<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">A Way Forward</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">We have reached a difficult stretch of the road in our transition to a new incarnation of these mailing lists. Although I want to emphasize that I am only speaking for myself as a list participant, I suggest the following:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">1) To Allan Gilreath and the webteam, I believe that there is enough thoughtful dissent about that utility of the new MyPTG site and its Higher Logic software that it is time to announce that:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">A) This listserv format is not going away any time soon.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">B) This listserv won't go away until there is reasonable consensus among active list participants that there is a better alternative in place.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">I am recommending this because there seems to be a fairly broad consensus that the new software is in may ways worse than the listserv format to which we are accustomed. If you took it away and gave us something better, that would be one thing. Unfortunately, that is clearly not the case yet.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">---</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">2) To pianotech and CAUT participants, let's take an honest look at the current list functioning, and admit that while it is better in some ways than the curent MyPTG site, there is definitely room for improvement. I can't possibly be the only one who is annoyed when someone posts a reply titled "Re; Pianotech Digest, Vol..." which contains a reposting of ten messages with the total content of new material being a reply of "Me, too!" at the end. That kind of thing happens all the time, as does incessant off-topic banter, as does confusing threading and quoting. And, surely, the easy inclusion of photos of all sizes, sound files, and YouTube videos right inside a thread would offer us opportunities for deeper and more instructive collaborations. So, listserv participants, I challenge you to do the following:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">1) Think about and post about those aspects of the current list functioning that you like and believe should be kept as we move forward. Post to this list and tell us what you don't want to lose.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">2) Explore other forums and websites, and post about what new and better ideas and capabilities should be included in whatever comes after these lists. Post to this list and tell us how to grow into a better and more powerful community.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">There are forums and interactive communities across the web, and surely there will be several of interest to most list participants. Please, invest in your own future by joining one, such as PianoWorld, a woodworking site, a luthier site (I suggest The Pegbox over at MaestroNet), a remote-controlled airplane site, or whatever. Use it for twenty minutes a day for a week or so. Figure out what you like and dislike, and make feature requests to this list.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">If we do this, and reach some reasonable degree of consensus about what features we must keep and what features we should add, we can then, as the participants (and in most cases, as the ones who pay the bills around here), task Allan Gilreath and the webteam to either fix the Higher Logic MyPTG site or replace it with something that will meet our needs and increase our capabilities.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; min-height: 15px; ">---</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">Those are my suggestions, and I must emphasize once again that I am only speaking for myself. I am making them because I care too much about this community and its members to stand by and watch it fall apart. We can't let that happen. I also want to thank Allan Gilreath for replying and for taking responsibility for things, which is a classy move in my opinion. To list participants, I want to close with an request:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">Let's not "take our toys and go home." Let's make it better instead.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">Joe DeFazio</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; ">Pittsburgh</div></body></html>