[Public-List] Circumnavigations

[George Dinwiddie]

Jeffrey,

On 10/19/12 8:02 PM, Jeffrey wrote:
> As much as I dislike stirring the pot here, I must admit that when I
> was considering getting an Alberg30 I found it difficult to go through
> the email list archives to pull information.  I ended up using Google
> advanced searches, and spent hours wandering through the lists in an
> effort to digest it all. When you search, the results are disconnected
> so you end up reading everything and grouping topics in your head, at
> least that's what I did.
>
> If I had a choice, I'd much rather interact using a forum..for many
> reasons.   If used correctly, threaded discussions are easier to
> follow, and it is easier to describe something when you can add a
> picture to what you are typing. I could go on.   I build websites for
> a living  in the past I set up managed a few listservs and in recent
> years set up and loosely managed many of the popular forums
> applications and can say that a forum is no more difficult to manage
> than a listserv on a mail server.

You can view the postings in thread order at
http://lists.alberg30.org/pipermail/public-list-alberg30.org/

If a forum /replaced/ the mailing lists, then it could possibly be 
mangaged as easily. Having both is a disaster, as people have to check 
both places for information. And they'll likely post queries to both 
places.

But forums require people to check them, and the mailing lists push to 
you automatically. It's my experience that online forums are great for 
casual participation by passers-by, and mailing lists build small but 
committed communities. I choose the latter.

>
> One concern I have is that the information contained in the old Yahoo
> lists and the current list archive is backed up. That information is
> gold to a new Alberg owner.  I still look stuff up in the archives.
> Are there separate backups of the archives?

I keep my own backups. It's probably not obvious, but the current list 
archives contain the contents from the list when I was managing my own 
server. I imported those when I switched back to a hosting service (when 
the colocation service I was using decided not to serve the low end of 
the market anymore). Those came from my backups.

>
> I don't intend to slight this list or the website in any way.  I'm
> grateful for the list and website as a resource..just offering my
> opinion.

Thanks. I'm happy to discuss it. But after a couple decades of 
participation in online forums (and mailing lists are such, not just web 
forums), I've developed a few opinions.

  - George

-- 
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   When I remember bygone days                         George Dinwiddie
   I think how evening follows morn;            gdinwiddie at alberg30.org
   So many I loved were not yet dead,           http://www.Alberg30.org
   So many I love were not yet born.                          also see:
                'The Middle' by Ogden Nash     http://idiacomputing.com
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