<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
Mr. DeFazio,<br>
<br>
Thank you for your input. I'm forwarding your thoughts to the rest
of the webteam and will also pass them along to the service
providers.
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
As with everything in the cyber world, there are adaptations that
will be put into place. Beta testing has been going on for some time
by a rather extensive team and I personally appreciate all of the
input by so many individuals. <br>
<br>
My fondest hope and desire is that we lose no one. However, change
or perhaps a resistance to change causes issues. I also hope that we
can help a substantially larger number of people become involved in
not only discussions of the technical aspects of pianos but also in
pooling their thoughts, resources and talents into building
something better for everyone involved. <br>
<br>
I have always believed, and still believe, that the Piano
Technicians Guild is a member-driven organization. That is why all
leadership roles are filled by members and we try to open
opportunities for members to participate on as many levels as
possible. I apologize if it seems like a top-down imposition then I
apologize for my failure to communicate better. As someone who has
participated in these discussion lists since Jack Reeves hosted them
on the BYU server I've seen many good and bad aspects develop over
time. <br>
<br>
Again, I appreciate your input and concern and we'll do our best to
address all of the issues as this develops.<br>
<br>
Respectfully,<br>
<br>
<!--WISESTAMP_SIG_18195_START--><span style="color: black;">
<div dir="ltr">
<div><span style="font-family: georgia,serif;">Allan<br>
Allan Gilreath, RPT<br>
</span>Registered Piano Technician<br>
<img style="width: 190px; height: 83px;"
src="cid:part1.01090703.00040102@bellsouth.net" border="0"><br>
President - Allan Gilreath & Associates, Inc.<br>
website - <a href="http://www.allangilreath.com">www.allangilreath.com</a><br>
email - <a href="mailto:allan@allangilreath.com">allan@allangilreath.com</a><br>
phone - 706 602-7667</div>
</div>
</span><!--WISESTAMP_SIG_18195_END--><br>
<br>
On 3/8/2011 5:08 AM, Joe DeFazio wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:73415A54-E462-468E-9CE1-C73162BA1983@verizon.net"
type="cite">
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">***Note:
please <b>Do Not Reply to this via email</b>; if you would
like to reply (and I would certainly value your thoughts),
please do so through the new myPTG software (this topic is
listed in CAUT in the new myPTG software, though it was
originally in both Pianotech and CAUT). I am cross-posting here
only because not everyone is over there yet.***</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">Like many
PTG mailing list participants, I have thought quite a lot about
our past mailing list format and our current change to the
Higher Logic platform. I apologize in advance for the length of
this post, but it seemed necessary.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">I would like
to start off by thanking all who made the original mailing lists
possible; I probably would not be a piano technician today
without these lists. I would also like to thank those who are
behind the current change for recognizing that it is time to
move to a more advanced platform, and for recognizing that a
more interactive and powerful environment will, in time, create
the opportunity to fashion a stronger and more useful exchange
of knowledge and skills among piano technicians. We are headed
towards admirable goals, and the right goals.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">---</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">I do believe
that it is vital for the PTG to recognize just how important
these lists have become in the advancement of our craft. In
order to illustrate this, speaking just for for myself:</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">In any given
month, I learn more from Ron Nossaman's posts than I do from
reading the entire Journal.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">In any given
month, I learn more from David Love's posts than I do from
reading the entire Journal.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">In lots of
months, I learn more from Del Fandrich's, or John Delacour's, or
Dale Erwin's or Frank Emerson's or David Anderson's or Don
Mannino's or Will Truitt's posts than I do from reading the
entire Journal. I could add lots of other names there, as
well....</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">The Journal
is important; it affords the opportunity for extended coverage
of topics such as Fred Sturm's very thoughtful and well
researched tuning series. However, the ability to interact and
to share media files makes the lists and whatever comes after
the mailing lists potentially a more powerful vehicle for the
advancement of our craft.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">Because of
the importance of these lists and the collective willingness of
many highly skilled, knowledgeable, creative, and articulate
technicians to share their life experience through them, it is
vital that we get the transition to what comes after them right.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">---</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">I remember
years ago being on a camping trip in rural West Virginia and
coming across a tiny hint of a town called something like
"Broken Wagon Wheel." Yes, the founders' covered wagon had
broken down, and instead of continuing their journey to the
west, they decided to stop right there. </div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">Having poked
around the Higher Logic site for a week now, it is crystal clear
to me that our wagon wheel is broken. We have seen where we
need to go, which is the most important part, but we are a long
ways away from being there yet. We either have to fix this
wagon and get on our way, or ditch it and get another wagon.
