Agreed! Great list! I read it often. I also use it a lot to "stay supplied." I have this list to thank for the purchase from list members of two bicycles, several drawers full of yet-to-be-used/applied parts and accessories, and a rack of tires. I have no doubt that if my wife could figure out a way to apply parental controls to this forum, I'd be entirely restricted by now.
________________________________ From: "Allingham II, Thomas J" <thomas.alling...@skadden.com> To: "rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com" <rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com> Sent: Wed, January 12, 2011 6:17:05 AM Subject: RE: [RBW] Re: State of the List Report - January 2011 Jim: What John (and others) said -- it's one of the small but important pleasures of my day to read all of the posts and keep up with folks I feel like I've gotten to know through this list. And they are people worth getting to know! Thanks again. Tom -----Original Message----- From: rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com [mailto:rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of John Bennett Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 9:04 AM To: RBW Owners Bunch Subject: [RBW] Re: State of the List Report - January 2011 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 ยป -- 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ **************************************************** To ensure compliance with Treasury Department regulations, we advise you that, unless otherwise expressly indicated, any federal tax advice contained in this message was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding tax-related penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or applicable state or local tax law provisions or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any tax-related matters addressed herein. **************************************************** **************************************************** This email (and any attachments thereto) is intended only for use by the addressee(s) named herein and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this email (and any attachments thereto) is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error please immediately notify me at (212) 735-3000 and permanently delete the original email (and any copy of any email) and any printout thereof. Further information about the firm, a list of the Partners and their professional qualifications will be provided upon request. **************************************************** ============================================================================== -- 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. -- 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.
