This is to bring you up to date with the Nim tutorial that the Della-Vos group is writing. Vernon started working on Kaushal Modi's notes. These notes are very instructive and cover very basic material, which could be quite helpful for beginners. Therefore, we decided to place Kaushal Modi's material at the very beginning of the book. The notes start with commands to print text in different colors and styles, a Nim feature that is not often found in compiled languages, and which newcomers to Nim will certainly appreciate. As a reminder, updates to the book are given every Tuesday at the following link:
Hi, carterza. Vernon's intention was to close the page. Then Kaushal Modi asked us to bring it back, and offered the notes as his contribution. Even so, I wrote him an email asking whether the Della-Vos group could use his notes. You can check his answer at the github repository, under the tab about issues. His answer was: "Of course! I'd be happy to help however I can."
As for Vernon, I asked him the same question as you: Why doesn't he subscribe to the forum? The fact is that he does not like to deal with computers. Besides, he lost the password of his email account.
Your third question is about chapter 11, anthropology of money. The members of the Della-Vos group have different interests, and they consider that a programming language is just a tool for achieving their diverse goals. One of these interests is anthropology of money. Therefore, when Vernon received the chapter about anthropology of money, he checked the English and added it to the book. In any case, the author of the chapter on anthropology of money promised further material on money. Let us hope that her material becomes something coherent/relevant.
You may ask, "Why the Della-Vos group accepts people whose interest is money?" Unfortunately, most members of the Della-Vos group need grants for doing their research in areas such as medicine, biotechnology and materials physics. Therefore, it is good to have members in the group, who like to write grant proposals.
Della-Vos is not the first collective pseudonym. A very famous one is Nicolas Bourbaki, the collective pseudonym of the French mathematicians who wanted to publish a series of books about set theory. Thus, the Della-Vos group is just copycatting the Bourbaki group.