RE: [Harp-L] Re: harp-l "forum" in future?

["Peter S..." <p.stris@xxxxxxxxx>]

Apologies in advance to the list owner for perpetuating the OT.  I would
like to offer some info that might be helpful to many of the folks here that
worry about clogged inboxes.  I moderate a professional list that is hosted
on googlegroups, but most people do receive individual emails as with
Harp-L.  I put together a short bit on managing emails with topic folders in
outlook or most other email programs.  It can be read here:
http://www.ak-pa.org/newsletters/listserv/email_management.htm 

Also of note is that Harp-L is both a traditional listserv but it is
mirrored on googlegroups.  So we can have our cake and eat it too!  We can
receive emails or we can just do the thread based reading on the website
just like a forum, but without sections.  Or do it both ways (like pursing
and blocking - there's the harp content :-) ).  Go to the googlegroups
webpage for this group at:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/harp-l 

Anyone can read the posts there.  I would guess that you would have to join
harp-l at googlegroups in order to post from there though.

Cheers!
...........Pete in Alaska





-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Joseph Leone
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2014 6:19 AM
To: Harp L Harp L
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Re: harp-l "forum" in future?

When I came on the list in 2000, and slidemeister in 2001, I liked the
direct post format. Even if I went away for 13 days and came back to find
129 posts in my mail box, it was no big deal to go through them. It may have
taken 2.5 hours if I read them all. Which is what I used to do. Now I can go
through them in 44 minutes. And I like the idea of being able to post into
posts at my leisure.
OR dump posts that don't pertain to me as an island. Like anything with
tango, blues, altered tunings, famous old players, who died, and like that.
And I can hold ON to posts for later perusal.
Slidemeister had gone to a forum format several years ago, and while it DOES
offer a huge number of options and services, I find it to be a pain in the
shorts in some respects.  

The problem with a forum, is that everything is broken into categories. And
if you are not on top of the recent posts, you have to go all the way back
through the previous posts to understand what the Swahili is going on. In a
way, that takes MORE time and you could wind up spending it on stuff that
doesn't interest you, once you get back to the beginning. You also loose
topics if you don't punch on them AS they are occurring. Then you have to
constantly surf and search backwards. 

Hey maybe I'm all wet on this one, but if harp-l were to go to forum, I
would seriously consider dropping out. Yes, I DO understand that there are
those on the list that have precious little time to go through all the posts
as they come in in real time, but I never found it to be that big a deal. I
can cut the grass, read some posts, fix the bathroom exhaust fan, read some
posts, go to the super market, read some posts.
So I happen to like the direct mail approach. And I respect other
viewpoints. 


smokey-joe