California and gold aplenty await us, but we're stuck in rural
West Virginia at the moment.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">Many, if not
most list participants have surely participated in forums around
the net, such as PianoWorld, woodworking forums, music forums,
or whatever. Surely most of us recognize that the forum
experience elsewhere is much simpler and much more powerful than
the current Higher Logic PTG site. If we give the average forum
a grade of 90% (they mostly work well), I would assign the
current Higher Logic site maybe a 30%. It would have to get
twice as good to rate a grade of D minus. I have to say it;
it's that bad.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">---</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">I will now
enumerate the necessary core functions of whatever will follow
the mailing lists, as I see them. Higher Logic falls short in
all of them at the moment. I certainly hope that we can work
with Higher Logic in realizing or improving these functions,
since we obviously have a significant investment in this. If
not, we will have to move to a better system, in my opinion.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">Necessary
Core Functions:</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">1) Clear and
simple categories (communities), chosen by consensus by the
members. While it seems positive that members can create new
communities, it will only fracture our knowledge base and reduce
participation after a certain amount of inevitable fragmentation
and redundancy set in. We should choose our broad categories
together, such as: Tuning, Action Rebuilding, Bellywork
Rebuilding, Field Repairs, CAUT, Business and Customer
Relations, History and Early Instruments, Off Topic, or
something along those lines (just as an example; I'm not
imposing anything here). If we later feel a need to add
subcategories, we can do so in a nested fashion. That will
allow each member easily to go to and participate in each area
that they are interested in without excessive fragmentation.
The list of these most important categories should be the first
thing you see when you get to the site. When you click on the
category, you should be brought immediately to a list of thread
titles (see next point), or subcategories if we so choose.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">2) Crystal
clear threading. Other forum's have it right: the list of
topics for each category (community) should be the first thing
you see within the category, and the topic with the newest reply
should be at the top. Topics that have a reply that you
personally haven't read yet should have a bold title, alerting
you to the presence of new content. When you click on the title
of a topic, you should see the entire thread in chronological
order.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">3) Easy
quoting without redundancy. Other forums make it very easy to
quote or multi-quote from other members, and make it crystal
clear what is being quoted and what is new content. They also
make it easy to edit the quoted material down to its essence,
bringing clarity to threads. While quoting is possible with the
current Higher Logic software, take a look in thread view at the
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://my.ptg.org/PTG/PTG/Discussions/ViewThread/Default.aspx?GroupId=43&MID=216260#bm0"><span
style="font: 12px Times; text-decoration: underline; color:
rgb(57, 2, 238);">Young Chang pedal rod thingie</span></a>
thread, and you will see that it is much more complicated than
it should be to figure out who is saying what when. Redundant
and confusing quoting was probably the worst part of the mailing
lists; it's time to move beyond that now.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">4) Inline
and simple integration of photos. While it was great that Fred
Sturm posted photos in the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://my.ptg.org/PTG/PTG/Discussions/ViewThread/Default.aspx?GroupId=49&MID=216270#bm0"><span
style="font: 12px Times; text-decoration: underline; color:
rgb(57, 2, 238);">Yamaha T-118 front panel</span></a>
thread, it is unacceptable that you have to make multiple clicks
that take you away from the thread to see them. This is more
than a decade behind the times, and worse than the mailing
lists.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">5) Inline
and simple integration of sound files. We should be able to
easily embed sound files within our posts as well, as sound is
critical to our profession's existence and practice. If you
haven't experienced inline sound before, you can go to a
recording engineer's site to see how useful this will be for
us: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.gearslutz.com/board/remote-possibilities-acoustic-music-location-recording/589289-trumpet-piano-sample-feedback-please.html">http://www.gearslutz.com/board/remote-possibilities-acoustic-music-location-recording/589289-trumpet-piano-sample-feedback-please.html</a> (My
apologies if anyone is offended by the name of the forum; it's
sort of an inside joke among engineers, as there are a lot of
perpetually-broke engineers who "can't say no" to a shiny new
microphone or preamp).</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">6) Easy
editing of one's posts. This just makes for clear threading.
The current re-posting as a new post after editing makes for an
even more confusing reading of the thread.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">---</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">That's my
list, and as I said, I hope that we can address these
inadequacies within Higher Logic. If, not, I am in favor if
ditching it for something better. </div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">I see Dale
Probst over at the bt3central (woodworking) site, which is
undergoing a fundraising campaign at the moment. That site
costs $3800 a year to operate, which includes the internet
connection, servers, backup hard drives, electricity, and
software licenses. And that forum works much better.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">---</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">I'm sure
that some folks are probably ticked at me for writing this up,
but this is too important to get wrong. I am willing to be part
of the solution. Sometimes clearly articulating the problem is
an important part of the solution. I am willing to participate
in other ways as well.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">I do want to
address one final thing: I believe that the top-down imposition
of this change upon this group without seeking group input was
not the proper procedure (I know there was a test in CAUT, but
little or nothing in Pianotech). I don't say that because we
pay the bills around here (although we do, via our dues); I say
it because many, many technicians have given countless hours of
their lives to share their hard-won progress and knowledge in
this field with each other (with their competitors, really), and
those hours have bought those technicians a very real sense of
ownership of these lists. In the past week, I have not seen any
participation by some of the members whose input I most value,
and I am getting a little concerned. Let's work together to get
this right, and to get everyone back on board. These mailing
lists and whatever follows them are a truly important part of
our profession's history and our way forward.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">Although
this may seem critical, it is written with tremendous gratitude
towards my fellow technicians and towards the PTG,</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande'; min-height:
15px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">Joe DeFazio</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">Pittsburgh</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px 'Lucida Grande';">***Note:
please <b>Do Not Reply to this via email</b>; if you would
like to reply (and I would certainly value your thoughts),
please do so through the new myPTG software (this topic is
listed in CAUT in the new myPTG software, though it was
originally in both Pianotech and CAUT). I am cross-posting here
only because not everyone is over there yet.***</div>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>