Taxacom: TAXACOM -- the long goodbye

[Andrew Whittington]

I would like to add my thanks for all the years of interesting discussion, particularly vital for someone working alone and outside of mainstream institutions and unable to attend conferences (for largely financial reasons). Taxacom was sometimes my only link to very pertinent discussions and comments and I have learned a great deal over the years from it.

My thanks and my respect

Kind regards,
Andrew

====o0o====?
Andrew E Whittington
Consultant Entomologist, PhD, FRES MCSFS
+44(0)74 8383 0992

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"Taxonomy does not need quick publications, it needs serious and solid ones.?
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________________________________
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> on behalf of Peter Bowler via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
Sent: 09 December 2025 05:29
To: TAXACOM <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
Cc: Beach, James H. <beach at ku.edu>
Subject: Re: Taxacom: TAXACOM -- the long goodbye

My thanks joins that of everyone who has written in thanking Richard, Patricia, James and Peter for Taxacom - which has been a vibrant setting of exchange for 36 years!!!!!!!!  Thank you - and I wish there were a way, perhaps in a different venue, to continue it.

THANK YOU!

Peter

> On Dec 8, 2025, at 11:02?AM, 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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