Re: the ASA email list

Paul, Glenn, and all who've contributed to this thread,

Composing meaningful combined replies is the recommended approach to
the problem Glenn and Paul raise. Those of us who don't sit in front
of our computers all day reading and answer ASA list mail are well-
served by such thoughtfulness. I'd suggest that the debate is
actually well-served also since it causes us to synthesize our
thoughts a bit.

And, by the way, it's 4 posts per day. Also, I'd suggest that a post
that simply says "please explain your reasoning" could be sent off-
list and not count as one of your 4.

So who wants to volunteer as moderator? It's a huge time sink--we've
tried it in the past. I'd not recommend going that direction.

I'm quite open to an ASA member only list--if that's what we want. I
don't really see a point to managing an open list if there is going
to be a second list where serious discussion takes place. Also, I
don't see what's happening on the list these days to be particularly
beneficial to the reputation of the ASA. But, on the other hand, it's
not that big of a deal--there are only about 300 list members and
only 10-20% of those are active. I suspect that little over half are
actually ASA members. Of the active participants there are just a
handful of non-members. If non-members want to follow our
discussions, they can read the web archives and then comment on them
in their blog. If they want to join in the discussions, they can join
the ASA. i don't really think it's unreasonable to go this direction.

What do you think, Jack, Randy, Ted (some of the ASA big-wigs who
participate in the list, if you're wondering why I mention them in
particular)?

As for switching to a web-based system--I'm all for it. The last vote
we took, as someone noted, had the email format preferred in a near
2-1 majority.

TG

On Jun 11, 2006, at 9:48 PM, Paul Seely wrote:

> glenn wrote
> <<Look, today I asked David Siemans to explain his reasoning. That
> was a very short post, but would have counted as one of my 2 per
> day and it didn't really say anything. And lately I have had
> several people throughout the day send questions to me.>>
>
> Yeah. I was on a different list for awhile where a number of
> people would answer me all at once, and I would be faced with
> trying to answer all of them. I know Glenn gets this all the time.
> So, whatever rules are made, they should take this into
> consideration. Perhaps, two posts/day per thread?
>
> Paul
>

________________
Terry M. Gray, Ph.D.
Computer Support Scientist
Chemistry Department
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523
(o) 970-491-7003 (f) 970-491-1801
Received on Mon Jun 12 00:37:45 2006