This is not only a constructive breakdown of internet communities, it also reminded me of Bulletin Boards! Bulletin Boards were to GenX what Ham Radio was to my dad's generation (born in 1936). Both a connection to others and a seed of the future. I think the San Rafael based BBS I was a member of in my teenage years was called The Wasteland. I think I have a tee shirt design I made for them in my files.
Also, I am happy Peter White is still carrying his particular torches. Philip Santa Rosa, CA On Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at 3:32:12 PM UTC-7 Cyclofiend Jim wrote: > Hey there George - > > All of the communication platforms have shifted over the years. "Blog" > "email list" "site" and others can be kind of confusing. > > Some of the differences are semantic, but certain functionalities will > differ. > > This group where you are posting began as an "email list" - it used to be > managed as a "listserv" which was a type of email-only communication. You > would email a specific address and everyone subscribed to that "listserv" > received the email. That was a precursor to this current "group" format. > The difference was that the listerv communications took place only through > email. There was no place on the internet you could interact with the > conversation threads. (Many listservs were archived online, so you could > search the conversations. > > The benefit of a listserv was that individuals could be specifically > allowed to participate or banned if they misbehaved. This was an > attractive, more private option compared to "Usenet" which was a set of > public discussion boards and tended to be very "wild west" at times. > > Blogs are technically website pages which are published in a way that > interested parties can be notified with each new individual update, or > "post". Many blogs would provide the ability to comment on each post, so > you might carry on conversations with other readers or the author right on > the page. In many cases, if you are subscribed to a blog, you will receive > an email that contains the full post, which you can read through your email > account. Classic blogs have a single or limited number of authors, and the > rest of the folks are reading/subscribed to what is published. > > Also, there are BBS's or Bulletin Boards which usually required a > membership and then would allow a verified user to read, interact, comment > on topics or threads. Some of those have a lot of formal structure. Others > are very free-wheeling. > > This is a "Group" which runs through the Google Group framework. This > group requires registration and permission to join. Once you do that, you > can choose to receive the "posts" (or as Google Groups now calls them > "Conversations") through email only - like the Listserv - or view it on the > internet - similar to a BBS. > > This is not a "Riv blog site" as no one is specifically posting articles > or topics. Anyone is capable of asking questions or providing answers or > experiences. It's similar in behavior to a BBS (or more currently a Discord > server) in that the content is driven by everyone who participates. Also - > this is not directly connected to Rivendell Bicycle Works. > > So if someone says the "Riv Blog Site" I would tend to think they are > talking about Grant's "Blahg" or the Rivbike News Blog > GP's - https://www.rivbike.com/blogs/grant-petersens-blog > News Blog - https://www.rivbike.com/blogs/news > > Where it gets confusing is that someone reading them via email might think > of them as "emails" while someone on the RBW Owner's Bunch Google Groups > page would think of them as posts. > > Hope that helps a bit. There are more details if you are interested. > > The Bicycle Lifestyle info is yonder - > https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/bl.php > > Jim / list admin > > On Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at 2:59:33 PM UTC-7 George Schick wrote: > > ??? Maybe I'm a bit confused here, but what's the difference? If I'm > logged into the Riv "blog" site (whatever that means now for this > discussion) how do posts for discussions differ from what you're calling > emails? > > > On Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at 4:47:50 PM UTC-5 Eric Daume wrote: > > If you’re posting to this list, it’s an email list. > > If you’re creating a post on google blogger (for instance) you’re making a > blog. > > Eric > > > On Wednesday, March 19, 2025, George Schick <bhi...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Interesting. What are you calling a "blog" vs. an "email list"? It used > to be that if I logged into my specific "Riv" blogs in order to make a post > I'd get a choice between between BicycleLifeStyle and Rivendell Owners > Bunch. What changed? > > > On Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at 2:54:55 PM UTC-5 Eric Daume wrote: > > This wasn't a blog, but an email list provided through (IIRC) Google > groups. When I check my list of Google groups, I don't see it anymore. > > Eric > > On Wed, Mar 19, 2025 at 3:08 PM George Schick <bhi...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Every now and then I surf into the Bicycle Life Style blog moderated by > Peter White to see what's going on. When I tried that today I got a > kick-back from Google saying something like "content not available." Now, > Peter has posted the fact that he is intending to retire and eventually > close his shop both on-line as well as his store, so something like this is > not unexpected. > > Way back sometime in the mid-90's a decision was made to "split" a blog > popularized mainly by Riv product buyers into two new blogs, Riv Owners > Bunch, supposedly dedicated to Riv bikes and products, and Bicycle Life > Style, which was intended to be the "technical" blog for bikers having > various mechanical and component issues. As time went along, most of the > technical issues gradually migrated to the Riv Owners Bunch blog, leaving > the "life style" site for issues mostly dedicated to bicycle lighting and > hub dynamo product issues. > > Has the time come when we've now collapsed to just the Riv Owners Bunch > blog? That's fine as long as everyone who posts and replies is willing to > go along with that approach. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/a8b7e9c9-6c3a-41d9-ab94-dac657012b62n%40googlegroups.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/a8b7e9c9-6c3a-41d9-ab94-dac657012b62n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com. > > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/b9ea97c1-c54e-4c62-b046-f33738c7e1ebn%40googlegroups.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/b9ea97c1-c54e-4c62-b046-f33738c7e1ebn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/f397ba13-43a4-417a-a11c-71a2d4e3af56n%40googlegroups.com.
