Re: EndNote List Announcement (use the forum--or roll your

John.Booth[[email protected]] wrote:
> Although I've only just gotten started with EndNote, I can see that a 
> forum would be better for me: I don't have time to weed through all 
> the messages that this list server generates. (No finger wagging here,
> folks!)  Since I first enrolled in this forum (March 12), there have 
> been 104 postings. That makes 31 days--for an average of 3.2+ postings 
> per day. (Of course, some days, go "empty," and some have avalanches 
> (11 postings for 17 March, 12 for 4 April). However, only two postings 
> have been of interest to me: the one on Zotero, and the one dealing 
> with Google Scholar--which was in response to a posting of mine and Kath.
> 
> For me, to have to access this mailbox every day when something drops 
> into the basket, and to find that about 2% of the postings meet my 
> interest is a kind of waste of my time. However, by going to the web 
> forum (its setup seems to be pretty clean--there are fours sections, 
> 1) EndNote General, 2) How to, 3) Styles, Filters, and connections, 
> and 4) product suggestions), I can quickly look into the area I'm 
> interested in, or I can post a question (same thing here, except the 
> postings in this list don't get "clotted" into theme areas as easily.

All right, then a forum is better for your needs, I can appreciate that.
Some of us have a different feeling. I for one subscribe to many mailing lists, and the fact that I receive all messages, conveniently sorted in mailboxes by carefully constructed rules is a life saver. If I had to visit dozens of forums I would go nuts.
And for those who would suggest that an RSS feed is an adequate answer: 
I don't think so. How do you reply to an RSS item?

> Another aspect: the forum allows one to tag all postings in a forum 
> section to "read"--which lets me know immediately what is new or not.
> And: the discussion threads are easier to follow.

Threading and tagging have been features of mail readers for years. Plus sorting according to whatever criterium you want. Plus custom subfolder creation. Plus structured searches.

> Do you really need to stay on top of all postings about EndNote *as* 
> they drop in? I can imagine that some folks that are really into 
> EndNote might prefer that. However, for users that are interested in 
> specific answers to specific questions, I think the forum concept 
> offers a viable alternative.

I agree, offering a forum is a valuable propostion. But removing the mailing list isn't!

> I am subscribed to private and university-collegiate (private list for
> profs) platforms, and I would hate to lose the spontaneous 
> communication they offer. However, if I were to subscribe to a list 
> server that was devoted to say, use of Word or Excel, I'd go bananas: too much input!!

Fine, don't. It doesn't make it so for everybody else.

> I don't see any reason why folks couldn't start up a yahoo or google 
> list server for EndNote issues.

Because we have this list that's working nicely, thank you very much?

> So, as the subject line sez: you have the choice! You can use the new 
> forum, or you can roll your own! Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

As far as I am concerned, the only win-win situation is to have a forum with a bi-directional mail gateway. Otherwise someone will get frustrated! And splitting the discussions into one forum and a completely unrelated mailing list is certainly not a good solution.

Best regards,
Alain Borel
Bibliothèque Scientifique Commune UNIL-EPFL BCH 2201 EPFL - SB - SCGC-BCH
1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Tel.: +41 21 693 9800
Fax.: +41 21 693 9805
e-mail: [email protected]
http://biscom.epfl.ch