Announcing EoL

[Richard Moody]

If you ever wondered how a digest of Pianotech posts with an interactive toc
(table of contents) would be, your dream is about to become true.

Pianotech is already offered in at least two forms; a continuous post by post
version curtesy of PTG software, the efforts of Andy Rudoff and the ECC
(electronics communication committee) and a digest of those posts compiled
automatically and sent out once every twenty four hours.

When I saw the digest version I wished there was a table of contents that was
hyper linked to the topics, so that I could click on the topic and go directly
to the content without having to scroll down through all the posts. After
learning the basics of html
(hypertext mark up language) I realized it would be a daunting task to do this
day after day.  Finally I found a quick and efficient program that allows you to
create a table of contents and link it to the subject matter automatically

I gave it a whirl and liked the results and announced it (once or twice) to the
list back in Dec.  Since  then an html digest has been prepared and sent out to
the "pioneer subscribers" about every other day.  This settled the question if
it could be done at all and also what kind of effort it would take. Now the
remaining question is how much interest there is in such a list.

If you are interested in this project  please send an email to

                remoody@midstatesd.net

You will receive about every other day  EoL, which can stand for "Essence of
List"
"Edited List", or "E List" as in "ezine" or "e-commerce".   This will be emailed
as an attachment that will (should) open in your browser when you click on it.
There you will be able to click on the subject you are interested in and be
taken directly to the post or posts on that topic.  If you do not wish to
subscribe I hope very soon to announce an archive of past EoL at a personal
website.

The purpose of EoL ultimately will be up to its members.  Right now it consists
of pertinent posts from Pianotech List relating to the profession of Piano Tuner
Technician, with the busy practicing professional in mind when selecting posts
which are edited for clarity, repetition, redundancy,  grammar  and spelling.
(this encourages posts from those with English as a second language).   As a
digest it eliminates posts that are mistakenly posted or unrelated to pianotech,
off topic subjects, personal comments, and material that is duplicated (as in
email quotes) from other posts. As an edited digest it contains the "best
answers" to questions by combining duplicate responses, or choosing the best of
4 or 5.
The topics are  arranged in cognizant and logical subject lines.

Such a digest must necessarily profess (at least) a criteria of selection.  As
mentioned before the busy professional technician is the target audience, so if
it is in Reblitz, or Braid White, or any of the many technical manuals it
doesn't really need to be on EoL.
Of course there is always a new twist, or angle or development to an old process
or procedure, or a better way of explaining so these hopefully will be included.
A key word here is update.   The specifics of selection though will be up to the
EoL membership.

I suppose the best way to get an idea of what EoL is all about is to subscribe
for a while and see.  EoL is not intended to replace Pianotech List which would
be impossible because EoL can only exist from posts to Pianotech List.  A policy
I favor is that nothing on EoL will appear that hasn't before been posted to
Pianotech.  EoL is intended to fill a niche that is created when a "free" and
"open" mail list grows to the point where some (read enough) of the members
desire an additional edited digest of the "essence of the list".     ---ric

remoody@midstatesd.net