First off, let me wish all the O-list members, far and near, a very happy new year!
On Sat, Dec 31, 2022 at 7:40 AM Lorenzo via Origami < [email protected]> wrote: > > Just a note about this topic (books/publications): I held back from > sending these kinds of messages to the list, in the past, because I thought > (and still think) these are interesting topics for a small part of the > origamists only. And I didn't want to bother the list. > Recently, I received only a few signs of interest for a separate group > (focused to books/publications only). Too few, in my opinion, to give life > to something that has a future, and certainly I don't want to promote any > separation or "restricted" group, at all, and furthermore I'm also > discontinuous in my activities, so it has to be a shared effort. > So, please, keep contacting me privately, if interested in discussing > about collecting books, as we can sort out a proper solution (such as a > public FB page which anyone can consult, without having the email inbox > flooded). > I will play devil's advocate, here, and ask *why* a group mailing list is not a "proper" solution for this discussion? Even if a particular topic is of interest to only part of the community, isn't that nearly always true, for any given thread? While I am the first to agree that the use of email (and the technology that people use to read and send it) has not evolved in a way that makes true discussion lists all that common any more, this is a pretty low-traffic list at the moment. It could, in my opinion, certainly withstand some regular discussion of something as important to the community as origami books and other publications. If that level of list traffic were to be perceived as a "flood", or if this sort of thing is somehow no longer desired by the list membership, well, does anyone have a better idea for some sort of forum that would support such a discussion? Should we finally find another underlying solution for a home for the O-list community? Personally, I do not think that a social-media page is really that great a way to have a discussion; but then, email has its own limitations, too. Honestly, no matter what you do, it's hard to have a *conversation* with 1200 people! - Email lists lately seem to mostly get used for one-way, announcement-style stuff; - Facebook pages require a user to "go" to a spot to make sure they see all the new material (and even then The Algorithm tries hard to only show you what it thinks you want) and then dig through nested comments to follow a conversation; and don't even go into what happens when users have blocked or unfollowed each other so that no one can actually see a whole thread; - other social media's interfaces tend to focus on the imagery (still or video); - forums or bulletin-board-like setups require a user to "go" there, and then typically sub-divide content to the point that conversations die out because they get hopelessly specific And few systems are going to make it easy for folks to discuss something for more than a few back-and-forth comments if they're coming in on a phone or similar device. It comes down to what specific sort of conversation does one want, and on what topic, and how do you want people to interact with it, what people, how often, etc.? I think if one can try to nail down some of those answers, then there's hope of creating a viable place for a particular online (sub)-community to exist. I have a server which could run any number of things - would something other than email be useful, here? Anne
