Hi! I'm a long-time, passive Goa-netter, and I've seen the contents of this newslist evolve over the years. Thank you to for this wonderful and easy way of keeping in touch with events in Goa. You've done a good job of catering to the requirements of probably a very wide spectrum of readers, readers in Goa, in the rest India, and elsewhere in the world for well over ten years now.
Having said that, I want to comment on a couple of issues. First of all, I must say I miss the daily, brief weather reports with the daily or annual rainfall in it, especially during the monsoons. This bit of information allowed me to form an idea, regardless of whether it was right or wrong, of what the dry season of the following year would possibly be like. The monsoons are, after all, a lifeline, a crucial event in Goan life, for better or for worse. Another thing I miss from this posting are the orbituaries. Very often, I, even though living in Finland, was aware of the passing away of people I knew directly or indirectly, close and not so close, much before my family in Margao. And as I grow older, I expect to see the names of more and more of my friends and acquaintances appear in the orbituaries, however sad this may be. Many of these people my folks in Goa haven't had the opportunity to meet, and, so, are unaware of their existence, implying that their passing away will go unnoticed by them, and so also by me. I'm fully aware of the fact that I can, with a click of the mouse, get access to this information. But the hectic pace of life here just about allows me to quickly browse through the news posted in my inbox. I usually do this at work, and when I get home, I don't have the energy to sit in front of my computer anymore. And this only increases my admiration of the volunteers who have the energy to compile the news here. They give us passive and more active Goa-netters a very precious possesion, if I may call it that, of theirs: time. This is one possession whose value people often fail to appreciate. So, it is with conflicting sentiments that I write these comments. Yet, I would be pleased, if the weather report and the orbituaries were to reappear in this posting. Finally, a comment on the current layout of this posting and a suggestion on how to improve it (possibly many will disagree with me). First, the comment. Having the website address from where the bit of news is picked is a very positive development in the evolution of this posting. It allows those of us who have the time, and want to know more, to do so. Kudos to the news compilers to have thought of this. Then the suggestion, that came to my mind on reading the Goanet news dated 12th September. There were ten news items of which six (the Bina Ramani items) were essentially the same news, but from different sources. Wouldn't it be better, and more compact, to have a few lines of the news event, as you already do, and have it followed by the URLs, the addresses, of the differents sources? I'm completely unaware of the technicalities involved in the news compilation, but, if it is done even semimanually, I would think that grouping the different sources for essentially the same news, however important, would save time, both, of the news compiler and the reader without compromising the content of the posting. The persons maintaining these Goa lists probably receive hundreds if not thousands of such comments and suggestions, but they only are an indication of how important these postings are. It is so much easier to give advice on how to do or not to do things than to actually do the job. And we tend to give advice on things that even remotely touch us... So keep us the good work. Best regards, Luis Costa Espoo, Finland. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
