North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[<dmnorton@royaloakfarmorchard.com>]

If no one has done so yet, take a look at http://www.virtualorchard.net and see how there system is set up.  Virtual Orchard is made up of  most of the professionals in the apple industry from around the world and I subscribe to their list.  The list uses the same type of e-mail list as this one, as well as great archives.  The only thing that I seem to be seeing throughout this discussion is that some of us would like the  ability to search a thread or archives on topics.  I would like to see both the e-mail list and possibly the ability to search topics in an archive.  That's where a bulletin board such as ikonboard would come in.  Let me stick my neck out and say that I would be willing to host such a bulletin board and cover the cost of the server (since I already lease a server) for those of us that would like to have the benefits of the bulletin board.  If this is something that many are interested in, let me know and we can work out the logistics off-list. 

 

Dennis Norton
Royal Oak Farm Orchard
http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com
http://www.theorchardkeeper.blogspot.com
http://www.revivalhymn.com

----- Original Message -----

From: rooting

To: NAFEX

Sent: Monday, February 18, 2008 9:57 AM

Subject: [NAFEX] ikonboard, a better solution to a listserver

Another consideration, boards allow you to look at a topic thread.

When seeking a topic thru the search element on the board you can go back to any prior postings and make comments. from current topics to very old ones.

 

With an e-mail list, if you missed a posting on a topic of interest you have two choices,

>forget it

>try to do a list search.

I doubt if many people use the list search to pick out all postings on a specific topic, it is just too difficult.

 

Also, boards can be set up by areas of interest.

If you want to view and contribute to 'prunus' or 'malus' the topics can be separated.

 

Regarding bandwidth, the boards are text friendly and have minimal download time even on ISP dial up service.

 

Yes, some people are lonely and want lots of e-mail.

I have a hard time separating the wheat from the chaff.