[RBW] Re: State of the List Report - January 2011
As always, Jim, we're appreciative of all the work it takes to administer a list like this. I know, because we tried. You make it seem effortless, but I know from personal experience that it is not. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Thank you, again, John everyone at RBW HQ Walnut Creek 96, Calif. On Jan 10, 2:33 pm, CycloFiend cyclofi...@earthlink.net wrote: State of the Rivendell Bicycle Works Owner's Bunch Mailing List January 2011 - #11 We're solidly in the center of winter - although those of you who are enjoying high summer in the southern hemisphere will just have to imagine. For the 250 or so who have come onboard the group in the last half a year, this please accept a slightly belated Welcome! Hopefully, you've enjoyed the discussions, chimed in a bit on your own, and continued to make this group vital and vibrant. It has been very gratifying to watch this list mature. As I've mentioned to some long-time members privately, I'm both excited and concerned about the growth of this group. I've tried to take a little more of a hands-off approach in terms of commenting as an admin, and had planned on no more than quarterly State Of The List Reports. For the newer members, I use this message as a reminder of some of the basic tenets of the list, to highlight changes and trends on the list and various websites, and to speak generally about the RBW group. In the beginning, since this group had picked up the pieces from another list, it seemed appropriate to actively remind folks about the tenor and tenets of the group. As we've grown, the most important aspect of this group - the tone between us - has remained extremely civil. The few muckrakers who cropped up seem to have moved on and this group has maintained its respect for one another. I think we all understand the difficulty of transmitting humor or mood over a text-based medium, and want to say again how nice it is to be among people who think about what they post and aren't afraid to reread before hitting the send button. An interesting statistic is that even though we've added a number of new members, the traffic has actually subsided from the peaks of early last year. I've been trying to keep the phrase Say more. Post less. firmly in mind before committing a post to the group. Those of you who are also members of the iBob list probably know what I'm getting at here. For the newer members, it might be helpful for me to share one of the ways I think about this list - as a public house where ideas are easily shared between those who have arrived, everyone is present because they want to be, and passing through the doors means that baggage is left outside. Of course, disruptions will periodically occur, which is kind of where I have to attempt a polite correction now and again. At one point in list history, I commented publically about a general trend of topics to drift and generalize. It was interesting how many people thought they'd been the cause of my post, and in more than a few cases, I had to go back and re-read their contributions to the discussion, as most of them weren't really the ones which caused my comment. I think it speaks highly for everyone that they had taken some of the assumption of cause, even if it wasn't the case. Let me use this space to thank you both for your contributions and your willingness to temper your posts. At the current levels, if everyone just makes one post a month, that means 1590+ posts, or somewhere around 53 per day in an average month. Just by staying on topic, we have the potential to generate a fair amount of traffic. One of the hallmarks of this list has been a very high signal to noise ratio. It's solid information from the people using and thinking about the items. That means that a lot of info can be found in the archives, and it seems that the google archive search issues have fixed themselves, so that should be a decent resource. So, if a member asks something that was covered in a previous, pertinent thread, and you recall having participated in that thread, it may be easier for you to track down and share the thread link. Or not. I know I've repeated myself more than a few times over the years. It's important to remember that if you are tagging your post OT or Off Topic, then it doesn't belong on this list. Tone is always a concern in my mind. One of the things that happens almost every year on other lists is a cantankerousness that escalates into real nastiness. It's typically mid-to-late February or early March - a definite stir-crazyness manifesting. It's too easy to be brusque, as well as take umbrage during that time of year. My view is simple: life is too short. If you can't stay positive or at least polite, it's time to put down the keyboard and take a break. We all get enough guff in our everyday existence that we don't need
RE: [RBW] Re: State of the List Report - January 2011
Jim: What John (and others) said -- it's one of the small but important pleasures of my day to read all of the posts and keep up with folks I feel like I've gotten to know through this list. And they are people worth getting to know! Thanks again. Tom -Original Message- From: rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com [mailto:rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of John Bennett Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 9:04 AM To: RBW Owners Bunch Subject: [RBW] Re: State of the List Report - January 2011 As always, Jim, we're appreciative of all the work it takes to administer a list like this. I know, because we tried. You make it seem effortless, but I know from personal experience that it is not. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Thank you, again, John everyone at RBW HQ Walnut Creek 96, Calif. On Jan 10, 2:33 pm, CycloFiend cyclofi...