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nafex - [nafex] Why Yahoo?, Why nafex unlisted?, etc.

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Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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  • From: "Greg Miller" <gsmiller@cet.com>
  • To: nafex@yahoogroups.com
  • Subject: [nafex] Why Yahoo?, Why nafex unlisted?, etc.
  • Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 22:27:31 -0800

There have been questions about Yahoo, finding the list, etc in the
last few months. All of these questions have been answered at
some point in the various incarnations of this list. What the heck,
here's one more time for those who haven't heard it before.

Yahoogroups.com is the latest incarnation of what was
egroups.com before it acquired onelist.com, the first automated
version of this list (thanks again to Miekal And for his help in finding
this FREE automated service.) For those wondering, every
message prior to that was *manually* forwarded by me to the list
members, after editting the message headers to indicate
nafex@cet.com and other niceties. Over the course of several
years this did add up to several thousand messages.

So where are we now?

1. Yahoogroups demands cookies, etc. to access their web site.
They (and the prior incarnations) have insisted this helps protect
against spamming by people using fake email addresses. That just
happens to be part of the condition for this free service. They also
tack a little ad at the bottom of each message, which many people
may not have paid any attention to prior to now.

2. There has been debate since DAY ONE, when the list totalled all
of about 10-15 members whether the list should be for dues-
paying NAFEX members or open to all who choose to subscribe.
Concerns about eroding NAFEX membership, content of posts,
quantity of posts have been balanced against input from a broad
expanse of experience. To date the more open standard has been
in effect, which in no way minimizes the strong opposition several
respected contributors to this group has to this practice.

One concession is that the instructions on how to get to this list
would be printed only in POMONA, the official publication of
NAFEX. The other exception is invitations extended to other similar
organizations like the BC Fruit Testers Assn. "Unapproved"
pointers to this list have leaked out, as is inevitable on the internet,
but that is why this list in "unlisted" on yahoo, as is was on
egroups and onelist. (And yes, the info on the cover does need a
little updating.)

3. Not all NAFEX members (who nonetheless pay dues) choose to
participate in this list. Using NAFEX funds to finance a benefit open
to non-NAFEX members just doesn't seem right, although I am sure
someone can make an argument on why this not-so-rich
organization should fund a service that is available for free (with a
catch). That catch is that there are some ads in the footer, which
prior experience with the subscribe / unsubscribe instructions
suggests most people don't read.

For those get animated, flashing, or other types of messages, time
to turn off those bells and whistes in Outlook. <g>. I use plain
vanilla email, and there is indeed beauty in simplicity.

As to whether there is room for improvement, the answer is yes.
Tom Olenio has recently forwarded some good suggestions that I
will implement in the near future. Thanks, Tom.

I do still intend to follow the general principles of keeping a loose
hand on the tiller. If you think about it, the number of off-topic
posts are relatively few, people are generally civil, and the content
is good. The mission of NAFEX is to disseminate information on
unusual fruits and nuts, which I think this list promotes. There
really isn't that much in need of fixing on balance.

Greg Miller

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