Hi Magnus,
Thanks for testing out the interface and the feedback is good to hear.
>From the start, I want to just throw the general question to the group in general:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Do we currently have a mounting problem (need for evolution) in the lists or is
all perfectly fine? That is, if we assume that we _could_ have a dynamic-in-the-moment
component of these wonderful conversations that are going on (some not so
wonderful, like life itself) along with a static (more-permanent) record,
should the static part remain as MD and MF in their current form?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I would point out from the perspective of an observer (and _rare_ participant) that
* MF is suffering from apathy..
I picture a once great forum where great minds forged trails in the past
temporarily silent.. sort of uncomfortable, like a museum of the minds.
* MD is suffering from chaos..
I picture a room full of sharp people with a stack of Post It notes and
pens. There are notes hanging everywhere that pop up in random
locations. You have to walk up to the note and see its title, but then
you realize it wasn't what you thought. An arrow points to a new
note that comes from it, and it is a new topic. In the beginning, this
might have worked, but now the Post It note system is unmanageable.
(As a note, the Post It notes do have high Quality writing on them)
As someone who might have something to contribute, I see people throw their hands
up and leave these two metaphorical rooms in frustration. Those that stay find
coping methods to sort through the NOTE HELL painted in MD.. Or else they retreat
to the clean, yet silent, MF forum.
I was about to walk out, myself, but figured I would open my mouth and offer some
suggestions.
What is most important is the PROBLEM, not the myriad SOLUTIONS. I was putting
the Ox in front of a not yet formed Ox-Cart. So, did I summarize the PROBLEM
that is ailing MD/MF and the participants? If there is no PROBLEM and I am wrong,
then I will gladly bid you all farewell, this environment might just not be meant
for me... and there is no need for an Ox (SOLUTION) to draw a non-existent Cart.
If there is a PROBLEM, we have a Cart to move to a new location (the IDEAL FINAL
RESULT).
What would everyone like to see in this new hypothetical location? We might be
able to implement it.. it might take some time of course.. And new mini problems
will pop up.. which Magnus addresses:
> I do have some concerns about the technical nature of the interface. It wouldn't
> bother me, I assure you, but the main part of the Lila Squad is not very
> technically oriented and would probably have difficulties using something like
> fix.no.
If this direction were taken.. It can be made very painless. There can also be
a tutorial.. The learning involved (the "technical" part) might be _slightly_
inconvenient, because it is new.. but the BENEFITS will greatly outweigh the
HARM of learning. For the record, fix.no tries to weed out non-technical types.
The MoQ BBS, if it were built, could be built around ease of use.. it is a
very simple matter.
> I also think that the mail format still has many advantages to having static
> channels on a BBS. Mail can be read off-line which is a serious advantage,
> not to mention economically for those with dial-up connections. I also like
> the possibility to read mail on my Palm via my phone when I'm in the bush.
Definitely.. The BBBS program has added support for Offline mail readers..
Meaning a user could login to the (hypothetical) BBS and with one command,
download/grab a batch of messages for offline reading (and of course, the
more slow process of writing messages). This can take all of four minutes,
plus the grab command is infinitely flexible -- you can grab messages only
to you, and if you were interested in only one area (like moq.md.technology),
you could have it pre-setup to only grab from this area. Since rubbish is
relative to the person, they aren't forced to download everything and the
Value ratio of the download goes up. (pertinent/inpertient)
> So I would vote to have the "static" lists as they are but try out some
> dynamic alternatives, not necessarily on a BBS though. This would make it
> possible to chat in real-time with a bunch interested in a certain topic.
> And it shouldn't be harder to find that discussion room than clicking a
> link on the MoQ site. There should be some Java chat applets around somewhere.
> Have you seen any?
There are plenty of Java chat applets, yes.. And if the BBS idea isn't high Q,
then this would be a good alternative.
On a side-note, and to get people's minds turning toward the infinite solutions
to the PROBLEM (once it is properly labelled), please see http://wikipedia.com
--s
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:03:33 BST