place to ask curly
questions and expect a wide and informed readership. But huge thanks for
the instigators and sustainers all along the way.

I also presume that content will remain accessible via the internet
archive. I just checked for https://lists.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom/ via the
wayback machine and it said that page had not been archived before (which
is weird) so I have put in a request for it to be added, now actioned, see
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20251208190649%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Flists.ku.edu%2Fpipermail%2Ftaxacom%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C5335a67a1e7d41bb30a508de368da053%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C639008180837062011%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=kHjeqFxauf3T4Likpyk0B%2FKjp545%2BzFpPzdrVHlthTA%3D&reserved=0

If there is a little more traffic before the list actually closes, they may
or should update that record as well, with one or more new capture dates,
for so long as it remains online of course... otherwise this snapshot
should certainly persist.

Regards to all - Tony
Tony Rees, New South Wales, Australia
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On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 at 06:02, Beach, James H. via Taxacom <
taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:

> Dear Taxacomers --
>
> When Drs. Richard Zander and Patricia Eckel started the online service
> "Taxacom" in 1987 at the Buffalo Museum of Science in Buffalo, New York,
> access to the online resource was through dial-up modems. It was years
> before global internet mail or the World Wide Web.  They graciously allowed
> me to assist in sustaining Taxacom as we evolved it from the original
> bulletin board to Bitnet Listserv software, and later Mailman software, at
> universities in Michigan, Massachusetts, California, and finally Kansas.
> Dr. Peter Rauch co-managed Taxacom with me for all of that time.
>
> During the 38 years, we have had innumerable rigorous, nuanced,
> interesting and fun scholarly dialogues.  We focused on important and
> complex topics in systematics, biogeography, taxonomy and nomenclature,
> among other areas.
>
> After consulting with the Richard and Patricia (now at the Missouri
> Botanical Garden) and with Peter, we agreed that this would be a good time
> to retire Taxacom and ride off into the sunset.  We plan to close the
> Taxacom email list later this month (December 2025). This could be a bit of
> a shock or perhaps a bit of relief for some.  Feel encouraged to send any
> thoughts you may have to the list (soon) or to me.
>
> We would like to recognize the many intellectual contributions hundreds of
> scientists have made to the Taxacom collective consciousness on research
> issues.  But it seems hardly possible to adequately acknowledge all of the
> cognitive and keystroking effort you put in over 38 years that made Taxacom
> worth receiving and reading.  I hope you feel a sense of satisfaction and
> accomplishment for keeping Taxacom subscribers enlightened, and sometimes
> even entertained, with your wisdom and wit.
>
> I will archive the e-mail contents of the Taxacom mailing list archive in
> standard ".mbox' format files, so should there be a scholar or initiative
> in the future interested in what you all did here the archived mail will be
> preserved and easily read.   I will make those files available upon request
> to anyone early in 2026.
>
> Thank you again for subscribing, contributing, or for just hanging out
> with Taxacom.  It has been fun, and it has been a good run.
>
>
> With best wishes,
>
> Jim Beach
>
>
> James H. Beach
> Biodiversity Institute
> University of Kansas
> 1345  Jayhawk  Blvd
> Lawrence, KS 66045
> Cell:   785.331.8508
> _______________________________________________
> Taxacom Mailing List
>
> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity for 38 years, 1987-2025.
>
> Send Taxacom mailing list submissions to: taxacom at lists.ku.edu
> For list information; to subscribe or unsubscribe, visit:
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> You can reach the person managing the list at: taxacom-owner at lists.ku.edu
>
>
>