Folks, The discussion about GoaNet moderation has come as no surprise but the acrimony it has generated causes me concern. There are valid arguments on all sides, each person giving vent to their despair of what they see as requisites to improving the GoaNet service. There are no villains on the stage only Heroes and Heroines!
As I see it, the discussion is basically about two ends of the spectrum. FN and the rest of the admin team is concerned about the number of members to join GoaNet and leave soon afterwards. He prefers the GoaNet digest version, posts in plain text and would like the number of contributors increased. Cornel would like to see less moderation and more messages. There is no reason why we should have to choose between one and the other. GoaNet had not changed much since its inception and is still essentially an email based service for contributors. Many other discussion lists have turned into web-based services and there are many advantages of going down that path. Now that broadband and fast internet speeds are here, the old arguments about cost are no longer valid. The main advantage would be to split the discussion list into threads and give readers the option of subscribing to all discussions or only those threads that interest them. One of the current problems is that it is impossible to find previous posts on a subject such as recommended restaurants, internet connections, recent books etc. Also, some discussions on topics like sports, employment, village nets have been moved to separate lists. There is no reason why they cannot have separate threads in GoaNet. One keyword search, say on fishing or restaurant* would bring together discussion on that topic. To provide specific examples how this would work, take a look as some Goa-related wed-based discussion lists: 1. British Expats.com. http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=6773bb87d7adda768edac61914 c9ec70&f=94 Discussion on topics such as Hiring a Car in Goa; Medical care in Goa; Where Do You Buy Your Diamonds in Goa 2. Holiday Truths.com. http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=60 Topics such as Malaria; Restaurants; Wifi 3. India Mike. http://www.indiamike.com/india/goa-f23/ Threads such as Sim/Phone cards; Motorbike Rental; Dentists in Goa. If GoaNet switches to a web-based service, readers will be able to select the threads that interest them, messages by email would be reduced, searching for information will be efficient and posting in plain text would not be compulsory And as less moderation would be required, let there be Peace! Eddie Fernandes
