[Ansteorra] How about a forum?

[Sir Morgan Buchanan]

Greetings Quill!

You ask some terrific questions.  Allow me to preface my comments by saying 
I am an active user in a number of message board communities and I agree 
wholeheartedly that it's a far better medium than a mailing list.

Further, it has been tried once in the last couple years.  It didn't go over 
particularily well and the person hosting it shut it down.  That doesn't in 
any way guarantee future failure, of course.  It was a nice forum, but had 
far too many sub boards for a forum in its infancy.

Back when I was on the Grand Council, a group that uses email to discuss and 
debate a variety of SCA subjects, a number of us tried very hard to convince 
the council that a forum based discussion board would be far superior.  We 
were shouted down pretty harshly by what I felt was a very vocal minority, 
but my perception could be wrong.  The most salient points that are made by 
those against such a methodolgy are that "some" sca members have access to 
email through their work, and they're legitimately allowed to use it for 
such personal purpose, but they don't have access to internet websites at 
work, and this is their only means of communication.  There were a few 
not-so-very vocal members who simply stated that they didn't really LIKE 
forum based discussions or that they found them to technically difficult to 
use.  I find that a bit ironic coming from a member of a supposedly 
educational organization, especially in light of the fact that much of my 
online time is spent on motorcycle boards that are populated with people who 
are demonstrably functionally illiterate, but they seem to manage getting 
registered and posting their thoughts just fine.  LOL

With that background in mind, I think what would work best would be some 
kind of coordination with the Kingdom Web Minister, with the blessing of the 
seneschalate, to conduct some kind of survey of the members of this kingdom 
email list (dear lord, let's not ask everyone to post a yes or no to the 
list LOL).  Get a better notion of what the actual percentages are.  As you 
stated, I don't think anyone would be suggesting that our email lists go 
away, but they could be relegated for use in communicating more urgent 
issues.

Of course, many of the problems with email lists are duplicated on message 
boards.  You still get silly off hand and unnecessary posts.  you still get 
posts where someone feels it necessary to quote the entire message right 
above them in a reply that says "me too."  That doesn't go away magically 
with a forum....unfortunately.

I don't say any of this as a deterrant.  I would personally be far happier 
with such a beast, and I lamented the death and lack of participation on the 
forum that popped up briefly in 2006, if my memory serves me correctly.

There's my "darn, it's early, but getting later and I need to get ready for 
our demo today" thoughts.  :)

Kind regards,
Morgan





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Quill" <gray.quill at gmail.com>
To: "Mailing Lists" <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2008 4:55 AM
Subject: [Ansteorra] How about a forum?


> Perhaps a flash of brilliance, perhaps I simply betray my ignorance but...
>
> Forum. Has there ever been an Ansteorran internet forum in existence?