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On Fri, 11 Mar 2011 08:32:05 -0800 "David Love"
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:davidlovepianos@comcast.net"><davidlovepianos@comcast.net></a> wrote:<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:mailman.711.1299861181.4635.pianotech@ptg.org"
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
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color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Will:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">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. </span></p>
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</blockquote>
Very true - I wrote the following on CAUT: The rollout of this new
setup was very poorly handled - and had some more thought or effort
were put into advance information, justification and tutorials ahead
of the rollout, a lot of this hue-and-cry could have been avoided.
But, Susan tells me, that this is the way it always happens - even
in large corporate settings. The people who have been working with
the setup and testing of the system and the executives in charge are
so very familiar with it and so sure that its use is easy and
intuitive that they can't conceive that someone who comes into it
cold wouldn't be able to just pick it up and run with it. Just
another very human foible...
<blockquote cite="mid:mailman.711.1299861181.4635.pianotech@ptg.org"
type="cite">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">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. <br>
</span></p>
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</blockquote>
Like anything new, it'll take some practice. I suggest that you give
yourself some time every once in a while to explore the system, try
various things, go through all the menus and figure out all the
various things that you can do with it. Do it on a computer - where
it's easier to see and navigate. Once you have a good grasp of how
the system works and its various functionalities, transferring the
skills to cellphone or PDA use and figuring out the specific quirks
of those platforms wouldn't be a great problem. After all, you did
it with e-mail too - no? <br>
<blockquote cite="mid:mailman.711.1299861181.4635.pianotech@ptg.org"
type="cite">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">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. </span></p>
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</blockquote>
Yes! You discovered this too. This is a great plus - you can follow
the thread without all the other stuff getting in the way. <br>
<blockquote cite="mid:mailman.711.1299861181.4635.pianotech@ptg.org"
type="cite">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">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. </span></p>
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Actually, David, once you get fluent with the setup, this is a piece
of cake. It takes no time at all to check the groups, and
subscribing/unsubscribing involves just pushing a radio button. What
I do is I subscribe to all the groups in which I am interested.
Those that I want immediate contact with, I choose the "individual
e-mail" option. The next level is daily digest - i skim through the
subject line/author table at the top and use the HTML links to
navigate to the messages I want to read and if I want to follow a
thread or reply or post a message - I go to the website directly
from the message via an HTML link and log in. The next level is "no
notification". For those I just go onto the website once in a while
and check to see whether anything interesting is happening there.
Once you are fluent with the system, you can check for all the stuff
you might be interested in a lot faster that wading through
listserve e-mails across a lot of different groups, and select how
you want to deal with each. Since changing your preferences,
subscribing and unsubscribing involves merely clicking on a radio
button - you can change your mode of operation depending on where
the action in which you are interested is happening. The bottom line
is, once you get fluent with it, this system will let you conduct
your communication and information intake a lot more efficiently
than the listserve. <br>
<blockquote cite="mid:mailman.711.1299861181.4635.pianotech@ptg.org"
type="cite">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">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. <o:p><br>
</o:p></span></p>
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</blockquote>
One of the problems with the listserve was that the CAUT list became
much too similar to Pianotech - whereas it was supposed to be a
specialized list dealing with specific CAUT concerns. Now that we
have groups which deal with specific technical concerns - voicing,
harpsichords, piano history - and the potential for other such
specialized groups is there - say, refinishing, belly work, business
and financial issues etc. etc. - one could post just there.
Otherwise, if cross-posting is desired - it shouldn't be so hard to
copy and paste into a second group. If there are specific
individuals that you want to pose this question or idea to, you can
use the "my contacts" feature to create a quick way to send it to
all of them (once they agree to be your contacts). So it might be a
good idea to create such contacts with all the people on Pianotech
and CAUT who you feel are important for you to communicate with
regarding various technical issues, and use it in such situations.<br>
<br>
Yes, there is a potential that some people might drop through the
cracks in this switch from broad general lists to more finely
focused groups. On the other hand, this system will definitely draw
in people who were put off by the sheer mass of stuff irrelevant to
them on the general lists, and the need to weed through a lot of
extraneous (to them) stuff in order to get to what they want. There
are always tradeoffs. In this case, experience has shown that they
are worth it... <br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:mailman.711.1299861181.4635.pianotech@ptg.org"
type="cite">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">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. </span></p>
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<br>
When I change the subject line in mid thread, I always use the form
"My ears are ringing - (was: Abramowitz is a neoclassicist)". If we
all start doing that, and urging each other to use this form, this
would not be a problem at all. This is a tenet of netiquette - we
should all become familiar with it and use it. It would make our
lives so much easier... <br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:mailman.711.1299861181.4635.pianotech@ptg.org"
type="cite">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">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. <o:p> <br>
</o:p></span></p>
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<blockquote cite="mid:mailman.711.1299861181.4635.pianotech@ptg.org"
type="cite">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">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.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;
font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";
color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"><o:p><br>
</o:p></span></p>
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</blockquote>
The alternative is - start the new system, unplug the old one, sink
or swim. i don't think that would have gone over really well in the
PTG environment. Had a lot of advance publicity and information been
put out, the transition period would be a lot shorter, and some of
the pain could have been avoided. But not all. In my experience,
many people ignore all that kind of stuff - until it bites them in
the rear end. In my six years at the head of the PTG's Technical
Exam whatever (titles changed in midstream) i always trumpeted
changes in every publication, e-mail list and other medium where
examiners could be reached. I even set up special channels. We
still had lots of examiners who remained blissfully ignorant - human
nature...<br>
<br>
Israel Stein <br>
<br>
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