Hi I just want to backup Edward's comments.
I'm happy to discuss just about anything openly, though it is useful to have product specific lists, and yes at times useful to know that certain vendors or third party salesmen are not going to contact you as a result of posting.
Aquabrowser has many good points, but has lacked any sort of community, add to this the very limited documentation - which could lead to confusion as to what is a feature and what is a bespoke addition that another site has commissioned/developed. I even tried asking on the Aquabrowser Facebook fan page discussion board - its only post!
This mailing list is a very welcome addition. Chris On 22/10/2009 15:45, Edward M. Corrado wrote:
I don't see this as an interesting difference at all. Almost all [larger] vendor-supplied products in the library world have their own discussion lists that are limited to people that use/license their products. We even see this with Open Source products such as Koha. Although I do not use AquaBrowser, unlike almost all other library specific-software of this magnitude I understand that AquaBrowser does not have a user group (formal or informal). There currently is very few ways (no way?) for users of this product to converse with each other and share ideas. There are numerous reasons for wanting to share information on a closed list that can range from not wanting to spam a larger community with a "how do activate a widget in product A" to asking questions/sharing information that for whatever reason you don't want to or can't share with the whole world (e.g. non-disclosure agreements, public relations concerns, privacy concerns, not wanting your name in open archives attached to something, etc.). In fact, in some cases you may not even want the vendor on the list the way some Voyager systems administrators created a list that excluded Endeavor (and now Ex Libris) and non-systems people at Voyager sites. This made people feel much more comfortable asking questions that maybe they would otherwise be embarrassed or reluctant to ask. [snip]
-- Chris Keene c.j.ke...@sussex.ac.uk Technical Development Manager Tel (01273) 877950 University of Sussex Library http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/
