Bicycle Austin forum

mlibrik

Member

Registered: 2008-05-27

Posts: 3

BicycleAustin Email list - the straight dope

If you are new to this web forum, you most likely found it via the homepage of bicycleaustin.info.  That page isn't quite accurate about the email forum that runs concurrent with this web forum on a couple of counts (as of the time of posting this, 07/2008), so I'd like to make some clarifications.

First of all, the email list is not "read only."  You can post topics and responses on the email list.  They don't go onto the web forum (here), but they do go to the 330 or so subscribers to the email list.  Basically, the email list gets both email posts /and/ web posts, while the web forum just gets the web posts (like this one).

Second, at least at this time, most of the action is still on the email list, so if you are only subscribed to the web forum then you are missing a lot of action.  Traffic ebbs and surges on the list, but right now there is about 5-10 times as much talk on the email list compared to the web forum.  This may not always be so, but it isn't accurate to say that "Most of the talk happens on the new web forum, not on the email list."  Boy howdy.

Really, the thing to do is to subscribe to both.  That way, if you want to engage in a discussion on the web forum you can log in and do it.  The rest of the time, you can enjoy to steady flow of content on the olde fashioned email list.  There are pros and cons to each medium.  The email list is more moderated than the web forum, but then it is a lot bigger too, with some (shall we say) "strident" members.  It does have the advantage of sending the stuff to you instead of your going to get it, but since people are usually trying to manage their crashing waves of email we have posting limits (2 per day) and restrictions on long quotes for the sake of our many digest-mode readers. 

BicycleAustin started hosting the email forum back in late 2003, but the community involved in it goes back to the mid-nineties, from about the time of the first bicycle helmet law.  As list administrator and list-Nazi uber-kommander, I invite all new web forum readers to join our damned community.  You'll be glad you did.