Taxacom: TAXACOM -- the long goodbye

[Roger Burks]

I don?t post much here, preferring to lurk, but I could suggest a new home
for community curated Taxacom-like group. It?s not perfect, but nothing is,
and it functions in the same spirit: Reddit. Just a suggestion.

It might not be a solution here and now, because I absolutely get dislike
of social media. However, it could resemble a solution someday ahead.

Also, thank you all for keeping Taxacom going for so long!

Roger

On Mon, Dec 8, 2025 at 11:02 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
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> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity for 38 years, 1987-2025.
>
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>
>