[Oman-l] Purpose of this list

[Joachim Duester]

Dear OMAN-L members,

Several members have complained to me off-list about postings not
directly relative to Oman, and six members have unsubscribed. Even
though the problem of Palestine is one of great concern to all of us,
don't forget that this is not a general chat forum or a discussion list
of Middle Eastern affairs but a mailing list on OMAN, and subscribers
expect postings to be relevant to Oman. 

May I also ask list members to observe the following hints which can
make life easier for all of us:

1) Hitting the reply button may be an easy way to post, but make sure
you really want to send your message to ALL list members. A "thank you"
message to someone who has supplied valuable information through the
list is certainly polite and appropriate, but should not be sent
indiscriminately to 240 list members. Send it directly, i.e. off-list,
to the person you want to thank. Also, if you use the reply button, make
sure that the old subject line is relevant for your posting. If not,
give it a new subject.

2) Preferably send plain text messsages with no file attachments. The
list can't 'digest' file attachments. 

Please, if you find anything interesting relative to Oman - events,
books, websites, etc. - post it to the list. There are so many new books
published on Oman during the past year, and no-one has voiced any
opinion about them. In particular, I would like to mention Cal Allen &
Lynn Rigsbee's "Oman under Qaboos", Isam al-Rawas' "Oman in early
Islamic history", Hussein Ghubash's "Oman: une démocratie islamique
millénaire" (also published in Arabic) and, a bit longer ago already,
Carol Riphenburg's "Oman: political development in a changing world".
Plus the vast amount of specialized studies and all the new travel
guides which have been published
during the last two years! And, after a lapse of several years, the
Ministry of National Heritage & Culture has resumed publishing the
"Journal of Oman Studies" of which volume 11 finally appeared this
summer. [sorry, just got carried away with my frency for books!]

Best wishes to all of you, and never mind ...

Joachim Duester
list manager for oman-l