[Hidden-tech] biznik vs. HT

[Michael Muller]

At 04:37 PM 1/8/2007, Bobbi Melville wrote:
>  ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee.
>  ** You too can help the group
>  ** Fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>  ** If you did, we all thank you.
>
>I agree, by the way, that the dobee message is irksome. By now most of us probably don't even register it in our brains except as a minor annoyance.



>For me, websites are places I go to research information that I need at that particular moment, not places to go for community interaction. What about other people? Do many of you have websites that you go to daily or weekly? If so, for what? What is so compelling about those sites that you make the effort to check in frequently?


Although I am on email about every fifteen minutes throughout the day (and not in a web interface.... I use Eudora), for some of us, getting individual emails for a thread is a little cumbersom, and fills up our mailboxes. If you use a message threaded forum then all the messages are in one place, databased for later review (so you don't have to worry about deleting a particularly good post) and linkable for showing other people.  Additional things can be done, ie; the poster may have a profile on the site and maybe a business listing and maybe other assets or statistics that the site may link to for you.

Generally I don't go to any one website every day, except for the Montague site I run, and then not even every day.  If the HT website were integral to my work then I'm sure I'd be there every day, managing my contacts, updating my progress on projects, searching for potential new contacts, reading about the latest upcoming events, etc. In effect, this mailing list pretty much stops me cold from going to the website at all. If the list were to go away and the revamped website had a robust message forum with interlinking to member assets, then for sure I'd be there more often. And in the end I think that would benefit the organization more, since all the other things HT as an org needs to impart to its members would be present and up front on the website (ie; your account status, dues, private messages, etc).

Email is great, but it's still just email. The web can do so much more it's not even comparable. As long as you code the site right.

I'm penning in the next HT meeting and will begin to jot down things that I'd like from HT. Perhaps a questionnaire could be set up ahead of time and thrown into a spreadsheet before the meeting. I'd be willing to volunteer for the reception and tallying of responses.

Michael





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Michael Muller
Muller Technologies
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