Re: [ARSCLIST] message board vs. listserv

[Mark Shakarjian <mssl72@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I would prefer a message board format. I travel for 3 weeks to a  
month at a time. I don't have the access that I would normally have  
if I had a job where I had an office. When I get to my hotel room at  
10:30pm after having traveled from West coast to East coast,  
somewhere between 8-14 hours of travel time, there's no way I'm going  
to sit down and read all those emails. When I'm doing site surveys,  
I'm in a different city or state every other day. By the time I get  
home there's around 300 or so emails that need to be gone through. I  
just don't always have the time. I've tried to save the messages in a  
folder off-line with every good intention of reading them. That  
hasn't happened yet. I'm involved with other organizations that have  
message boards, it's a lot easier to follow specific topics and it's  
not eating up my hard drive space.

Mark

On Dec 12, 2005, at 2:19 PM, Brandon Burke wrote:

> All,
>
> Curious as to how many list members might prefer a message board  
> format over the standard email listserv currently in place.   
> Message boards make more sense to me for the following reasons:
>
> 1. Generally speaking, it is difficult to browse the ARSClist  
> archives.  Especially if a topic began in one month but continued  
> into the next, as the two parts tend to become divorced from one  
> another.
>
> 2. With a message board, one can view both the original topic/ 
> question/etc and all subsequent responses in one fell swoop,  
> something that comes in particularly handy when performing searches  
> in the archives.  As it stands now, all posts in the archives must  
> be viewed individually, losing much narrative/conversational flow  
> along the way.
>
> 3. When a list member changes the name of a thread in mid- 
> conversation, subsequent posts again become divorced from the  
> original topic.
>
> 4. Let's be honest, on chatty days, the in-box traffic can get a  
> little overwhelming...especially for those of us NOT taking part in  
> a particular conversation.
>
> For the record: Yes, I'm aware of the *digest* option...seems to  
> me, the only grievance it solves is item #4.
>
>
> thanks as always,
> Brandon
>
> _______________________________________
> Brandon Burke
> Assistant Archivist for Audiovisual Collections
> Hoover Institution Archives
> Stanford University
> Stanford, CA 94305-6010
> voice: 650.724.9711
> fax: 650.725.3445
> email: burke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx