Will: I thought that at first and I will say that I'm disappointed at how the functionality and the implications of future use was communicated from the beginning. But once you set up the system and make your notification selections I'm not sure it's that different in terms of actual use (emphasis on not sure). If you want it to operate more like the old system then in the notifications you should select text (or PDA). That gives you a plain text email notification and not an html interactive post that defaults you to the website format. But I'm trying to still get a grip on the reality here. After examining it more carefully the only extra step really that I see is if you want to post a new message. You then have to go to the site and start it from there. But that has an advantage as well in that by doing so you create a unique thread which is automatically sorted on the site. One potential issue I see is when people form groups. You do have to occasionally check in on the site to see if new groups have formed. I see this as a potential problem in that there's no limit to the number of small sub groups that might be formed. You could have a voicing group, fine. Then someone wants to make a group on Steinway voicing, then Renner blue voicing. There's no real control over how any one individual wants or decides how to set up groups or under which umbrella a new group might already exist. Potentially you just have a clutter of groups. In practice you will have to go onto the site and check out which groups exist to see if you want to subscribe to that group. Once you do that it's easy enough to select but you do have to monitor. I don't really like that aspect. I think it could get very unwieldy and inefficient. I can also see a problem in deciding where you want the posting to go. As the current system exists you can post a query, say, to multiple groups by simply copying the respective email addresses into the address part of your email. For example you can send a single query to pianotech and caut by just posting to both email addresses (as I've done here). In the new system if you want to do that I'm not sure how that would work or whether you would even need to do that. If people are subscribed to multiple groups then any posting you put in would by everyone anyone. So I'm not sure about that concern. One other issue that I see is that often conversations start on one thread and then morph into something else. Now the subject line is "Hmmm", not very aptly titled with respect to where this conversation is going. Since you can't change the subject line in the new system that forces you to start a new subject line altogether. I don't know if that's a problem or not but there may be a reason to want to follow the entire thread from its pre morphed subject to its post morphed subject. In the old system you can do that fairly easily. In the new system, especially going back to research, you'll have a harder time determining where that break took place and if you are following the original subject line going forward you won't know if it branched off into a new subject line except to hunt around and try and figure it out. I don't like that but I have to consider it more and see how that might be worked around in practice. However, for the moment, much of the confusion comes from the fact that there are two separate systems operating and how you choose notification settings. I'm not sure how that could have been avoided. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Encore Pianos Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 7:59 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Hmmm? Good info, David. It sure points to why so many of us hate the new system. Look how many counterintuitive, illogically placed hoops we now have to go through to do what otherwise was very simple and straightforward in the old system. By any measure it's BAD DESIGN. It's the Kranich and Bach of e-mail systems. There! I said it and I'm not sorry! Was price the only reason we bought this jack of all trades, master of none e-mail software? Will Truitt From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of David Love Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 10:24 AM To: joegarrett at earthlink.net; pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Hmmm? Joe: If you are posting a new message you have to go into the website my.ptg.org to do it from there. Go to Discussions and in the drop down menu click on Post a Message. For the moment, however, with the old list system still in place you can simply post to pianotech at ptg.org like you used to. The only thing is that people who are no longer using the old list system (those who have unsubscribed and are only subscribed to the my.ptg.org list) will not see that posting. Similarly, if someone is only subscribed to the old list and not the new one, then a posting from my.ptg.org will not reach the old list. For those still subscribed to both lists, they will see it no matter which way you post it. For the time being it makes sense to remain subscribed to both lists if you want to see postings from both. If you are responding to a message that was sent from the website and that you received in plain text format (you can select that option in the notifications settings link which is accessible from the Home Page-not from the My Profile page as you might logically expect) then you have to scroll to the bottom of the message and click on the link to either respond to the sender (if you only want it to go to the person who sent the message) or to the discussion which will take you to the specific discussion from where it emanated on the website where you will respond in the website format. As many have suggested, the better option when responding to a plain text emanation from the website is to hit reply on your own email system which will give you your normal email formatting. Type your message where you can more easily edit it (the new site format is not nearly as good as most email programs). When you are done copy the text and then go to the bottom and click on the link to take you to respond to sender or discussion as you choose. When you get to the website where the reply will be posted then just paste it into the reply box and hit send. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Joseph Garrett Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 12:17 AM To: pianotech Subject: [pianotech] Hmmm? Enclosed is an email I've tried to send several times. Have a feeling I'm being censored. joe Joe Garrett, R.P.T. Captain of the Tool Police Squares R I The results of your email command are provided below. Attached is your original message. - Results: Ignoring non-text/plain MIME parts - Unprocessed: Captain of the Tool Police Squares R I ----- Original Message ----- From: Joseph Garrett To: pianotech Sent: 3/10/2011 11:45:31 PM Subject: Responding to email queries via The New System Whoa!!! I just responded to an email querie. Has to be the slowest thing on the internet! I could have responded quicker with a 4 year old and a box of crayons and delivered it by way of the trade winds via a paper airplane! Total FUBAR! Oh, that's lovely! I just tried to send it to my.ptg.org and the damned thing is said to be "not a valid email address"! Gawd, I'm having fun.....NOT Joe Joe Garrett, R.P.T. Captain of the Tool Police Squares R I -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20110311/98ee882f/attachment.htm>
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