Dear Lacemakers, This memo came in over the weekend, and I responded directly to the author in Australia. Upon further thought, it occurred to me that maybe I should find out from the remainder of our membership if they think I have an "attitude", since I am definitely the one who puts the Archive address in many posts! My comments (shortened for this list) are below this posting, and I have trimmed the writer's name, because she is a lurker: ---- In a message dated 1/15/2016 "I am a lurker to Arachne and do find reading my emails very informative, it is lovely to see how helpful and friendly lace makers are!!
"However, some recent emails that come through have a very negative and unproductive attitude to sharing information. "With this current attitude I don't feel like making an enquiry. "This is my current opinion and hopefully the attitude changes. "Also another point to consider, I didn't know how to send an email to the group for over 6 months, so maybe a politely written email every few months on the correct email address, how to trim posts and how to access the illusive ARCHIVES would be helpful and greatly appreciated." --- Jeri's condensed version of correspondence with the lurker: 1. Since attitude was mentioned 3 times in connection with sharing of information, and because I wrote to the lurker for a clarification of the problem, I know that she primarily objects to being referred to our Archives. This is something I often do, and usually I give the complete Archive address. She wants questions re-answered. Some of our correspondents do not understand how many hours some of us spend helping others. If you search the Archives by any of our names, you will see that a lot of accumulated information is available from teachers, thread experts, authors, historians, museum personnel, etc. Archive information is also filed by subject(s). A lot of search options are possible for some memos. Additionally, though you see the publicly available correspondence, perhaps everyone needs to be reminded there are a lot of private personal letters going out, as well. We have an Archive so related comprehensive information can be saved and used. **We have members who do not want to read the same information over and over.** Personally, I know many members skip my memos altogether because they tend to be long on details. They can be shorter if the Archive is recommended. One of my personal missions is to (by example) **teach people how to do research and how to think constructively/creatively** so they can function better at this time in history and in the future. Knowing how to do research will become more and more critical in years ahead. It presently looks like there will be less lace-knowledgeable people (per capita) to consult in the years ahead. 2. Managing replies: When we first started 20+ years ago, there were some countries where users were charged by-the-memo, not by a time period (per month). Australia may have been one of them. I cannot remember. As a consequence, members can opt to receive (a) Each original message, or (b) the Digest - a string of unrelated messages that may have been posted over several days before subscribers receive it. The Digest form can be confusing to read if it contains a lot of repetitions because of several replies to a subject. That explains why Digest readers complained about repetitions. That is why we are reminded by our Web mistress to "trim" away unnecessary already said sentences and to "trim" the 4 lines of administrative information. 3. We are all volunteers when we reply to Arachne. Arachne is not a business, or financed by one. A private person provides the free-to-us server. Our volunteer Web mistress has many demands on her time. She rarely intrudes. If someone is insulting or sending commercial advertising, she steps in. We appreciate her time and expertise. We all need to know: Did other members have problems with learning to use Arachne? Were you guided through the process by fellow lacemakers at the beginning? Jeri Ames in Maine USA Lace and Embroidery Resource Center - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
