On Sat, Jul 2, 2011 at 3:01 PM, Ron Nossaman <rnossaman at cox.net> wrote: > What does Member Max have to do with the pianotech list? Nothing at all, as I understand it. They are community software, bolted onto Member Max. Were we desirous of community software, then they would be a natural choice being the only vendor that integrates with the membership database, contained in Member Max. This is the connection that makes it convenient for you to perform membership functions like signing up for a convention and paying your dues, and community functions like posting to a discussion and emailing your chapter members. > If so, how. If not, why is it always thrown up between the question and > a possible answer ... So what's the connection. How does the pianotech > forum require Member Max? I think they are always connected at the hip, because the same computer that ran the administrative functions which are now a part of the Member Max, also ran the email list function. And it was the same volunteers who heroically ran both systems for so long. So it's natural that when discussion of trading in that computer came up, a replacement that did both things was required. The interesting disconnect I see is in the lack of articulation of what a online community is. It's not a bunch of employees you can tell, "here's the new system." Were there a particular desire for the pianotech or caut communities to live on a forum, then it would have moved already since that exists on PianoWorld, is free to use, and plenty of PTG members are already participating members there. Similarly, if there were a desire to live in a collaborative, hyperlinked, and otherwise gated community as my.ptg.org attempts, then they would have moved already to Facebook or LinkedIn or some other excellently implemented online community. But neither happened, because the original "home" was pianotech at ptg.org (likewise, caut at ptg.org). The ability to interact via the simplicity of email is what brings these communities together. It is a delusion to think the same community will form on my.ptg.org. Of course, a different community will form. And some will talk to the old community members but there will be strained relations. And some won't care. But what existed will be lost, because it is so easy now to disband and reconvene elsewhere, as is currently being proven at pianotech at googlegroups.com which costs nothing, can be administered by non-technical personnel, and appears to be a functional superset, that is, not different in any meaningful way from the old mailing list in operation, but having additional capabilities. Seeing that this is so easy, I imagine that pianotech/caut will continue to exist, perhaps in weakened form, just at a different address. Whether it continues to be obliged to the PTG is the matter at hand. My overall impression is that one side feels they've done so much to bring such a bright, shiny future to the group that they can't understand that the other side feels it is simply a forced relocation plan, and they like their neighborhood just fine the way it is. Jim
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