RE: Over-The-Rhine Digest V5 #431

["Dave Jones" <dcjones@cinci.rr.com>]

I replied to Keith's message, but it could have been anyone's on this
thread...

There is a vocal minority who has spoken out against the use of a forum (a
few people), but a lot of lurkers on the list who haven't spoken at
all...yes, they're earning their title.  Regardless, this is something to
remember.  A lot of people, including myself, would love to see a forum take
the place of this list.  And yes, I've been receiving the list for..wow...I
dunno, 8 years now?  Something like that - it's been a LONG time.  Actually
longer than that I think...but I digress.

Anyway, I get the digest version because I don't like the (all too often)
off-topic conversations and this seems to be the easiest way for me to
manage (i.e. ignore) those.  But, subject headings being what they are, I
still find myself having to scan through the entire thing to find what I
want.  Replying to a specific message is another issue...you know what I
mean.  A forum would make all this better for me personally and probably a
lot of other people.

And speaking of "deal breakers", how many people got tired of sorting
through all the rubbish and simply dropped the list in the past?  A lot I'd
guess.  These are the same people who would occasionally pop in on a forum
and maybe even participate...BUT, at the very least, actually find what they
are looking for.

Bottom line, the forum would probably be a lot more useful to a greater
number of people that this list is.  And this is coming from someone who has
used the list longer than all but a few people here (you know who you are).

So, K&L should make their own decision on this...to have it, or not to have
it.  But just don't base it on what I'm saying, or what any of the
nay-sayers are spouting either.  Do what you want to do.  



------------------------------

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 15:39:27 -0800 (PST)
From: Keith B <keith@rcltd.org>
Subject: Re: Re: Fetch Me the Pongmaster!

>From khopp@garbersoft.net  Mon Jan 19 14:30:39 2004

>The luddite argument  used without backing is just silly IMO. Sure, some 
>people are resistant to change but
>what has that to do a discussion on the benefits of one particular 
>medium of communication
>over another. Discuss the strengths of both and weigh out the benefits.
>Liking something strictly because it's new is just as silly as not 
>liking something strictly because it's new.

Well, this is altogether fair and true.  The virtues of a forum seem so
self-evident to me, but at the risk of beating a dead horse:

You can set up non-OtR topics to your heart's content and everyone knows
before they look (or don't) at the content what the posts will be about,
more or less.  Much more effective than a subject line.  Among other
advantages, this makes it easier for people to avoid distasteful or
controversial topics if they're so inclined.

Threads provide much better continuity for longer discussions.  You can just
scroll through an entire topic instead of opening related emails in
isolation sequentially and patching them together in your head.

It's much easier to find and resurrect a past topic when inspiration or
edification strikes than trolling the email archives.

Bold and italic fonts, color, emoticons, images.  Granted these load more
slowly over dial-up than plain text, and some people will use them in lieu
of the elegant deployment of language.  Nonetheless, they can be wonderful
tools for self-expression and sharing experiences when used judiciously.

Posts don't mysteriously disappear or arrive out of sequence hours after you
post them.

Editing capabilities.  You know, for those rare occasions when you say
something you wish you hadn't. ;)

No inbox overhead.  

You don't see stuff like this:

X-Scanned-By: AMaViS-ng and ClamAV.
Received: from unknown (HELO garbersoft.net) (67.241.86.115)
  by stonewebs.com with SMTP; 19 Jan 2004 20:30:38 -0000
Message-ID: <400C3E04.1020609@garbersoft.net>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823
Netscape/7.0 (nscd2)
X-Accept-Language: en-us, en
MIME-Version: 1.0
References: <8CF66A27A8ED5F48B2E15F55B269E129581AD4@eim055.eim-inc.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.5 required=25.0 tests=PLING version=2.20
X-Spam-Level:

Yes, you do need a browser and the ability to access the forum with
impunity.  I now understand this is a deal-breaker for many people on the
list. 

I'll concede that the "wonder floating into your life" (I'm paraphrasing)
email metaphor has a definite Over the Rhinish charm.  A forum is more like
your house in an endless episode of Trading Places.  You return to it
knowing your crazy neighbors have probably been there, and you just hope you
like what they've done with the place in your absence.

Keith from NY

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