A Brief History of Harp-L from Michael

["Michael Polesky" <m.polesky@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

We did indeed have a 10th birthday a while back as Harp-L founder
Chris Pierce mentioned.  Chris was the architect of the whole idea of
what a list for harmonica on the internet could provide.  We owe him a
great debt of thanks as several folks have mentioned.  Chris was the
first "owner-harp-l".  Thank you Chris and we're proud to have you
aboard.

The second owner-harp-l was Hugh Messenger and we owe him thanks for
finding us a host when we needed one and setting up a system that
lasted nearly 10 years to the day!  Harp-L would never have gotten
past the first year or so without him.  Hugh also designed the harp-l
web pages, which were in use for several years.  Thank you Hugh
wherever you may be.

The third owner of Harp-L was none other than the great Danny Wilson.
Danny was owner-harp-l for a relatively short period of time before he
handed it over to me.  However, this was a crucial time in Harp-L
history.  Harp-L was in danger of losing our hosting services and
Danny stepped in and arranged a sponsorship with SPAH, which allowed
Harp-L to keep running when it faced its most mortal danger.  A
special thank you goes to Danny Wilson and then SPAH President Bob
Williams for the SPAH sponsorship to which we are all so grateful.

I am the fourth owner-harp-l.  I will probably most be remembered for
presiding over the "great crash of 2002"!  However, I want to remind
you all that we have several people who also have done a great deal
for Harp-L - particularly during the trying months while we were down.
Harp-L has a "technical advisor", Jonas Karlsson, who basically does
all the dirty work.  Jonas set up the list from scratch for us and put
in many hours of hard work doing so.  He deserves a hero's praise.
Also, there is Danny Wilson, our webmaster.  Harp-L's web pages are
currently found at: http://www.spah.org/VIRTHARP.HTM.  There is a lot
of useful information available there.  In addition we need to thank
harp-l-workers, especially fjm and Bobbie Giordano, who continuously
scan the list traffic for unsubscribe requests or other material that
requires attention.

I wouldn't mind some revisions of any errors I made here in this brief
history of Harp-L.  I thought it was important to point out who all
four list owners were and remind you of what they have contributed.
Enjoy,

Michael