@earthlink.net wrote: State of the Rivendell Bicycle Works Owner's Bunch Mailing List January 2011 - #11 We're solidly in the center of winter - although those of you who are enjoying high summer in the southern hemisphere will just have to imagine. For the 250 or so who have come onboard the group in the last half a year, this please accept a slightly belated Welcome! Hopefully, you've enjoyed the discussions, chimed in a bit on your own, and continued to make this group vital and vibrant. It has been very gratifying to watch this list mature. As I've mentioned to some long-time members privately, I'm both excited and concerned about the growth of this group. I've tried to take a little more of a hands-off approach in terms of commenting as an admin, and had planned on no more than quarterly State Of The List Reports. For the newer members, I use this message as a reminder of some of the basic tenets of the list, to highlight changes and trends on the list and various websites, and to speak generally about the RBW group. In the beginning, since this group had picked up the pieces from another list, it seemed appropriate to actively remind folks about the tenor and tenets of the group. As we've grown, the most important aspect of this group - the tone between us - has remained extremely civil. The few muckrakers who cropped up seem to have moved on and this group has maintained its respect for one another. I think we all understand the difficulty of transmitting humor or mood over a text-based medium, and want to say again how nice it is to be among people who think about what they post and aren't afraid to reread before hitting the send button. An interesting statistic is that even though we've added a number of new members, the traffic has actually subsided from the peaks of early last year. I've been trying to keep the phrase Say more. Post less. firmly in mind before committing a post to the group. Those of you who are also members of the iBob list probably know what I'm getting at here. For the newer members, it might be helpful for me to share one of the ways I think about this list - as a public house where ideas are easily shared between those who have arrived, everyone is present because they want to be, and passing through the doors means that baggage is left outside. Of course, disruptions will periodically occur, which is kind of where I have to attempt a polite correction now and again. At one point in list history, I commented publically about a general trend of topics to drift and generalize. It was interesting how many people thought they'd been the cause of my post, and in more than a few cases, I had to go back and re-read their contributions to the discussion, as most of them weren't really the ones which caused my comment. I think it speaks highly for everyone that they had taken some of the assumption of cause, even if it wasn't the case. Let me use this space to thank you both for your contributions and your willingness to temper your posts. At the current levels, if everyone just makes one post a month, that means 1590+ posts, or somewhere around 53 per day in an average month. Just by staying on topic, we have the potential to generate a fair amount of traffic. One of the hallmarks of this list has been a very high signal to noise ratio. It's solid information from the people using and thinking about the items. That means that a lot of info can be found in the archives, and it seems that the google archive search issues have fixed themselves, so that should be a decent resource. So, if a member asks something that was covered in a previous, pertinent thread, and you recall having participated in that thread, it may be easier for you to track down and share the thread link. Or not. I know I've repeated myself more than a few times over the years. It's important to remember that if you are tagging your post OT or Off Topic, then it doesn't
Re: [RBW] Re: State of the List Report - January 2011
Agreed! Great list! I read it often. I also use it a lot to stay supplied. I have this list to thank for the purchase from list members of two bicycles, several drawers full of yet-to-be-used/applied parts and accessories, and a rack of tires. I have no doubt that if my wife could figure out a way to apply parental controls to this forum, I'd be entirely restricted by now. From: Allingham II, Thomas J thomas.alling...@skadden.com To: rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com Sent: Wed, January 12, 2011 6:17:05 AM Subject: RE: [RBW] Re: State of the List Report - January 2011 Jim: What John (and others) said -- it's one of the small but important pleasures of my day to read all of the posts and keep up with folks I feel like I've gotten to know through this list. And they are people worth getting to know! Thanks again. Tom -Original Message- From: rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com [mailto:rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of John Bennett Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 9:04 AM To: RBW Owners Bunch Subject: [RBW] Re: State of the List Report - January 2011 As always, Jim, we're appreciative of all the work it takes to administer a list like this. I know, because we tried. You make it seem effortless, but I know from personal experience that it is not. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Thank you, again, John everyone at RBW HQ Walnut Creek 96, Calif. On Jan 10, 2:33 pm, CycloFiend cyclofi...