First Edited Message Threads Posted - Reactions?

[Dan Shafer]

I know Alex intended his reply to go to me privately but i'm just as 
happy to have this discussion in the open.
On Nov 14, 2003, at 11:33 PM, Alex Rice wrote:

>
> On Oct 25, 2003, at 1:49 PM, Dan Shafer wrote:
>
>> I've posted the first dozen message threads from this list in edited, 
>> threaded form on my Web site at http://www.revolutionpros.com. Click 
>> on "Best of List" in the top nav to see them.
>>
>> I'd be interested in some feedback (off-list is probably best to 
>> dan at shafermedia.com).
>
> Dan, honest feedback:
>
> I find the revolutionpros community to be kind of exclusionary. Only 
> people who can afford it will be participating. I would rather 
> participate in an open forum. There are systems that gateway between 
> mailing lists and web forums- if that is an issue.
>
The purpose of the RevolutionPros.com "Best of List" is to provide an 
easy-to-use central resource for storing the message threads that seem 
to be of general interest in a way that makes it easy to follow them 
from question to answer to discussion to resolution. (BTW, the Best of 
List is *not* exclusionary; it is open to anyone who wishes to read it. 
It's entirely free.) There *are* things that only paid members can do 
(such as participate in the discussion forum) but this isn't one of 
them. Just to be clear.

That said, what you say of the RevPros *discussion* board is true 
enough. Many online communities, particularly those with a tech focus, 
tend to break into two broad groups. There are the open, public forums 
for newcomers, explorers, tire-kickers, and others who are more or less 
casually interested in the subject. These also *include*, of course, 
in-depth technical discussions, but they are often kind of a mixed bag.

> And I'm not real impressed with the website design or the web forum 
> system, usability-wise. Lest that sound kind of harsh just know that 
> I'm not a big fan of web forums in general. They can pry my Apple 
> Mail.app out of my cold dead hands :-)
>
I'm not, either! But they are open and they will get better -- and more 
attractive -- as time goes on.

Usability-wise, I think the discussion board is based on the most 
usable discussion forum model there is. It's kind of Spartan *looking* 
at the moment, but I think it is eminently usable. I am, as always 
however, open to suggestions for improving it.

> Anyways- still working through Vol.1 of the book. Glad I signed up for 
> the book deal. Thanks for getting the hyperlinked Contents in there. 
> Now with the new Preview.app on Mac OS X.3 it makes reading PDFs a lot 
> more pleasant.
>
Glad you like the book. That's sort of central to all of this.

> Best,
>
> Alex Rice <alex at mindlube.com> | Mindlube Software | 
> <http://mindlube.com>
>
> what a waste of thumbs that are opposable
> to make machines that are disposable  -Ani DiFranco
>
> _______________________________________________
> use-revolution mailing list
> use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
>