Hey, the archives exist. Use them or don't use them. Sure, use some discernment as far as what you come across. Technology from 2 years ago may be different today.
Yet, the same can be said printed literature; articles in magazines and scientific journals. Yet, if you create a bibliography and point to these "literature citations", it is considered value-added organization of information. Why should email postings -- especially the good quality posts from the thinkers and practitioners present on BD-Now --be of any lesser value than their printed counterparts in this Information Age? I am a big user of Information Technology; i.e., all the various web tools and technology. Archives are a dynamic tool which help us organize all this information. That's my view on the matter. Here, I'll prove it. Two ways to use archives: 1. Read about two dozen email lists. Go to web archives and read what you want, and don't read the rest. No sense in analyzing this and insisting that I "take" all email directly to my inbox, is there? 2. Create a resource list based on pointers to web archives. Like this, as one example:: SANET Web Posts on Compost, Humus, Rock Dusts, Mineralization, Solubilization, Cover Crops, Soil Health http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/SANET-posts.html Notice that it also contains the thread on electrolyzed water. Friends, here you can access the complete thread super fast. Did you know this thread with Keishi Matsumura and Hugh Lovel exists in these few web archives only? "The thing that intrigues me about Keishi Matsumura's post on electrolyzed water is that oxidized water makes good sense as a fungal and bacterial controlling mechanism." "Many of these pathogens are surface-dwelling organisms on fruits and vegetables. If you can disrupt their membranes, throw off their ability to attach to the cuticle layer, or otherwise 'trip them out' with oxidized water, it apparently results in an eco-friendly pest management tool for the farmer." The same thing can easily be done for topical material in BD-Now, if you catch my drift on the value of the archives. Other uses of web archives exist, such as the search engine methods, but no need to go on and on. Warm regards, Steve Diver
