List archives & the never ending repeating...

[Brian Trout]

First, let me say that I am thankful to Andy and any others who may be
responsible for making the archives available.  I do not wish to discredit
or belittle them in any way.  Just the fact that there _are_ archives is
more than just a small accomplishment.

I've had this idea in my head about the archives.  I had wondered if it
might be a worthwhile project to spend some time with the archives, cutting
and pasting, and basically doing away with most all of the repeating stuff,
and also categorizing what's left into a kind of index, dividing it up by
thread and / or subject, so that when you wanted to read about 'widgets',
you'd head to the category called 'widgets', and see all of the threads that
have come about on the subject of 'widgets', and can proceed to the
voluminous content within almost a decade of expounding if so desired.  (I
can hear a faint voice saying "dream on...")

I'm sure it could be done manually, although it would definitely be time
consuming.

I did read someone's post that in the last 'digest' only about half was new
material, and the rest was just repeating of what had already been said.  I
would speculate that the overall archive would be similar, or perhaps a bit
more repetitive.

I don't know if I'll get far on this project, or at what speed it may or may
not happen, but if anybody has any thoughts as to how to make it happen, I
would certainly welcome comments.

It seems to me that it could be an even more useful tool if well organized
and indexed.  (Just as an example, when I was looking for information about
how to regulate a Bluthner Patent action, I was told to "look in the
archives.  It's all in there".  I spend four (4) days in the archives,
looking, searching, reading every post I could with the words "Bluthner",
"Bluethner", "Blunther", "Patent", "Action", "Regulation", "Regulate",
"Setup", "Letoff", "Drop", "Repetition", "Erard",  and a bunch more I can't
rattle off right now.  The point is, I was told "...it's in the archives",
when if fact, IT WAS NOT!!, and I lost a lot of time looking for something
that wasn't there.  I suspect that with all of the recent discussions, it
probably is there now.  But wouldn't it have been great to know within a few
minutes whether or not it was there?  That's what I'm after.)

I'd like to try to make life a little better. Any thoughts that might be of
help?

Brian Trout
Quarryville, PA
btrout@desupernet.net