Hi,
I've been a member of this list for some time now, and have enjoyed both
the discussions and the mail from people who are able to contribute long,
detailed articles on specific topics (which I found very useful and have
passed on to many people).
However, I can understand that these long, detailed posts cause problems
for some people.
Rather than stop them completely, or have people leave the list because
they can't handle the volume, perhaps I can make a propsal which can keep
everyone happy.
My firm is just about to connect itself to the Internet, with a proper
leased line and everything. Knowing of my interest in PD, they have kindly
offered to let my use our site for PD related stuff (I'm their systems
admin.).
What about if I set up a related mailing list to this one, for example
"PD-Contrib", which would be for any large informative articles, e.g.
newsletters, research reports, etc. Items which people come across and
think "I'll type that in and send it to the PARKINSN list", and some of us
find it interesting and some of us get upset about our phone bills, or our
mail software can't handle it.
If I manage to get everything working, then:
- people who weren't sensitive to large, potentially off topic posts
could subscribe directly to PD-Contrib, as well as PARKINSN.
- I could post a regular summary of contributions to the main PARKINSN
list, so you all know what is going on.
- if you are interested in any articles you can get it by:
- mailing a request off to the server, which will send it back
- accessing the article via the Web
The PD-Contrib list would probably moderated so people could run archivers
on the group without having to manually filter out the junk.
I hope this would give us the best of both worlds:
- a discussion list that people feel they can keep up with.
- an area where people can contribute various articles and resources.
With luck, the reduced number of large articles on the main list should
increase people's tolerance to articles which they consider off-topic. I
have noticed a definate increase in people willing to shout the house down
about posts which in their opinion aren't relevant, an increase which IMHO
(in my humble opinion) isn't particularly healthy. (Spams are of course
always unwelcome anywhere).
Any comments? I don't want to start this if people feel I am doing
something I shouldn't. I could get this working in a couple of weeks if you
are interested.
Simon
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Simon J. Coles | "Far better it is to dare mighty things,
New Information Paradigms | to win glorious triumphs, even though
| checkered by failure, than to take rank
EMail: | with those poor spirits who neither enjoy
[log in to unmask] | much nor suffer much, because they live
| in the gray twilight that knows not victory
| or defeat."
Tel. (Work) +44 1344 778783 | -Teddy Roosevelt
