From your friendly moderator, a moderately interesting message.
As you may or may not know, OMT is a moderated list. This means that every message has to be "approved" and every request needs to be validated. As I told you before, the approval criteria for messages are strict but very low: messages need to be compatible with AOM and OMT´s values, and, if commercial, closely related to OMT´s mission. I know some of my colleagues and perhaps even myself would benefit immensely from inheritances from Sub-Saharan Princes and disgraced Babylonian rulers, fail-proof methods to learn foreign languages in 10 days, miraculous herbal remedies that help re-grow hair, restore youthful vigor, and even fold space, but OMT-L is not the place for that. Everything else is welcome.
Approval for subscribers is even lower: anyone who wants to be part of this community is welcome, as long as it is a real person and not a spambot, and their intentions are compatible with OMT´s mission. Usually, we get between ten and twenty requests per week, which are processed rapidly. (Sometimes, not as rapidly as you may have wished, but my 10 fingers only move so fast. My fingers apologize on behalf of me)
May 17, however, was different: I received and processed close to 50 subscription requests, all in the same afternoon. First I thought it was a computer error but I found no evidence to support that claim on the server, and the software hosted by AOM is doing fine. Then I thought it was a group of student at some program who were subscribing under advice of their Profs, but they are all from different institutions, countries, and even continents, so the most likely explanation is a black swan.
I have been doing this moderation thingie for a while, and I never had anything close to it: this is truly three sigmas above the average. Nothing special about May 17, just a black swan day.
Virtually yours
Pablo MARTIN de HOLAN