>At 5:39 PM +0000 2/4/99, Ivan Pope wrote:
... the existence of lots
>> of semi-parallel lists on subjects that cross over a lot. I don't really
>> want to belong to all of them, but cross posting is an art, not a science.
>
>This is in reality a feature, not a bug. The parallel aspect of lists
>is wonderful, because of its encouragement of diversity.
>
>Imagine living in a city iwth one bar,
>One of the realities of the internet you have to learn to deal with
>is that there are going to be discussions going on you won't run
>into,
>Rather
>than complain about the sheer number of conversations, since that's
>tilting at windmills, rejoice in it, and use it to your advantage --
>find those bars that you find most interesting adn useful, stay in
>those, and jetison the rest.
I'm not complaining and I do rejoice in the number of conversations. If
anything, I want to encourage more. But - it is often difficult to get the
real value from lists because of their rather blunt nature. I have often
seen very interesting people leave lists in disgust because they don't want
to deal with the noise.
I think my issue was with the rather blunt nature of lists - one is either
on them or off them. This is a bit different to bars where you can drift
around, pick up on conversations, move from place to place.
Anyway, I don't like to use real world analogies when talking about the
Internet - its such a potentially different environment that it seems we
should try to invent new tools.
Of course, there are many perfectly fine mailing lists and then there are
lists that are like panning for gold.
>But if you don't like how mailing lists work, web forums are the next
>step forward. But be aware, it won't solve your basic complaint --
>there are still going to be dozens of bars you wish you had time to
>spend time in. But that diversity is a good thing, not a bad thing.
I think my basic complaint is that we can't take advantage of the diversity
out there without killing ourselves with traffic noise in the attempt.
Of course moving the same concepts to the Web isn't going to solve that. I
think we need much more subtle tools to do that. I was trying to think out
loud about what they might be.
Cheers,
Ivan
Ivan Pope [EMAIL PROTECTED]
NETNAMES * The INTERNATIONAL DOMAIN NAME REGISTRY
http://www.netnames.com UK Freephone 0800 269049
180-182 Tottenham Court Road London W1P 9LE UK
+44 171 291 3900 +44 171 291 3939 Fax
It's not about building a better mousetrap, it's about redefining the mouse.
