email-only! No option for the "Web only - no email" preference
available at Yahoo.
We're sorry about this, the administrators discussed it a lot. One
major reason is that there still is no good email list software
available that also offers a fully functional web board interface,
where messages can be sent, read and replied to, as at Yahoo. We have
a Web archives (two archives!) where you can read messages and search
for previous information, but you can't send messages from there.
It was decided that moving the list away from Yahoo outweighed the
disadvantages of losing the Web interface. Also, using the Web as a
discussion forum interface has its disadvantages. Web forums might be
more sociable, arguably, but on average, discussion is more chatty
and superficial, the noise to signal ratio is higher, there's less
direction and development, and the users don't build up their own
information resources - it's a bit like having no memory. The
exception, well-run web boards that overcome these disadvantages, are
in the minority, and often have a paid staff to manage them, or you
have to pay a subscription to join. Neither of these options is open
to us here.
By comparison, email discussions are usually meatier, and where it's
subject specific as this list is, you can't help building up a good
personal knowledge-base - which is why we're all here, after all. But
it needs some technique.
We'd argue that if you're not prepared to learn the few simple skills
required to handle an email list well, will you be prepared to learn
the skills needed to make your own fuel well?
People sometimes complain that they're being swamped or flooded with
hundreds of emails a day. But the Biofuel list isn't a high volume
list, which would have 200-300 emails a day, just medium volume with
about 30 or so messages a day. If you can't handle this list as an
information resource then you should improve your techniques, because
a whole world of knowledge is passing you by.
There is a Daily Digest option, a single email containing all that
day's messages. But Daily Digests are not a good way of doing it,
they only look like a good way at first, but they make the
information less accessible, not more..
You need an email account that delivers email to your computer via a
good email program (eg Eudora, or Outlook Express if you're careful
about viruses). Then you have email filters that you can set so they
automatically send mails on different subjects to different mailboxes
- no "flooded" in-box. There are also search functions you can use to
find information in what will soon grow into a very useful database
on your own hard disk. Filters and separate mailboxes are essential
to handling mailing lists properly, and perhaps the Internet in
general.
Now you have a memory. When you ask questions they'll be better
informed and you'll get better answers. You'll be more willing to
answer other people's questions and to contribute generally. You
benefit, everyone benefits, as a community we become more effective
in advancing biofuels issues, and we all live happily ever after.
Please have a look at this previous message on handling email, it
might help you:
http://archive.nnytech.net/sgroup/BIOFUEL/21700/
Here's another way that a list member recommended - good!
"I'm accustomed to the e-mail system and simply file messages I want
to keep in an archival folder. Everything else goes in the trash
after reading because I know it's all archived for my benefit, and
accessible when the need arises. (Thank you, thank you, thank you!)"
And yet another way from another member - BAD!
"My solution is to monitor the in-box regularly printing those items
of special interest (for a resource file), and deleting those
postings which are not of specific interest."
Printing??? Ulp... You can't grep dead trees. He hasn't realised what
a computer does, and he hasn't discovered archives yet either.
Another point that he misses, which the previous member didn't miss,
is that it's impossible to pre-judge which information will turn out
to be useful and which not. On a computer it just doesn't matter -
the more information there is in your database the more sheer depth
it will have, while it won't make searching any slower, and
current-model computer hard disks have plenty of space, 40Gb and
more. (That's equivalent to 40,000 to 50,000 books.)
Many members were on the "Web only - no email" option at Yahoo, but
many other members are email adepts. Can we all try to help each
other find our feet?
See also:
http://www.webfoot.com/advice/email.top.html
A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email
Thanks!
Best wishes
Keith Addison
Journey to Forever
KYOTO Pref., Japan
http://journeytoforever.org/
Biofuel list owner
_______________________________________________
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable):
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
