The list was started in April 1994 by Jonas Andersson, then at Central Michigan University. The number of subscribers well exceeds 300 from all around the world though concentrated in the US and Sweden.

Swede-L has a history of enjoying an easygoing, wide-ranging conversation style with very little interference necessary from the list owners, and we want it to stay that way. Please note that if a topic strays too far, any list member can (and probably will) ask you to take it off-list.

Like every email list in existence, you should expect to get everyone's opinion on a subject that you bring up, regardless of whether you actually asked for it. Swedes and their descendants can be blunt and straightforward almost to the point of rudeness. Also, remember that a fairly large contingency of SWEDE-L subscribers are communicating in their second language; and misunderstandings and offending statements may well be explained easily if this fact is considered. 

All Swede-L list participants are expected to observe the basic list rules and courtesies.

Although a number of new subscribers are added each month, others unsubscribe, with a net effect of a relatively stable subscriber total over the years since May 1995. There seems to be no correlation between specific discussion topics and unsubscription rates. There does seem to be a link between list volume and the number of people who leave ("too many" messages at one time causes people to unsubscribe).

Number of members & contributors:

Date: June 26, 2002
From: Michael Andersson 

Current membership in SWEDE-L is 209.

Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 
From: "Patric S. Lundberg"

Swede-L has 333 subscribers today, 107 of which have never sent an email to the list. [snip] The list is probably more diverse today than it has ever been, so it is a minor miracle that we don't have more conflicts due to misunderstandings...

If your name appears high up on this list, it either means you have been subscribed to Swede-L for a long time, or you talk a lot (in my case, both apply... ;-).

The top ten to date are:

List topics:

Date: Thu, 07 May 1998 
From: David Curle 

On Thu, 7 May 1998, Patric S. Lundberg wrote:

"How many current subscribers have been here since the "Jonas Era"? That is, do you remember when you joined?

" I have been on this list as a subscribers (and later co-owner) since the summer/fall of '93 - when Jonas Andersson proudly served some 30-50 subscribers..."

It's probably much harder to calculate than the actual number of postings, but here is my stab at a list of the most popular topics over the past 3.5 years:

1. Potatiskorv.
2. All other kinds of food, with surstromming, punsch, and meatballs as clear leaders. Crayfish, akvavit and palt are also in the running. 
3. "Sweden is a declining country full of alcoholics and poorly-raised children who pay too many taxes."
4. How the heck do I get my computer to type those funny Swedish vowels?
5. "The USA is a declining country full of gun-slingers, money-grubbers and fat people."
6. Hockey
7. How do I get my computer/modem/fax/waterpik to work on Swedish electrical currents?
8. Why don't Swedish-Americans behave like Swedes?
9. "It all depends on how you define X" [Where X is some vague but important concept like morality or justice or standards of living. Use of this phrase is a sure sign that a discussion has degenerated to a point of no return. Applies to all discussion groups, not just this one.]

Feel free to add your own. 

Date: Thu, 07 May 1998 
From: Jeffrey Nelson

David -- from my (mostly observational) stand:

probably up at #3 or #4: FIRES (i.e., Patric's rantings on "What is a flame", "Stop flaming her", "That person DESERVES a flame") 

Maybe #8 or so: David Curle giving up his website that we loved so fondly.

In the #5-#6 range: Swedish women are not blonde, nor are they bimbos, nor . . . . . 

Original Swede-L announcements:

Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 
From: Michael Andersson 

I have been a subscriber (and later ListOwner) since Jonas publicly announced SWEDE-L on NEW-LIST (back when both were on BITNET), which was in April of 1994. Incidentally, I happen to have a copy of that original announcment right here:

====
Sender: NEW-LIST - New List Announcements 
From: "Jonas E. Anderson" <34LSP36@CMUVM.BITNET>
Subject: NEW: Swede-L - International Swedish Interest Discussion List

This is a mailing list for Swedish people, people related to Sweden or people with an interest in Sweden for one reason or another.

Everybody is welcome that feel they fit in into these categories. We are sharing news, queries, and exchanges thoughts and ideas about Sweden, its culture, Sweden vs. the rest of the world, 2nd and 3rd .... generation Swedes out in the world's thoughts.

