Taxacom: TAXACOM -- the long goodbye

[Tony Rees]

Hmm... it seems that my request has triggered the Internet Archive to
archive the main Taxacom threads page now, but not any of the linked
sub-lists as yet. Perhaps their crawler will now do so, or there is more I
have to do. Will keep an eye on it!

Cheers - Tony
Tony Rees, New South Wales, Australia
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fabout.me%2FTonyRees&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C9a17c498fede45b94a3708de368e2d37%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C639008181454857132%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=cTJXTWVw4Tz1LAwWdpOR0aBwiCOdgiHQKr8v0hQ8NBs%3D&reserved=0


On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 at 06:11, Tony Rees <tonyrees49 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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 the wayback machine and it said that page had not been archived before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%7C9a17c498fede45b94a3708de368e2d37%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C639008181454876069%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=bmaiP35nmRPoKIPbHW1XXI19o33jqljZJGOR%2BcWS%2B%2Fs%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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> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irmng.org%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C9a17c498fede45b94a3708de368e2d37%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C639008181454904862%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=yYTj37%2BCwv3Hj5nLAOARdnZi4mRemm5grfgiwDh%2BQJ0%3D&reserved=0
>
>
> 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
>>
>>
>>