The discussion was initiated by Mateo Latosa; contributions were made by numerous members of Online Alpha (the Space: 1999 Internet Mailing List); with editing being done by David Welle, who is webmaster of this site (Space: 1999 Metaforms), was a co-administrator of the mailing list at the time, and was an occasional contributor in the ExE as well.
The discussion started with a series of notes that are now archived as the Preface. The page you are reading now is merely the editor's introduction, and is mainly a note about the editing and the format of this 'book.'
First, regarding the format.... This paragraph should appear indented in your browser, and will probably appear in a slightly smaller font. If it does not appear at least indented, you will likely have considerable difficulty reading the rest of the Episode by Episode section, since when one person quotes another, the quoted material should appear in the format mentioned. If not, it is recommended that you use the alternate, mostly pre-formatted/fixed-font version. It is not as attractive, but will be more readable in this situation. Note: The alternative version is also undergoing some repairs, and is lagging behind in the number of pages which have been restored.
Other than the special formatting mentioned in the last paragraph, and more of a free-flowing text layout, the editing employed is largely the same as in the Thread Pages section. (This is the really boring section, which you can skip if you wish.) Most of the email headers, most signature content beyond the person's name or handle (if the person used either), and all but the most essential prior-note quoting have been trimmed. Most 'me too'-type replies have been omitted. I don't recall any major 'flaming,' but there might have been some removed. Material that drifted too far off the episode being discussed was split into separate threads (shown in a somewhat simpler format) or omitted. Some short off-topic sections were allowed to remain. Additions and subtractions of whitespace and indentation were made to the original notes to provide a more consistent overall appearance. Obvious character scramblings (e.g. one person's single quotes tended to become # signs) and odd formating (e.g. another person's email client tended to add =20 to the end of each line) were corrected, but no spelling or grammar corrections were attempted. A few other special formatting changes were made on rare occasion.
All specific decisions were at the editor's discretion; but other than the above, all content is as posted to the Space: 1999 Internet Mailing List, and each note's author is identified through the header information which remains.