Hans, and every other listener and lurker on this list. I think Terry Tyler's response was right on target. The differences between this list and the Question and Answer Forum, ( now on hiatus) and a Chat line, are profound. This list is a "Discussion", because all listees are invited to participate. If I only sent a response to you Hans, to one of your questions, then it would not be a discussion,..........it would just be an answer. Since there are many ways to fix different problems, and many ways to restore your coach, we want everyone to participate, that can add to the discussion. The chit chat and fluff that you might be referring to perhaps is the short one line responses, that some people throw in, because they want to acknowledge the fact or say "Thanks". One of the reasons the Question and Answer Forum has not been very successful, is because only one person at a time has been answering the questions. No one person, can answer all this stuff. This is, after all, a "Group", and of the 270 plus users, and participants, only about 50 of them actively participate. I agree with Terry, you must delete everyday, to keep up with the traffic. Read and learn. Bill Scott 61 Bambi, VAC & WBCCI #3221 1VP & Membership Chairman , WDCU http://www.servintfree.net/wbcci-dc/
Hi Hans, No offense taken. When you put 260 people in a group, there are that many reasons for them being in the group. Some like the messages handled the way you described (see your posting below) and some like to read ALL the messages so they can learn things they hadn't realized they might need know. Undoubtedly, there are dozens of other reasons in between. I do believe that although a majority of the group's letters are aimed at a specific sender instead of the group as a whole, the intention is for the group as a whole to receive them and to either supplement the ideas, point out the risks or support them. In my opinion, together - the full group has a better chance of offering a broad based, comprehensive perspective to one members question than one person contributing to the answer by replying directly and privately to the questioner. On many occasions, I read second and third replies with additional details supplementing an already solid answer by someone else. If it was me asking the question, I'd want that to occur. I'd want to feel the subtleties and have the opportunity to challenge my understanding by asking more questions. My favorite time for starting a task is after I've given a lot of thought to the sequence for doing it and have all my tools and supplies ready to use. This free wheeling discussion group helps me to do that. What's the solution to the issue you raised? Each of us has to decide. For me, the decision is simple. I scan the topics and speed read those which interest me. It rarely takes more than 10 seconds per message. If I don't want to reply, I delete. Within a minute or two, I've narrowed the postings to only those I want to write a reply. On any one evening, my VAC time (1/2 to 1 hour) is a small portion of my total computer time on related activities. For me, that's peanuts. The current VAC system of having what amounts to a group discussion every day with different people contributing to it - works for me. It's easy, it's fun and it's an opportunity for me to learn new things each evening with the mere expense of an hour of my time. I look forward to that hour. As a crusty old New Englander and Mayflower Pilgrim, I have a hot button when it comes to wanting unlimited access to knowledge. There have been many generations in my family where the opportunity for freedom of thought and unlimited access to the ideas of others was intensely reinforced in me. I don't want any truck with other people narrowing my options, even if done benignly in the spirit of trying to be helpful. I want to be my own judge of that. But, I'm glad you brought up the topic and asked the question. Until you did, I hadn't thought about it at all. Thanks for prompting me to think it through. Bottom line for me. The more email postings the merrier. I'd rather be the one who decides what I want to learn than to have information withheld from me because someone thinks I might not be interested. Let me be the determiner of what interests me. <grin> Let me make the choice of using my delete button or not. (Yea! Yea!) Let me learn at my pace, at my convenience, with my skills and with whatever ingenuity or reading talent I can muster up. Then, when I fail the first time, it's my own stupid fault. But, if I should succeed and do it right the first time, then hip hip hurray for the discussion group and all the benefit of whatever insight I might have gathered from it. Terry =============== >Hello all fellow Airstreamers. I am a very new member to this site, so >please don't get offended by my question! I have only received e-mail >from you for four days, but have during that period received more than >200 e-mail. While I have learned a lot and appreciate every letter >addressed personally to me, I do believe that a great deal of your >letters are aimed at a specific sender instead of the group as a whole. >I can only speak for myself, but I do think it would make my daily email >business a little easier if everybody asked themselves whether this or >that is of interest to the entire group or not. >Thank you for your time. >Hans >
