As always, Jim, we're appreciative of all the work it takes to administer a list like this. I know, because we tried. You make it seem effortless, but I know from personal experience that it is not. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
Thank you, again, John & everyone at RBW HQ Walnut Creek 96, Calif. On Jan 10, 2:33 pm, CycloFiend <cyclofi...@earthlink.net> wrote: > State of the Rivendell Bicycle Works Owner's Bunch Mailing List > ============================ > January 2011 - #11 > ============================ > > We're solidly in the center of winter - although those of you who are > enjoying high summer in the southern hemisphere will just have to imagine. > For the 250 or so who have come onboard the group in the last half a year, > this please accept a slightly belated "Welcome!" Hopefully, you've enjoyed > the discussions, chimed in a bit on your own, and continued to make this > group vital and vibrant. > > It has been very gratifying to watch this list mature. As I've mentioned to > some long-time members privately, I'm both excited and concerned about the > growth of this group. I've tried to take a little more of a "hands-off" > approach in terms of commenting as an admin, and had planned on no more than > quarterly "State Of The List Reports". > > For the newer members, I use this message as a reminder of some of the basic > tenets of the list, to highlight changes and trends on the list and various > websites, and to speak generally about the RBW group. In the beginning, > since this group had picked up the pieces from another list, it seemed > appropriate to actively remind folks about the tenor and tenets of the > group. > > As we've grown, the most important aspect of this group - the tone between > us - has remained extremely civil. The few muckrakers who cropped up seem > to have moved on and this group has maintained its respect for one another. > I think we all understand the difficulty of transmitting humor or mood over > a text-based medium, and want to say again how nice it is to be among people > who think about what they post and aren't afraid to reread before hitting > the "send" button. > > An interesting statistic is that even though we've added a number of new > members, the traffic has actually subsided from the peaks of early last > year. I've been trying to keep the phrase "Say more. Post less." firmly in > mind before committing a post to the group. Those of you who are also > members of the iBob list probably know what I'm getting at here. > > For the newer members, it might be helpful for me to share one of the ways I > think about this list - as a public house where ideas are easily shared > between those who have arrived, everyone is present because they want to be, > and passing through the doors means that "baggage" is left outside. > > Of course, disruptions will periodically occur, which is kind of where I > have to attempt a polite correction now and again. > > At one point in list history, I commented publically about a general trend > of topics to drift and generalize. It was interesting how many people > thought they'd been the cause of my post, and in more than a few cases, I > had to go back and re-read their contributions to the discussion, as most of > them weren't really the ones which caused my comment. > > I think it speaks highly for everyone that they had taken some of the > assumption of cause, even if it wasn't the case. Let me use this space to > thank you both for your contributions and your willingness to temper your > posts. > > At the current levels, if everyone just makes one post a month, that means > 1590+ posts, or somewhere around 53 per day in an average month. > > Just by staying on topic, we have the potential to generate a fair amount of > traffic. One of the hallmarks of this list has been a very high signal to > noise ratio. It's solid information from the people using and thinking > about the items. > > That means that a lot of info can be found in the archives, and it seems > that the google archive search issues have fixed themselves, so that should > be a decent resource. So, if a member asks something that was covered in a > previous, pertinent thread, and you recall having participated in that > thread, it may be easier for you to track down and share the thread link. > Or not. I know I've repeated myself more than a few times over the years. > > It's important to remember that if you are tagging your post "OT" or "Off > Topic", then it doesn't belong on this list. > > Tone is always a concern in my mind. One of the things that happens almost > every year on other lists is a cantankerousness that escalates into real > nastiness. It's typically mid-to-late February or early March - a definite > stir-crazyness manifesting. It's too easy to be brusque, as well as take > umbrage during that time of year. > > My view is simple: life is too short. If you can't stay positive or at > least polite, it's time to put down the keyboard and take a break. We all > get enough guff in our everyday existence that we don't need to add to it > here. > > As I've said before, disagreement is expected. There's no way we will all > come to the same conclusion about anything, and I think it would be a more > boring world if we did. But, here, under this roof, we agree to disagree > with respect for one another. > > To finish, I'll repeat what I said in the