Swede-l is semi private. Send e-mail to the owner (Jonas Andersson) for subscription.
=====

Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 
From: Michael Andersson 

Hey, look what I found! This is Jonas' original email (waaaay back in 1995) asking for somebody to step up to bat:

=====ooooo=====
Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 13:46:08 EDT
From: Jonas Andersson 
Subject: Wanted: New maintainer of the list..!!!!

I have recently accepted a internship at Mitsubishi in Illinois this summer.It's a 8 hour drive and they are not connected in a way to the internet such as that I could maintain the list from there. 

I therefore submit a request to anybody that feel that they could take on the responsibilities of maintaining the Swede-L which has proven to be a great forum for communication and exchange of ideas, to please e-mail me if you have the capability. 

Requirements are few: I believe you need to be on a IBM mainframe, possibly with Bitnet and Internet connection simultaneously working. You also need some basic experience in listserv maintance, though it's not difficult at all, you also need a few free hours every week to keep up with all the e-mail. 

There are currently 320 members subscribed to the list.

If I wouldn't recieve any responses to my request of stepping down as administrator, I would then of course keep the list going but would possibly only be able to maintain the list every 3-4 weeks. So, PLEASE, if any of you out there feel that you could, and would like to take over as the list administrator,please e-mail me asap. and we could figure out a way of transfer all the subscribers. 

Greetings [from] Jonas Andersson
Soon to be Ex-Administrator of the Swede-L :--)
=====ooooo=====

Owner and Webmaster:
Patric S. Lundberg
email: <pyrsrgr8@yahoo.com>
or <patric@pyrealm.com>
City of Hope National Medical Center
Duarte, California 91010

Swede-L Web site Editor
Karin Borei
email: <kborei@mail.millikin.edu>
Millikin University
Decatur, IL

Standby Listmanager
Susan Larsson 
e--mail: <slarsson@ncia.com> 

Breaking the following rules will result in termination of your subscription to SWEDE-L. Depending on the severity of the offense, this may happen without warning from the list owners. You may not even be notified of your being added to the "ignore" file.

So, DO:

1) Be Nice
2) Stay On-Topic
3) Make sure your message is going to the correct address (list or individual). 
4) Send personal thank-you's to individual rather than to the list.
5) In replying to a message, edit out unnecessary text from preceding posts.
6) Did we say Be Nice?

DON'T Spam and DON'T send Commercial messages .

Beyond that,

Be polite to each other, and remember that there's a human being on the other end of your message. 

Most of the people who post inappropriately do so because they are new to Swede-L, and don't know any better. New or old, however, please be constructive in your criticism. Give advice, not flames. 

No commercial messages. This includes

neither originating nor forwarding advertising from for-profit organizations;

neither originating nor forwarding personal commercial messages which would lead to the exchange of money;

and neither originating nor forwarding even the most worthy-seeming request for donations.

If you have a commercial interest and simply *must* tell everyone, put something small and unobtrusive (like one line) in your signature file.

Exceptions can be made through a request to the list owners. An example of such an exception was the forwarding to the list (after getting the list owners' OK) information about VIKING FESTin Texas.

No spamming. 

What is spam?
(By Michael Andersson) 

Essentially, it is any unwanted, unsolicited email. The vast majority of spam is sent to hundreds, if not thousands, of recipients, usually selling something. 

The definition does, however, go beyond that: any email that is inappropriate for its "setting" is also spam. For example, a message about food in "sci.space.tech" is spam (unless it is about astronaut food?): sci.space.tech is where people mostly talk about rocket engines and such. Similarly, an article about, say, the crime rate in Rio de Janeiro would be inappropriate in SWEDE-L, unless, somehow, the author managed to connect it back to Sweden. 

A particularly common type ofspam is chain letters. Do not, under any circumstances, forward chain letters of any kind anywhere, including on Swede-L.

The Netizens Against Gratuitous Spamming site explains in much more detail what spamming is and why it is bad, and also provides links to related information. And/or, if you go to Yahoo or any other search engine and search on "spam", you will find more information than you probably either want or need.

No exceptions will be made to the "no spamming" rule.

The "other" SPAM®: a picture (source unknown)