[MLB-WIRELESS] News Server

Dwayne dwayne at pobox.com
Tue Nov 27 03:11:05 EST 2001


Horace Pinker wrote:
> 
> Honestly all discussion should be on the message board and new material gets
> archived to the archives..which can come to your mailbox. The only reason
> the mesage board doesnt get used is because all the bofins are too busy
> clearing their mail box and no one answers questions on the mesage boards
> anymore...

Well, no, actually, it's because there are some of us who prefer to do
things via email, like me. Sorry if you don't agree, but that's how it
is. I've only just got back online after being offline for 11 months,
but I've been able to (sort of) participate in this project because I
have been able to download my email and read it offline. I sit here
watching my brother scream in frustration at his hotmail and yahoo
accounts and I'm going to set up a pop3 account for him so he won't have
to deal with the lag. 

Webpages are okay, but email works fine for me. 
If you find there is too much traffic on this list then learn how to
filter your mail and then it won't fill up your inbox. I get huge
amounts of mail, but it is all filtered so I only see messages sent
directly to me, and because it's all offline on my own system it takes
me about 1/10th of a second to load the next message, if that.  A
webpage might take a second or two to load. This is not much difference
but over a lot of messages the difference is huge.



> which is a first point of reference for people wanting to learn
> more about the group and wireles....but since it seems dead people think
> well i might hold off on this as it dont appear like anyone is interested in
> this.

Is there a note about a mailing list on the website?

> I see a lot of circular discussion
> 1. People bulk downloading their email and answering things that have been
> answered
> 2. People wanting to know what to do as the mesage boards dont have any of
> the solutions for people to view...and since they just subscribed they dont
> have the history...and lets face it reading 500 off topic discussions per
> week will make it very hard to find answers.

It works fine if people use subject lines properly.
Otherwise, yes, it's a mess, but what sort of spartan utilitarian
moderated deathly dull resource are you after? I've been on lists which
generated well over 300 messages per day, this list is pretty close to
dead compared to every other list I am on (isp-wireless is a list with a
sort-of similar focus and that generates a vast amount of mail), and yet
people are complaining? 

Why do I feel that I am explaining basic usage of the internet?
Is this an oldskool net == email newskool == html thing?

I find pretty much very single discussion board I have ever used to be
incredibly slow and frustrating compared to email, although webpages
have far more functionality, when it all comes down to it is the
discussion that matters, not how the messages are formatted and linked.


> Hence I recommend threaded mesage board discussion on topics and mailing
> list used for important announcements and archiving of solutions. 

Huh? How the hell can you *archive* anything at all on a *mailing list*
which is by definition ephemeral? 
I mean, I archive all of my mail, but I don't know anyone else in
Melbourne who does. Archiving things to this list is slightly more
useful than to /dev/null


> Soultions
> to problems and discussion out in the "open" will promote a healthier
> discussion, and not create a cross post confusion

So we should discuss things on this list and archive them to webpages
then?
When we all have our funky high-speed low-latency wireless links then I
think a web-based discussion board might be funky, but until then I
really think this list is a better option, and discussing ways to reform
the list (*if* that is necessary) is better than convincing people to
migrate to a discussion board.

> A little order never hurt (please dont flame me or turn this into yet
> another uselesly propagating post)

Um, well, to respond or not. Hmmm.

This isn't a flame, btw. YMMV as to whether or not it is "another
uselessly propagating post"

Dwayne



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