last SOTLR - it is important as we > grow to honor the relatively narrow focus of this group, even though it's > tempting to have more general topics discussed here. Clearly, it's a bit of > an imperfect border, but one which we've largely maintained. > > Letting discussions end as they creep toward more general topics, not having > to have the last comment (or needing to "win" the argument) and, above all, > maintaining the respect for one another within the group is what makes this > list special. > > As always, thanks again for contributing to or simply enjoying the > discussions. > > ============================ > Projects and Features > ============================ > > Cyclofiend Gallery Updates: > This SOTLR is probably all the free time I'll get between now and the end of > January, so I won't be updating the Cyclofiend Galleries unless I'm up late > on too much strong coffee or luck out a bit. I know a number of list members > have sent in bicycles, and I again thank you for your patience. If you keep > your eye on my Gallery-specific blog, new postings will be announced here: > > http://cyclofiend.blogspot.com > > PDF Archive: > I started an archive of the RBW-published PDF's which appear sparodically > via the "Knothole" or "News" blogs on the rbw site - > > http://cyclofiend.com/rbw/pdf > > Tall Fellers Union: > There was a thread of late among the vertically enhanced of the list. A low > whistle which brought them from the underbrush. I think it's fantastic that > has manifested, and it will certainly give voice to the lankier among us. > That may help the RBW folks in knowing how many larger sizes to consider, as > well as making for a truly impressive group ride, when and if that occurs. I > hope that you keep track of yourselves on the list as we move forward, and > it's certainly appropriate to use "TALL" or something in the subject line on > subjects more size specific. There was a mention of a sub-group, but as long > as the topic is RBW-specific, it more than fits in the tent here. > > Eastern Developments: > As I've posted, I love to see the development of RBW events in various spots > around the country and world. Riv's in Thailand, East Coast Riv's... all > good. A healthy and diverse regionalism is a good thing. Keep it up. > > Alternative RBW Streams and Info > ---------------------------- > The Cyclofiend.com RBW pages are here: > > http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw > > It gets updated with various happenings, scans, images and such that get > found in the news and info flow. > > I did create a "Rivendell Bicycle Owners Bunch on Facebook" page back in the > beginning of 2009 - > > http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=127003115064 > > Please note: I'm certainly not a Facebook* fan at all, and honestly don't > check in that regularly with the group, and in no way do I see it as a > replacement for this group. As I mentioned, I finally signed up a while ago > for unrelated-to-bicycle reasons, and had bumped into quite a few folks > there. It seemed like it might be a useful platform for coordinating rides > in specific areas or for more quick-pinging type of communications. > > *In fact, I've more or less stayed away. You can and should search about > previous and ongoing Facebook issues with private user information, internal > viruses, etc. before deciding if you want to mess with it. Some of that's > life in the online world, but it's worth being aware of. > > Regional RBW Flickr Groups - > (I much prefer the control over personal info which Flickr allows. It does > support messaging and discussions there as well, and many of us were using > Flickr for social networking before Facebook expoloded.) > > Southern > Californiahttp://www.flickr.com/groups/socal_rivendell_bicycle_appreciation_soc... > > Minnesota -http://www.flickr.com/groups/rbwminnesota/ > > There have also been Flickr groups created for: > > RBW Staff Bikes -http://www.flickr.com/groups/rbwstaffbikes/ > > Rivendell Commuters -http://www.flickr.com/groups/rivendellcommuters/ > > Rivendell A. Homer Hilsen -http://www.flickr.com/groups/1256...@n22/ > > Rivendell Bombadil -http://www.flickr.com/groups/bombadil/ > > Rivendell Bleriot -http://www.flickr.com/groups/bleriot/ > > Rivendell Quickbeam -http://www.flickr.com/groups/quickbeam/ > > (I know I'm missing some of the newer ones, but am posting remotely and > don't have the time to track them down - those of you who began groups not > shown here, please zap me a link via Flickr or directly, and do post to the > group.) > > ============================ > More General Topics (From Previous Issues) > ============================ > > - Broader technical questions and non-Riv stuff are well covered by the iBob > list, the 650B list and others hosted by alex wetmore on bikelist.org > -http://www.bikelist.org- This is also where you can find the pre-March '07 > archives to the RBW list. Peter White runs the "Bicycle Lifestyle" google > group, which is here -http://groups.google.com/group/bicyclelifestyle > > - Resources get put onto the RBW-Owners-Bunch pages > here:http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch/web > Most are either mirrored or enhanced here:http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw > > - The Official RBW Gallery is on Flickr - ... > > read more » -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