@earthlink.net wrote: State of the Rivendell Bicycle Works Owner's Bunch Mailing List January 2011 - #11 We're solidly in the center of winter - although those of you who are enjoying high summer in the southern hemisphere will just have to imagine. For the 250 or so who have come onboard the group in the last half a year, this please accept a slightly belated Welcome! Hopefully, you've enjoyed the discussions, chimed in a bit on your own, and continued to make this group vital and vibrant. It has been very gratifying to watch this list mature. As I've mentioned to some long-time members privately, I'm both excited and concerned about the growth of this group. I've tried to take a little more of a hands-off approach in terms of commenting as an admin, and had planned on no more than quarterly State Of The List Reports. For the newer members, I use this message as a reminder of some of the basic tenets of the list, to highlight changes and trends on the list and various websites, and to speak generally about the RBW group. In the beginning, since this group had picked up the pieces from another list, it seemed appropriate to actively remind folks about the tenor and tenets of the group. As we've grown, the most important aspect of this group - the tone between us - has remained extremely civil. The few muckrakers who cropped up seem to have moved on and this group has maintained its respect for one another. I think we all understand the difficulty of transmitting humor or mood over a text-based medium, and want to say again how nice it is to be among people who think about what they post and aren't afraid to reread before hitting the send button. An interesting statistic is that even though we've added a number of new members, the traffic has actually subsided from the peaks of early last year. I've been trying to keep the phrase Say more. Post less. firmly in mind before committing a post to the group. Those of you who are also members of the iBob list probably know what I'm getting at here. For the newer members, it might be helpful for me to share one of the ways I think about this list - as a public house where ideas are easily shared between those who have arrived, everyone is present because they want to be, and passing through the doors means that baggage is left outside. Of course, disruptions will periodically occur, which is kind of where I have to attempt a polite correction now and again. At one point in list history, I commented publically about a general trend of topics to drift and generalize. It was interesting how many people thought they'd been the cause of my post, and in more than a few cases, I had to go back and re-read their contributions to the discussion, as most of them weren't really the ones which caused my comment. I think it speaks highly for everyone that they had taken some of the assumption of cause, even if it wasn't the case. Let me use this space to thank you both for your contributions and your willingness to temper your posts. At the current levels, if everyone just makes one post a month, that means 1590+ posts, or somewhere around 53 per day in an average month. Just by staying on topic, we have the potential to generate a fair amount of traffic. One of the hallmarks of this list has been a very
[RBW] Re: State of the List Report - January 2011
Just one more bit of praise for Jim and his efforts to keep this going and one for all the people who post here. Every time I look elsewhere there seems to be anger,attitude and bickering, but not here. There is a certain level of respect and tolerance for other opinions and a general harmony. I find it very unusual in todays world to have such a pleasant place to ask questions and share each other's passion. ~Mike~ On Jan 12, 6:36 am, Ray Shine r.sh...@sbcglobal.net wrote: Agreed! Great list! I read it often. I also use it a lot to stay supplied. I have this list to thank for the purchase from list members of two bicycles, several drawers full of yet-to-be-used/applied parts and accessories, and a rack of tires. I have no doubt that if my wife could figure out a way to apply parental controls to this forum, I'd be entirely restricted by now. From: Allingham II, Thomas J thomas.alling...@skadden.com To: rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com Sent: Wed, January 12, 2011 6:17:05 AM Subject: RE: [RBW] Re: State of the List Report - January 2011 Jim: What John (and others) said -- it's one of the small but important pleasures of my day to read all of the posts and keep up with folks I feel like I've gotten to know through this list. And they are people worth getting to know! Thanks again. Tom -Original Message- From: rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com [mailto:rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of John Bennett Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 9:04 AM To: RBW Owners Bunch Subject: [RBW] Re: State of the List Report - January 2011 As always, Jim, we're appreciative of all the work it takes to administer a list like this. I know, because we tried. You make it seem effortless, but I know from personal experience that it is not. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Thank you, again, John everyone at RBW HQ Walnut Creek 96, Calif. On Jan 10, 2:33 pm, CycloFiend cyclofi...