Taxacom: TAXACOM -- the long goodbye

[John Grehan]

Richard and Patricia deserve the highest honors for having the foresight in
making Taxacom happen, and of course everyone else who helped it remain
viable for so long. In this world of political and scientific silos a venue
like this with participants from very different and often opposing
viewpoints could share and engage with a single platform on the widest
range of topics involving taxonomy, systematics, biogeography and
evolution. That is truly amazing. None of the 'prestigious' science
societies or Big Science programs ever came up with something like this.
Says a lot about institutional science. I for one do appreciate the unique
opportunity to have this broad interface and it, and the people with whom I
have interacted, will certainly be missed.

John Grehan

On Mon, Dec 8, 2025 at 2:02?PM 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.
>
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>
>
>

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