Hi Jim, Yes, it would be a lot of work to write Wiki style articles on all list topics.
Another option would be an archive of all Group posts, searchable via Google. There is apparently a Google app that does that. I've seen options on web pages where there is a Google search button, that has options of: ( ) Search the site ( ) Search the web This should be pretty easy to implement and far less effort than a full Wiki. FWIW, -John ================ > J. Forster wrote: >> If your objective is to make a Wiki for Time-Nuts topics, why not do >> just >> that. There are Wiki Builder packages out there and IMO an easily >> searchable archive of Group posts would be "a good thing". >> >> It's unclear to me how many will have time to read both emails and a >> forum. I certainly don't. >> > > It would be a "benefit to society" if someone were to take all the posts > on various schemes and circuits and edit them into a document/wiki/FAQ.. > however, having done that in other circumstances, I know that it is a > HUGE task, and one that is continuing. > > I've been involved in several mailing lists over the years (and years) > and some (like this) have a fairly high signal to noise ratio. ALL of > them occasionally have noise bursts (for lack of a better term).. often > when the list traffic is otherwise slow and/or people are busy doing > something they're not yet ready to talk about or need to have questions > answered. to paraphrase mailing lists abhor a vacuum, and rather than > "is the list still alive" posts, technically oriented lists wind up with > a certain amount of topic drift, but it's temporary, and as soon as some > thing interesting in the real core area pops up, it snaps back into line > (often aided by the skilled hand of a moderator) > > I am aware of one successful "fork" and that's from the Tesla Coil > Mailing List (TCML) at http://www.pupman.com, which spawned a 4hv forum, > because the TCML tries to stay Tesla coil focused, but there is a lot of > interest in non Tesla Coil HV stuff. A lot of overlap between members, > and both are active, and both are also high SNR. > > Sometimes, too, there are personality clashes or people get cranked up > about some issue, but those inevitably die down (or the gentle hand of > moderation puts out the flames) because, under it all, the people on the > list are there because the care about the subject, and caring about the > subject means strong feelings, but also (eventual)tolerance of others > (again, moderators can do wonders).. > > > I am aware of several unsuccessful forks (or of limited success, > anyway)... where there was an attempt to split out the "newbie > questions" from the "old hands"... the problem is that the old hands > want to talk old hand stuff, but are also the folks best suited to > answering the newbie questions, so the reading/responding traffic hasn't > really changed. And how do you get to be an old hand without starting > as a newbie? There are also manufacturer sponsored lists where > marketing or product support is important, and there's a desire to keep > the speculative bug finding and philosophical design discussions from > distracting new customers. Flex-radio/flexedge lists are in this bucket, > but I don't know how well it works. There's lots of other factors at > play in that particular list/forum arena. (And, of course, the biggies > like Apple, Dell, HP, etc, are notorious for removing posts that are > uncomfortable) > > > Personally, I like email lists, because I am an old codger at the age of > 50 and prefer a gentle "push" rather than having to "pull" from a forum. > It's like reading the morning newspaper (which I did just before > writing this!) The only time it's a pain is when I'm on travel for an > extended period of time, because it's worse going through hundreds of > emails (from all sources) at a crack than seeing them all nicely laid > out. I could, I suppose, set up some rules/folders, but that leads to > "folders of unread list posts", and I'd rather read/delete/read/delete > > _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.