@earthlink.net wrote: State of the Rivendell Bicycle Works Owner's Bunch Mailing List January 2011 - #11 We're solidly in the center of winter - although those of you who are enjoying high summer in the southern hemisphere will just have to imagine. For the 250 or so who have come onboard the group in the last half a year, this please accept a slightly belated Welcome! Hopefully, you've enjoyed the discussions, chimed in a bit on your own, and continued to make this group vital and vibrant. It has been very gratifying to watch this list mature. As I've mentioned to some long-time members privately, I'm both excited and concerned about the growth of this group. I've tried to take a little more of a hands-off approach in terms of commenting as an admin, and had planned on no more than quarterly State Of The List Reports. For the newer members, I use this message as a reminder of some of the basic tenets of the list, to highlight changes and trends on the list and various websites, and to speak generally about the RBW group. In the beginning, since this group had picked up the pieces from another list, it seemed appropriate to actively remind folks about the tenor and tenets of the group. As we've grown, the most important aspect of this group - the tone between us - has remained extremely civil. The few muckrakers who cropped up seem to have moved on and this group has maintained its respect for one another. I think we all understand the difficulty of transmitting humor or mood over a text-based medium, and want to say again how nice it is to be among people who think about what they post and aren't afraid to reread before hitting the send button. An interesting statistic is that even though we've added a number of new members, the traffic has actually subsided from the peaks of early last year. I've been trying to keep the phrase Say more. Post less. firmly in mind before committing a post to the group. Those of you who are also members of the iBob list probably know what I'm getting at here. For the newer members, it might be helpful for me to share one of the ways I think about this list - as a public house where ideas are easily shared between those who have arrived, everyone is present because they want to be, and passing through the doors means that baggage is left outside. Of course, disruptions will periodically occur, which is kind of where I have to attempt a polite correction now and again. At one point in list history, I commented publically about a general trend of topics to drift and generalize. It was interesting how many people thought they'd been the cause of my post, and in more than a few cases, I had to go back and re-read their contributions to the discussion, as most of them weren't really the ones which caused my comment
[RBW] Re: State of the List Report - January 2011
bump Thank you Jim for the effort you put in. On Jan 10, 2:33 pm, CycloFiend cyclofi...@earthlink.net wrote: State of the Rivendell Bicycle Works Owner's Bunch Mailing List January 2011 - #11 We're solidly in the center of winter - although those of you who are enjoying high summer in the southern hemisphere will just have to imagine. For the 250 or so who have come onboard the group in the last half a year, this please accept a slightly belated Welcome! Hopefully, you've enjoyed the discussions, chimed in a bit on your own, and continued to make this group vital and vibrant. It has been very gratifying to watch this list mature. As I've mentioned to some long-time members privately, I'm both excited and concerned about the growth of this group. I've tried to take a little more of a hands-off approach in terms of commenting as an admin, and had planned on no more than quarterly State Of The List Reports. For the newer members, I use this message as a reminder of some of the basic tenets of the list, to highlight changes and trends on the list and various websites, and to speak generally about the RBW group. In the beginning, since this group had picked up the pieces from another list, it seemed appropriate to actively remind folks about the tenor and tenets of the group. As we've grown, the most important aspect of this group - the tone between us - has remained extremely civil. The few muckrakers who cropped up seem to have moved on and this group has maintained its respect for one another. I think we all understand the difficulty of transmitting humor or mood over a text-based medium, and want to say again how nice it is to be among people who think about what they post and aren't afraid to reread before hitting the send button. An interesting statistic is that even though we've added a number of new members, the traffic has actually subsided from the peaks of early last year. I've been trying to keep the phrase Say more. Post less. firmly in mind before committing a post to the group. Those of you who are also members of the iBob list probably know what I'm getting at here. For the newer members, it might be helpful for me to share one of the ways I think about this list - as a public house where ideas are easily shared between those who have arrived, everyone is present because they want to be, and passing through the doors means that baggage is left outside. Of course, disruptions will periodically occur, which is kind of where I have to attempt a polite correction now and again. At one point in list history, I commented publically about a general trend of topics to drift and generalize. It was interesting how many people thought they'd been the cause of my post, and in more than a few cases, I had to go back and re-read their contributions to the discussion, as most of them weren't really the ones which caused my comment. I think it speaks highly for everyone that they had taken some of the assumption of cause, even if it wasn't the case. Let me use this space to thank you both for your contributions and your willingness to temper your posts. At the current levels, if everyone just makes one post a month, that means 1590+ posts, or somewhere around 53 per day in an average month. Just by staying on topic, we have the potential to generate a fair amount of traffic. One of the hallmarks of this list has been a very high signal to noise ratio. It's solid information from the people using and thinking about the items. That means that a lot of info can be found in the archives, and it seems that the google archive search issues have fixed themselves, so that should be a decent resource. So, if a member asks something that was covered in a previous, pertinent thread, and you recall having participated in that thread, it may be easier for you to track down and share the thread link. Or not. I know I've repeated