Re: [Harp-L] The SPAH website
- To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
- Subject: Re: [Harp-L] The SPAH website
- From: Elizabeth Hess <TrackHarpL@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2011 08:31:31 -0500
- Cc: MANFRED WEWERS <mwewers@xxxxxxxxxx>
- In-reply-to: <201112171411.pBHEBQIc027232@harp-l.com>
- References: <201112171411.pBHEBQIc027232@harp-l.com>
I read a book a couple of centuries ago about designing successful web
sites. I didn't go on to become a web designer, but one of the points
that stuck with me is that the content has to change regularly to keep
people coming back. So, I'd like to suggest that the SPAH web site
look for a way to incorporate Danny Wilson's International Gig List,
which he sends here every week. Ideally it would have three formats
on the SPAH web site: One, sorted by artist, as it is now: "Where's
Toots?" Two, in a calendar format: "What's coming up?" And three,
sorted by location: "I'm going to Belgium. Anything happening
there?" An important adjunct to this would be for out-of-date
information to disappear in a timely fashion.
I visited the SPAH web site this morning, partly to see if it already
includes the gig list. (It doesn't, or else has it in an obscure
place.)
There is a forum there that is not the same as this list.
Interesting. It seemed to have many fewer entries than this list has
posts. Interesting. Forum format vs. mailing list format is a tough
choice. With a mailing list, one subscribes once, and then passively
waits for the content to arrive. With a forum, readers have to come
to you, which MIGHT be a good thing if it brings more people to the
web site, but MIGHT be a bad thing, because it requires less passivity
(i.e. more effort!) on the part of the folks you want to serve. I
don't know the answer to this, but it seems that having both would
cause them to compete with one another. Unless there can be some sort
of hybrid: Maybe *show* the last <n> days of mailing list posts (with
email addresses obscured from public broadcast as they are in the harp-
l archive, thank you VERY much) with a quick/easy link on the web site
to sign up for the mailing list.
Static content on a web site has its place, especially if it is
reference material: Stuff that different people will be ready to read
at different times. I wrote a tutorial some while back on getting
started with Band In A Box, and posted it here (with harp-l-list-
owner's blessing) in three installments. I would be willing to polish
it up and submit it for inclusion if you like. Anything of an
instructional nature might have a place, there, and content that
deserves to be cumulative and more-or-less immortal might be more
appealing to some people to write than "transient" content that is
published and then relegated to archives that relies on people knowing
what search terms to use.
You're right, I'm not ready to volunteer to input 50 years of SPAH
data into an archive. But I would be willing to input SOME SPAH data
into an archive, and if I could volunteer to do it in manageable-sized
chunks, I might volunteer for more than one chunk. Especially if I
thought I wasn't the only one doing it. Shared work strengthens ties;
this might be a worthy project for the SPAH community to take on. I
MIGHT be up to the task of coordinating such a project if I thought
there were others willing to pitch in and assist (in manageable
chunks, of course).
Thank you, Manfred, for taking this on.
Elizabeth
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