re: Donations

[Joe Elliott <jee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 2:31 AM +0000 8/27/03, alfa-digest wrote:
> Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 15:50:53 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Erik G Wood <genericwood@domain.elided>
> Subject: Donations
>
> Richard, I have benefitted from the digest for years and just sent a 
> contribution.  But this discussion did get me thinking.  Is there a 
> benefit of the "digest" format as it stands versus the services 
> offered by YahooGroups, Topica and others (other than the 
> advertisements on Yahoo that is)?  I have memberships in Alfa forums 
> on all three. 
> Erik Wood
I have to step in here.

I made my (unfortunately small) donation, but would not have done so 
for a web-based forum.

There are web-based Alfa discussion forums out there that I don't 
take the time to read or contribute to because they just take too 
much time.  It doesn't matter how fast computers or internet access 
gets, the convenience of a listserv/digest discussion is unrivaled. 
Call me old-fashioned, but I can't imagine checking a web page every 
day and choosing which thread subjects look like they might be worth 
clicking on.  I leave my email client open all the time and it checks 
my email every 20min, so I know when there's new Alfa material to 
read, and in digest format I can scroll through it all without 
wasting too much time, reading what's of importance to me and 
skimming the rest without totally ignoring what appears to be 
irrelevant to me but may not be.  I'm not about to leave a browser 
window open all day and write a script to re-load the page every x 
minutes.

The email format of the Alfa digest also makes it usable when I'm on 
the road.  All I need is a telnet client (VT100 terminal in a 
hillbilly public library for example) and I can send requests for 
help off to the digest and check for replies.  Likewise, if I've got 
my 8-year-old laptop with me, it can read email as well as any other 
computer, but it's hopeless with most modern web pages.  When I'm in 
a hotel room and possibly paying $$$ for phone time, I want to be 
able to disconnect before I take the time to read all the posts. 
Can't do that with a web-based forum.

Forgive me if this discussion is already underway on the offtopic 
list, but I've chosen not to get involved in another online 
discussion group for time reasons.

Just my opinion, but I hope I'm not alone,
Joe Elliott
'82 GTV-6 (wouldn't still be on the road w/out the Alfa Digest!!)
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