[asa] Alternative to the Flood of Emails

Thanks for sharing your views on this topic, John.

John wrote: In marketing parlance, the forum is a discontinuous innovation while email
is continuous. Continuous innovations facilitate uptake while discontinuous
ones don't.

That makes sense, especially for those who are available to answer emails regularly; some of us are not, unfortunately.

Still, there must be a point where the "flood level" would become too cumbersome since even deletions or transfers take a little effort. Often we receive duplicate emails for each one. I don't know what that level might be for others, admittedly. I suspect we aren't too far from it. It is a healthy sign, admittedly; not all floods are bad. :)

People are in the habit of checking their email daily and therefore read ASA emails that they would otherwise likely not read if they had to go out of their way to do so.
I will disagree with this because I can type "asa" into the web entry box and I immediately get the forum address in the pop-down list. This then takes me to my password entry box which is already filled and I only need hit enter, and there I am, in the forum.

In contrast, my email system drags along when I load-up in the morning as it filters, I suppose, the 50 to 200 or so emails I receive. I usually switch to another computer and perform work there to give time for the email system to process. Of course, after initial start-up, emails come smoothly.

I STRONGLY prefer email to forums or blogs. In fact, I hate blogs and never use them. I agree it is a good decision to stay with email if the intent is to facilitate discussion.
Blogs are almost a waste of time for those who respond to them. I think they are great for kids since they can fire-off a few statements without the risk of much criticism. It seems rare that the blog author will respond to even the best responses. Ad hominems, however, can illict a blog response, and since folks like attention, we see more of these than we should.

Forums, of course, are much different than blogs.

One thing you can do in your email is to setup a filter in your Outlook or mail client to forward all incoming ASA emails to a certain folder and you can read them later without polluting all your other incoming personal email.
That's a smart move. Is there a simple procedure for this someone reading this will be willing to explain? It does not eliminate the time to review and delete, but it does eliminate the manual transfers I've been doing. The forum is superior because all posts are under one topic and not scattered throughout as in the email list. In the email system, sorting by topic name doesn't quite work as some topic titles get altered at times. They are often duplicated, too.

I don't want to come across too strongly since whatever the majority here prefers is the system I too want to support. However, if many members are unfamiliar with forums, then more discussion on this might be warranted.

FWIW, in responding to emails as seen above, I delete the duplicate, copy the original into this new email box in order to use the text color options (not avilable in reply mode), added the name of the person to whom I am responding, removed the > signs and deleted excessive rows, delete any superfluous header, colored the comments of the prior persons to help distinguish them, inserted the appropriate address (I tend to forget this and must duplicate the email), correct the fonts (though I didn't this time), and delted the carriage control codes in order to prevent the chopping of paragraphs.

I am not always this tidy, but these things do make it nicer for the readers. The forum format is nicer still.

>
> John
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
> Behalf Of George Cooper
> Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 9:32 AM
> To: asa@calvin.edu
> Subject: Fw: [asa] Flood of emails
>
> Thanks Terry, that means that most everyone at least knows about it. I am
> still curious, however, why emails are prefered. I find both equally
> personable, but the forum has several advantages.
>
> I'll keep checking the email flood by asking "How high's the water Mama?"
> and see if it, hopefully, keeps a risin'. :)
>
> GeorgeA
>
>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Terry M. Gray" <grayt@lamar.colostate.edu>
>> To: "George Cooper" <georgecooper@sbcglobal.net>
>> Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 10:52 PM
>> Subject: Re: [asa] Flood of emails
>>
>>
>>> George,
>>>
>>> Several times we have polled our group here about this and each time a
>>> slight majority expresses preference for continuing with an email based
>>> discussion rather than a forum based version.
>>>
>>> That's why we continue.
>>>
>>> TG
>>>
>>> On Dec 10, 2007, at 7:54 AM, George Cooper wrote:
>>>
>>>> Yes, it is a more than I would like to see, but it is hard not to
>>>> address these interesting topics.
>>>>
>>>> I would like to know why the ASA forum
>>>> [http://www.asa3.org/members-only/ASAforum/ ] is not being utilized. It
>
>>>> is much more orgainized, and it provides a great reference for future
>>>> use. The phpbb format is quite popular and works smoothly. I can even
>
>>>> edit my poor grammar.
>>>>
>>>> Are there some good reasons why we are only using emails instead? I
>>>> feel like we are out in the rain with our backs to our home's open
>>>> door.
>>>>
>>>> GeorgeA
>>>>
>>>> PS - Oh, and in the forum we don't have to redo our emails because we
>>>> forgot to address them to the group.
>>>
>>> ________________
>>> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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Received on Tue Dec 11 14:18:09 2007