Re: GSAS Message Board?

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

Oh boy.  We've got someone in the AGA who is proposing to do this as well.  
Good and bad week to ask me; I'm quite familiar with the concept now, but 
sick of talking about it. :)

Some people really like the whole "forum" thing.  In fact, some folks
visit dozens of these every day.

Personally, I don't get it, but I'm what they call a "throwback", and
that's just me.  I don't really like having to "remember" to go visit a
website to read stuff about GSAS every day, week, whatever; I much prefer
the whole e-mail delivery approach.  The guy who's proposing this for the 
AGA says there's a way to set up "notifications" in the form of e-mail 
messages that tell you to go to the forum, so maybe that's a moot point.  
Or maybe it's more complicated.

I will also relay the issues we're discussing on the AGA board: 

First the liability.  If there is a lot of traffic on these, and people
use the web to read them, then ANYONE can casually come by and read them,
and that includes our friends like Petswarehouse.com who may opt to sue
the society based on a post.  Note that we have this problem already with 
the "gsas-member" list, but it's somewhat protected because its web 
interface isn't really made for casual viewing on a daily basis.  

Second, commitment.  OK, so how long has Holly been in GSAS?  Will she, 
much like June's "co-newsletter-editor", set it up and then bail?  Lots of 
people come in with some really cool idea and then never have the steam to 
follow through.  What would be the worst case here?  A partially running 
forum with nobody to turn it off, I suppose.  (c.f. Kitsap Aquarium 
Society's website, which as far as I know is still running).  

Third, commitment.  Yeah, mention it twice.  Most forums need moderators, 
administrators, etc.  Maybe Holly is volunteering to do it herself, but 
most likely it will require the assistance and buy-in from other people.  
You should spell out who these other people will be!

Technical aspects?  There are sites that do nothing but run these bulletin 
boards.  It should be easy for her to set it up, and it would be a simple 
link from the GSAS site to the forum site.  There can even be a subdomain 
like forums.gsas.org that point to the host (which could save us a few 
bucks on domain registrations).  In my younger days, I would volunteer to 
actually set up the program, but this definitely would have to be done 
elsewhere.

Anyway, that's my take. 

  - Erik


On Sun, 7 Dec 2003, Rick Rose wrote:

> Hi Erik,
> 
> At last month's board meeting, the board discussed the concept of a "message
> board" as suggested by Holly Jackson in her email (to all the members!)
> below.  There was both enthusiasm and reluctance expressed.  We ultimately
> decided to ask for your analysis and estimation of the idea of her setting
> up a message board on behalf of GSAS.
> 
> Any pro's, con's, and opinions would be appreciated as the item was tabled
> for further discussion at this month's board meeting.  
> 
> Thanks,
> Rick
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-gsas-member@thekrib.com [mailto:owner-gsas-member@thekrib.com]
> On Behalf Of Holly Jackson
> Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2003 5:59 PM
> To: gsas-member@thekrib.com
> Subject: Hello everybody!
> 
> ...
> 
> I am also wondering if any of you would be interested in a message board to
> use to communicate with GSAS members.  I was thinking it would be a very
> easy and organized way to keep track of messages, do searches for specific
> topics, share photos, etc.  If that interests some of you let me know. I
> have a website with quality hosting and it would be very easy for me to set
> up a message board for GSAS.  The format is actually the same as the one
> that PSAS uses if you want to take a look.  http://www.thepsas.org/
>  
> Holly ~
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com

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