[Rhodes22-list] FAQ

[Rik Sandberg]

Tom, Bill, Michael, All,

This leaves me with the question; is it possible to incorporate the features
of the new program into the old FAQ site?????

I certainly have no problem with Tom continuing to administer the FAQ. He
has done an excellent job, in my mind, of both building and maintaining it.
Yes, we haven't heard much from him lately, but we have to expect that a
guy's going to get swamped once in a while and not have time for all this
leisure stuff. It happens to me, I'm sure it happens to all of us at one
time or another. So, Tom I hope you don't feel bad about that, or think
that's the reason for our talking about this change.

I believe that the change is being considered because we all understand that
this is a lot of work and it may be a stretch to expect one person to be
able to continue to do it all indefinitely.

I do still have reservations concerning our allowing any and all members of
the list to post entries to our FAQ. I agree that it would be a good thing
if more than one person, or a committee of people, had access to it. The
work of administering, editing, etc. should be spread out amongst the
members of the group who are best able to help.

Michael, I believe this is a question only you can answer. What are the
possibilities here?

Rik


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Effros" <bill@effros.com>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 11:37 AM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] FAQ


> A little more background:
>
> We discussed FAQ endlessly before Tom joined the list, and got almost
> nowhere with it.  Then one day Tom simply grabbed the bull by the horns
and
> did it all himself.  It was an incredible piece of work, and neither the
> people on the list before he arrived nor the people who have joined after
he
> compiled the FAQ can possibly thank him enough.
>
> Anyone who has contemplated this project understands how much work is
> involved.  That's why we have all been so happy to say "Let Tom do it!"
>
> I think Michael, who has tried time and again to come up with methodology
> for sharing the FAQ burden, has found some interesting software that will
> take the entire responsibility off one person's shoulders and distribute
it
> a little more evenly, for the benefit of the list and everyone on it.
>
> I would be happy to help, and I've saved a lot of stuff.  I know many
others
> are in the same ... boat.
>
> There is no question in my mind that Tom has functioned very well as the
top
> level administrator, and that if he is willing to continue in that
function
> there couldn't be a better person.
>
> Others can slot in behind him.
>
> Who "owns" the FAQ, and who hosts it are of little concern to me as long
as
> it is always available to everyone.  If the person who has done the
> overwhelming majority of the work derives some sort of benefit beyond the
> satisfaction of the accomplishment,I, for one, have no problem with that.
>
> Bill Effros
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <LogicUnltd@aol.com>
> To: <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 11:32 PM
> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] FAQ
>
>
> Hello Everyone.
>
> Well, I guess I need to jump in and shoot my mouth off.
>
> For those that may not be aware of how the "old" FAQ pages came about,
> please
> allow me to provide a brief history. 2+ years ago I began on the
> Rhodes-list,
> I enjoyed reading all the emails and I collected several because they were
> topics I was particularly interested in. There was a thread about starting
a
> FAQ site. I really wasn't aware of all the prior discussion; I was
> interested
> in web development, so I just jumped in. Put together a few ideas and
edited
> my collected emails into several FAQ topics. I then solicited the list for
> people to send their collected emails, only a couple of people responded
> most
> notably - Doug. He did a lot of work organizing emails. See the problem
is,
> people tend to ignore the subject line when they change topics. So someone
> needs to cull through the emails to group them into topics. Doug did a
great
> job.
>
> After the first few months, I gave up soliciting for questions and/or
> answers. So I set upon the task by myself of collecting emails by topic
and
> periodically formatting them into an html page and posting them. After a
> couple of years my "excitement" for the task has faded a bit. Recently, 2
> events have overwhelmed me and I frankly haven't done much. First, I've
> gotten very busy at work, really too busy, but that should be changing in
a
> few weeks (normal business cycle). Second, I believe there has been an
> explosion of off topic emails on the list. If I don't check my mailbox
> regularly there are hundreds of emails, with all sorts of stuff. Which is
> great socially, but just for piece of mind and saving time I sometimes
just
> delete without really reading and deciding if this could, maybe, hopefully
> be
> something for the FAQ site.
>
> As for MJM remarks about my not responding to his back channel emails
about
> the FAQ site. Yes, I ignored him. I was reluctant to give up something
that
> I
> had worked many hours on and the second reason is a bit hard to explain.
My
> company blocks access to sites it deems non-business, but it doesn't block
> sites hosted by yahoo (I really don't know why) So I can get to the "OLD"
> site from my work but I can not access www.rhodes22.org from work. So
again
> I
> was reluctant to give up access. I actually do look at stuff all the time
on
> the "OLD" site. Yeah I can do it from home. So I probably need to just
> relax.
> Another reason for not wanting to give up the site was that I simply
enjoyed
> working on it and felt that I was contributing to the group. I don't feel
I
> have much in the way of sailing expertise to offer so I was offering what
I
> could which was my web skills.
>
> Anyway, what's my bottom line on the "NEW" FAQ page? I can see the great
> potential in it. It would be great if everyone participated and worked at
> contributing by offering thoughtful questions and/or answers. I challenge
> everyone to do that. I hope we can realize that potential. I do think
> someone
> has to edit for content and appropriateness for the topic so I have my
> doubts
> about "self-managing".
>
> I look at other sailing groups web sites, I'm sure you all have, I believe
> all the other site's FAQ have been administrated by a single person.
Almost
> all of them have pictures included within the text. So we can be the first
> to
> be "interactive" and self-administered. It will only succeed, if we all
make
> an effort to contribute. I will do what I can.
>
> I will still keep my "old" site, which I will update, I guess, for my
> personal needs but everyone is always welcome.
>
> Thank you for listening and visiting the site in the past.
>
> I need a beer
>
> Best Regards
>
> Tom Evans
> S/V Tom's Foolery
>
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