Another TC Discussion List ...

Today, as I received an invitation to join another discussion group for New Testament textual criticism, I was reminded about an old blogpost I wrote here six years ago (how long have I been blogging here?; the years go by) about the many discussion lists for NT textual criticism, "TC Discussion List Inflation?"

I then listed three TC discussion lists started after the original TC list (founded by Jimmy Adair and Tim Finney) had died out:

Textual criticism, founded April 23, 2004
496 members; 23 messages in Dec 2007
Excerpts from the description: posts must be on-topic. contributors should be familiar with the contents of the web pages given in the Links section; moderated by Wieland Willker
URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/textualcriticism/

This list is still operating and I subscribe to it. There are 742 members. I note that many renowned scholars post here from time to time. However, mostly I don't read the many endless discussions over various topics.

TC-Alternate-list founded July 31, 2006
51 members; 51 messages in Dec 2007
Excerpt from the description: for people with a wider set of views; less formal atmosphere; "more freedom to discuss many related issues of interest (theology, doctrine, humour, politics); anonymity allowed; credentials not required or desired.
URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TC-Alternate-list/

This group is still operating and it has 130 members. I am not one of them.

Tclist
83 members; 90 messages in Dec 2007
Excerpt from the description: as little moderation as possible; discussion of the King James Version Only (or TR Only) viewpoint not tolerated; Each list member should be identified by given and last name
URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tclist/

This group is also operating (low activity) and has 142 members.

And, today I received an invitation to yet another discussion group:

You are invited to join the discussion-group NewTestamentTextualCriticism. The Yahoo groups Textualcriticism and TC-Alternate have been rendered difficult to use, thanks to a recent redesign of Yahoo Groups' format. This Google Groups discussion-forum will promote well-organized discussions, as well as the sharing of news (related to the main subject), files, links, and images. James Snapp, Jr. is the moderator of this group.

About this group:
A forum dedicated mainly to the analysis of textual variants in witnesses to the text of the New Testament, with the goals of reconstructing the original text, increasing the confidence of such reconstruction, and tracing the history of the text's transmission.

 I will not join this group – participation in one discussion group is quite enough for me. Further, I assume that to a large extent there is an overlap so that some folks are members of several such groups.

TC Discussion List Inflation?

Recently I was invited to yet another "TC-list", i.e. a discussion list focusing on textual criticism of the OT and NT. Once upon a time there was one TC-list run by James Adair and Tim Finney. This list died out, and now there are three (to my knowledge):

Textual criticism, founded April 23, 2004
496 members; 23 messages in Dec 2007
Excerpts from the description: posts must be on-topic. contributors should be familiar with the contents of the web pages given in the Links section; moderated by Wieland Willker
URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/textualcriticism/


TC-Alternate-list founded July 31, 2006
51 members; 51 messages in Dec 2007
Excerpt from the description: for people with a wider set of views; less formal atmosphere; "more freedom to discuss many related issues of interest (theology, doctrine, humour, politics); anonymity allowed; credentials not required or desired.
URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TC-Alternate-list/

Tclist
83 members; 90 messages in Dec 2007
Excerpt from the description: as little moderation as possible; discussion of the King James Version Only (or TR Only) viewpoint not tolerated; Each list member should be identified by given and last name
URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tclist/

The first list, started by Wieland, filled the gap after the old TC-list. My guess is that the second list started because some people wanted to discuss Textus Receptus Only, KJV-only, or "wider issues" (e.g. doctrinal, etc). Perhaps some also felt surpressed because of lack of academic credentials (as judging from the list description). The third list, I suspect, also has to do with the moderation on the first list, but there is now an avoidance of KVJ-Only/TR-Onlyism and strict focus on academic discussion (which is good).

This is my highly subjective interpretation (full of guesses) of a development that is rather sad. Now we have three lists (and some seem to contribute to more than one). Time will tell if we have reached the peak.

Update: the second list, TC-Alternate-list, has been discussed on this blog here