North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Road's End Farm <organic87@frontiernet.net>]

And a reply to the reply, interspersed:


> PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:04 am    Post subject:  	Reply with 
> quote
> Better than email in a number of ways.
>
> 1. All the information is searchable and provides a quick reference 
> repository.

I thought we had archives that were at least theoretically searchable. 
And I do keep my own records of things that I'm interested in, 
organized in my own choice of fashion; which I can then get at if the 
list or my internet connection is down.
> 2. Knowledge is preserved, on a longer term level, so if I forget 
> something Lon Rombaugh said about grapes, it is here rather than 
> storing it in my personal email inbox.

It's only preserved if nothing goes wrong with the board that it's on 
(same with archives for an email list). If you really want that info 
preserved, you want to spread it around, not only into a lot of 
individual computers but more importantly into print form dispersed 
into multiple locations. Not only have we no guarantee that any 
particular site will continue to function, but nobody has any idea what 
information put on computers in 2008, if any, will still be readable in 
2108.
> 3. Information is dealt with on a 'I want to know this' level. In an 
> email list I have to read a paragraph or two of words un-important to 
> me before I know to hit the 'delete' button.

I do browse on boards. I often can't tell from the title of a thread 
whether I want to know the info in it; and, even if I want to know the 
info in the thread as a whole, I'm not likely to want to know 
everything anyone said in every post on the thread. So I don't see any 
difference there. I still have to go through some things I don't care 
about to see the stuff that I do.
> 4. Information is subdivided automatically into semi-pertinent 
> groupings. Several forum channels can be created for; Apples, Pears, 
> Prunes, Grapes, etc, etc so I can find information faster.
You will need lots and lots of forum channels to cover everything 
discussed on this list; and then additional channels, to cover comments 
that apply to more than one species and/or more than one topic. Such 
posts are common on this list.

It's also very much my experience that forum channels, or threads, or 
whatever, drift off topic a great deal. Even if somebody spends lots of 
time moving things into what the moderator thinks is the right thread, 
the conversation will still often wind up either with a lot of info in 
a thread you wouldn't think to look for it in, and/or broken up in a 
fashion that's confusing to read.

The thread that started off being about grapes is going to turn into 
trellising methods, into laying plants down to protect them from cold, 
into laying apples down to protect them from cold, into what varieties 
of apples did well with this technique, into what apples did well in 
zone 3, into somebody's list of apples, pears, plums, and blackberries 
that did well for them in zone 3, into flavor of those blackberry 
varieties, into soil qualities that affect flavor . . . How are you 
going to keep that classified, and still keep any of the flow of 
conversation that it came out of?

> 5. We have a living, breathing recorded history of your knowledge and 
> wisdom. Right now it is definitely NOT that.

Why is this list any less living and breathing than a board would be?

> If somebody passes on to that great orchard in the sky, all of their 
> sound, sage advice is still preserved right here.
See comments under 2.

> Plus we have these COOL smiley things!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now c'mon you gotta 
> love that!! Razz Razz Razz Razz
Razzberry, as in the Bronx version. I don't care about smileys one way 
or the other (unless they blink, in which case I dislike them).