Fwd: [Hidden-tech] Question about list topics

Jason Turcotte jason at turcottedata.com
Tue Jan 23 13:49:26 EST 2007


There seems to definitely be a desire by a large group (hard to tell if it's
a majority or not yet) for some sort of change with the list.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a variety of issues (better word than
excuses) as to why the list should not change.  Maybe there should be a poll
on the HT website for people to actually cast a vote so we can really see
what people want rather than trust our perceptions and emotions.

At times I feel the email list may be broken as I get duplicate messages,
other topics that never come (Good Dobee poll as an example).

Statements like "So if you want a clean list, everyone should help make it
clean..." is really not a realistic statement.  Emotion and opinion are part
of everyday conversation and human nature.  Add that to topics like
intellectual property (music sharing) or personal preferences (Mac vs. PC)
and you will ALWAYS get the "me too" and "I think it would be best to do it
this way..." responses.

I've requested the RSS feature a couple of times, so my opinion is biased,
but RSS is not the "scary monster" that it used to be.  Google's
personalized homepage makes it very easy to add RSS feeds to your homepage
as just one example.  If each email that was sent on the list had the
subscribe link in it, then it would be as simple as installing an RSS reader
(free) on your computer.

Has a blogging system been considered as well?  There are very non-technical
people that are out there reading and posting in blogs every day.

Again, various ways to get the information we want is always a plus.  This
will definitely be one of those topics that is going to cause a "Ford vs.
Chevy" type debate.

Change can be scary, but what I typically tell my customers is that after a
short time you'll wonder how you ever did it the "old way".

Opinions vary, and this was just mine...

Jason A. Turcotte
Turcotte Data & Designs
www.turcottedata.com
413.303.1533 or 508.425.7274



-----Original Message-----
From: hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net
[mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] On Behalf Of webmaster
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 1:23 PM
To: Ht-discuss
Subject: Re: Fwd: [Hidden-tech] Question about list topics

   ** 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.


As for being self-regulating and I have found those on the HT list who
most know better and should be self-regulating to be the ones that drag
a discussion on the longest.  So if you want a clean list, everyone
should help make it clean and consider when you are really adding to a
discussion before posting 'me too' or adding political comments.

I have also found such tags as a great idea no one follows.

As for Forum only -- I have found we have a group of users, many of who
are not of the techical level to effectively use forums (odd as that
might sound) -- and while RSS is a good idea - even more pushs the
techical boundries.  Maybe in the future.

Rich/WM

On Mon, Jan 22, 2007 at 06:13:52PM -0800, David Olsson wrote:
> It's really hard to draw lines between acceptable and
> unacceptable topics.
> 
> Forums probably won't work, because it's ADI, Another
> Damn Interface.  Most of us just won't go there. 
> Email is the interface, for better or worse.
> 
> If our group is small enough, we can self-regulate
> through dialog:  "Hey, can we cut back on requests for
> the best pipe cleaner brand?  My inbox is suffering
> from off-topic bloat."
> 
> If we're too big for that, or even if not, we can use
> subject tags like
> 
> [Hidden-tech] [Recommend] Looking for dog masseuse
> [Hidden-tech] [Help wanted] Need obsequious designer
> [Hidden-tech] [Computer help] Can't send e-mail!
> 
> Honestly, we probably only need the [Recommend] tag,
> since that's what comprises most of our extraneous
> bandwidth.  Maybe the [Computer help] one, too.
> 
> Anyway, that would make it easy to filter out those
> topic categories.  Nothing's perfect.  People will
> forget the tags; you'll want to read some of the
> recommends but not all of them; la-de-da.
> 
> --- webmaster <webmaster at hidden-tech.net> wrote:
> > 
> > Actually I am glad someone other than me raised this
> > issue, and I'd like
> > to post some of the 'official position'.
> > ...
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