myself more than a few times over the years. It's important to remember that if you are tagging your post OT or Off Topic, then it doesn't belong on this list. Tone is always a concern in my mind. One of the things that happens almost every year on other lists is a cantankerousness that escalates into real nastiness. It's typically mid-to-late February or early March - a definite stir-crazyness manifesting. It's too easy to be brusque, as well as take umbrage during that time of year. My view is simple: life is too short. If you can't stay positive or at least polite, it's time to put down the keyboard and take a break. We all get enough guff in our everyday existence that we don't need to add to it here. As I've said before, disagreement is expected. There's no way we will all come to the same conclusion about anything, and I think it would be a more boring world if we did. But, here, under this roof, we agree to disagree with
Re: [RBW] Re: State of the List Report - January 2011
Well, it seems that we vertically endowed folks have the blessing of the gatekeeper to keep our sub-group going, and for that I, for one, am grateful. I'd suggest we accept his suggestion and start each post off with the following: TALL RIDERS SUBGROUP: etc, etc. All those in favor perform a vicious high-flying slam dunk! RGZ On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 10:10 AM, William tapebu...@gmail.com wrote: bump Thank you Jim for the effort you put in. On Jan 10, 2:33 pm, CycloFiend cyclofi...@earthlink.net wrote: State of the Rivendell Bicycle Works Owner's Bunch Mailing List January 2011 - #11 We're solidly in the center of winter - although those of you who are enjoying high summer in the southern hemisphere will just have to imagine. For the 250 or so who have come onboard the group in the last half a year, this please accept a slightly belated Welcome! Hopefully, you've enjoyed the discussions, chimed in a bit on your own, and continued to make this group vital and vibrant. It has been very gratifying to watch this list mature. As I've mentioned to some long-time members privately, I'm both excited and concerned about the growth of this group. I've tried to take a little more of a hands-off approach in terms of commenting as an admin, and had planned on no more than quarterly State Of The List Reports. For the newer members, I use this message as a reminder of some of the basic tenets of the list, to highlight changes and trends on the list and various websites, and to speak generally about the RBW group. In the beginning, since this group had picked up the pieces from another list, it seemed appropriate to actively remind folks about the tenor and tenets of the group. As we've grown, the most important aspect of this group - the tone between us - has remained extremely civil. The few muckrakers who cropped up seem to have moved on and this group has maintained its respect for one another. I think we all understand the difficulty of transmitting humor or mood over a text-based medium, and want to say again how nice it is to be among people who think about what they post and aren't afraid to reread before hitting the send button. An interesting statistic is that even though we've added a number of new members, the traffic has actually subsided from the peaks of early last year. I've been trying to keep the phrase Say more. Post less. firmly in mind before committing a post to the group. Those of you who are also members of the iBob list probably know what I'm getting at here. For the newer members, it might be helpful for me to share one of the ways I think about this list - as a public house where ideas are easily shared between those who have arrived, everyone is present because they want to be, and passing through the doors means that baggage is left outside. Of course, disruptions will periodically occur, which is kind of where I have to attempt a polite correction now and again. At one point in list history, I commented publically about a general trend of topics to drift and generalize. It was interesting how many people thought they'd been the cause of my post, and in more than a few cases, I had to go back and re-read their contributions to the discussion, as most of them weren't really the ones which caused my comment. I think it speaks highly for everyone that they had taken some of the assumption of cause, even if it wasn't the case. Let me use this space to thank you both for your contributions and your willingness to temper your posts. At the current levels, if everyone just makes one post a month, that means 1590+ posts, or somewhere around 53 per day in an average month. Just by staying on topic, we have the potential to generate a fair amount of traffic. One of the hallmarks of this list has been a very high signal to noise ratio. It's solid information from the people using and thinking about the items. That means that a lot of info can be found in the archives, and it seems that the google archive search issues have fixed themselves, so that should be a decent resource. So, if a member asks something that was covered in a previous, pertinent thread, and you recall having participated in that thread, it may be easier for you to track down and share the thread link. Or not. I know I've repeated myself more than a few times over the years. It's important to remember that if you are tagging your post OT or Off Topic, then it doesn't belong on this list. Tone is always a concern in my mind. One of the things that happens almost every year on other lists is a cantankerousness that escalates into real nastiness. It's typically mid-to-late February or early March - a definite stir-crazyness manifesting. It's too easy to be brusque, as well as take umbrage during that time of year. My view is simple: life is too short. If you can't stay
