This happened at a time (even now) when Telugu Digests are being sent
intermittently. I do not have access to SCIT (thank God for small favours)
and thus know of things happening on SCIT, only when and if I read them
in the Digest. The proposal by Vadlamani Viswanath for such a group,
enthusiastic support to that proposal by some including Aravinda, were
known to me only a few days later. I too noticed that no one pointed
out such a group exists, in an off-the-usenet flavor.
In the initial welcoming message of the group, and in any subsequent
variations of it, never once it was said that this group intends to
remain secret, semi-secret, or any such. People were encouraged to
pass the word to others of like interest. Of the approximately sixty
names I see in today's list, there are many whom (or who?) I included
solely based on a request, with none whatsoever known about their
"trustworthiness". I see at least a dozen names who are total strangers
to me. I don't know how they became aware of this group and joined.
I have no clue as to even their interests, because they haven't
posted anything. Obviously they are reading the stuff; otherwise the
bombardment of their mailboxes with the frequency (on some days) of
this group's posts would be very distracting, to say the least.
Thus, no attempt was made to keep the group a secret. On the other hand, no
attempt was made to advertise it in all sundry places. On the other other
hand, no attempt was made to discourage anyone from doing so.
By the way, Vadlamani Viswanath, at the time he proposed an alt group,
was a member of this group.
Ramakrishna