Deduping the CSSA Once Active List
Jacob Beauregard
So I just finished going through the emails. I certainly didn't gather every email address of everyone ever, and I know Tucci notably used many different email addresses. This needs to be seen as a people list rather than an email list for the time being.
Through October 2003, I posted every email per person I came across in the first sheet in the workbook.
Following that, I created a second sheet. I did a bit of a lax job in the second sheet, posting everyone legit for a few months, and then continuing my original strategy of avoiding dupes. In the second phase I usually disregarded different emails for the same person and just seeing them as a person. That sheet's still all by month, and I deleted months that didn't introduce anyone new. Not all of them were CS students, and they may have never sent more than one message... but they sent a message.
Anyone who posted a message requesting removal from the list that seemed disinterested in the list altogether, aside from people who had been extremely active at one point like Alison (I forgive you), I cut and pasted to the bottom of the original sheet. There were a number people who requested that the list not be spammed with information about more casual activities that I just left in the second sheet.
I know of at least one person who died that had posted. Sasi may not be the only one. There's also at least one person I know that is homeless who I will not point out. He or she may not be the only one. It's wise to consider either of these scenarios when attempting to contact people.
The first follow-up task will be to unify the list. Then we need to find present contact info that's verifiable (i.e. this person went to UVM). After that it's all pure networking.
Please contact me individually with a Gmail/Google account if you're interested in helping to organize the list in particular. I'm not going to post a Google Docs edit URL with email addresses when there's clearly a spambot or two on this listserv. If you don't want to help organize the list, but may be interested in networking with the people on the list, please let the rest of us know.
We might be able to extend the reach by getting the full subscriber list, but anyone who was ever active on this list is likely going to bring more potential than anyone who wasn't, though I will say that there are some people I didn't really see (e.g. Abe) that were active in the organization but not the listserv.
I thank everyone for whatever time they are willing to put into this.
-Jacob