[Sca-cooks] Missive for Stefan, Slightly OT

[Mark S. Harris]

Sorry, this is a bit long.

Serena da Riva asked:
> I was going to make this private, but then I thought that there might be
> others on this list who would be interested in the answer to this question.
>
> How do you decide what you put into the Florithingie?


It is hardly a scientific process nor is it exactly repeatable. It is
quite possible that something that gets skipped or put in one time might
get the opposite treatment at another time.

Unfortunately, I seldom have time to go back over the messages or digests
that I don't select things from later. This is simply because of the
sheer volume of material I deal with. What this means is that sometimes
something I think is a description of a wonderful hands-on explanation
or experience could get skipped the next time. Sometimes I save stuff
and it won't show up for a while (or never) because I can't figure out
where to put it. I have some period recipes posted here several years
ago, but I still am not sure just where to put them. For instance, I've
got three files on pancake and pancake-like things. But should these go
in pancakes? or waffles? or wafers? or blintzes or soemthing else. And
since I can't put all of this in one file for instance my wafers-msg file
is already pretty big, just where do I break things up? Anyeay, that is
just one example that I've got right now that I've been procrastinating
on figuring out.

I generally look for for the Florilegium:
1) Good explantions of period things and events.
2) Message type articles with supporting bibliographies/supporting
evidence.
3) period recipes or documents that others can use in the future to
build up.
4) Good hands-on descriptions of experiences that others can use in
the future. Such as those on cooking a whole pig.
5) Funny, enterainting experiences that folks can learn from. Such
as some of the experiences in cooking a whole pig. Or the stories of
various feast disasters and particularly those that describe how folks
made the best of the situation.
6) Reviews of books, pointers to online information and manuscripts, and
bibliographic information that folks can use for future research.

7) SCA histories and personal experiences since we are losing a lot of

this oral history as time goes on and people die or leave the Society.
I'd like to capture and keep some of this history as I can.
8) Stories and explanations of what we do. There are a surprizing number
of folks that find my files through search engines and such. I like to
explain what we do and maybe get across why we do it. To me, the historic
framework is only a part of the Society. I've almost left the SCA because
of various things usually politics. On the otherhand, I've seen folks
be extremely supportive of each other, including folks they've never met
in person. I've personally experienced and seen it first hand, including
on this list.

Also, I am not an expert on the broad range of information included in
the Florilegium and certainly don't wish to set myself up as one. So you
will find varying opinions in the Florilegium. Some of which I do not
agree with. You will even find directly opposing views within the same
file. I may even seek out opposing views for a file. I prefer to let the
reader read the supporting documents and explanations for each view and
make their own decision.


> I ask this because, just before Pennsic, you updated and I read through it.
> Lo and behold one of my missives was included. You can imagine the little
> happy dance that I did at your own leisure. I was reading it (under baked
> cheese) and it was the discussion on why I made the decisions to make the
> Cheese Toleadan the way I did. The discussion and all is there, but the
> original post with the redaction is not. Was that left out intentionally to
> encourage people to try it themselves? I didn't know you were so sneaky!


I'm afraid I don't remember this particular situation right now. I might
have missed the first message because sometimes I have to skip digests
and hope to get back to them later, when I have more time or this list
slows down for awhile. I generally will put in an original recipe and
redaction. Sometimes if the redaction alone is given with no referance
to where it came from, I may not save it because I don't know if it is
period. Or I may think I've saved that original and possibly muliple
redactions in the past. I post redactions because I often want them
myself as a starting point. If someone wants to do their own redaction,
they can simply ignore the redaction that someone else has done.

Another possiblity I just thought of, is that I have two databases of
saved messages. One at work from messages saved when I read them there.
And one of messages saved when I read a digest at home. In the past I've
been occasionally gathering up saved messages from home and taking them
to work where I would edit and add them along with the ones saved at work
to the files, usually after hours or sometimes in lulls at work. Soemtimes
groups of messages get added to the files from one place before getting
combined with the saved stuff from the other place. However, work has
gotten rather busy, including nine and ten hour days so I've stopped
editing stuff or even reading this list at work. So these gaps in what
is added to the files at any one time should decrease as I start doing
most of my Florilegium work at home.

In this case, you could also send me a copy of the original message and
I will look at it again and consider adding it to the appropriate file.

I will also admit there are flaws in my system. Looking through the files
I sometimes see that I have the same original recipe in a file multiple
times and sometimes the same redaction multiple times because I don't
have time to search through a file each time something is added and sometimes
I don't remember whether something is already in a file. I like it when
folks say they got a recipe from the Florilegium or that I already had
a recipe there, since it saves me from saving the message yet again. Hey,
if I thought it was a good message/recipe/redaction the first time, why
wouldn't I think it was just as good the second time? :-)


> So that brought about the question, I in no way implying any critique of
> your decision making process - I just thought it would be interesting to
> know. :)


Well, I'm always looking for any volunteers who would like to work on the
Florilegium. Right now that usually means folks who are willing to send me
interesting messages from lists I'm not on. I have others who've volunteered
to maintain an area about SCA oriented mail lists and create those Microsoft
icons used in Internet Explorer and such but so far nothing has happened
there. Unfortunately, you see how fuzzy is my explanation of what goes
into the Florilegium, so it's hard to delagate some of this.

I welcome comments, suggestions and even yes, criticism of the Florilegium
and how it is being handled. Sometimes things change because of this,
sometimes not. I do promise to listen, though.

> I think that the service that you provide with the Florithingie is
> incredible and indispensible. That is not kissing up - that is the honest
> truth!

Thank you. Actually I get surprizingly little feedback on the
Florilegium and there's been very little official recognition. Shrug.
It is comments like yours that keep me going when I'm feeling down
about it and wonder if all the work is really doing any good and
whether folks are really finding it any use. Sorry, but sometimes
that happens when you spend ten to fifteen hours a week on something,
week after week. I guess kinda like being a territorial baron/ess.

It really is kinda nice though to walk around Pennsic and when I
mention the Florilegium or hand out a flyer and someone says
"Oh! You're Stefan!". :-)


Well, probably a lot more than you really wanted to know.

    Stefan
--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****