NavList:

   

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(* Reposted to NAV-L *)

On 4 Apr 2006, at 10:27 AM, George Huxtable wrote:

> With Frank in charge, I fear it would be like playing a game of
> street football, when the other side owns the ball.
>
> I am going to need more persuading, before venturing into this new
> lifeboat, until certain that the old familiar vessel is actually
> sinking, not just suffering a temporary breakdown.

I understand your concern George.  If NAV-L has just had a minor
problem and will return to reliable service, I do not know if we
really need a Google Group.

However, if NAV-L support is not long for this world, then we do need
to jump ship to something that will last into the future.

I think Frank did the prudent thing: he created a list to get it
going as a backup.  He took action.  I like that about Frank.  If NAV-
L was down, how was Frank going to bring it up for discussion on the
list?  He couldn't.  But he could get something else going, which he
accomplished.

The hard question is this: is NAV-L under Dan Hogan's excellent care
finished?  If so, I say we all move to the Google NavList group and
move on.  However, I do not know if this is the case or not.  It does
appear that I have been getting NAV-L messages the past couple of
days, but I think the real issue is the list archives.

It seems to me the decision revolves around the list archives.  I
personally never use the list archives because I have my own copy of
every mail since July of 1997.  I just search through it all on my
own machine.  My archive is local and does not depend upon a website.

Of course new members need the list archives, as do many others.  If
the NAV-L list archive is gone for good, perhaps a move to Google's
group should happen.  On April 1st, 2006 Dan Hogan wrote on NAV-L:

"Well I don't know of any servers that will accept our archives.  So
I am open to suggestions."

Frank tried Google Groups as a proof of concept.  Most (all?) of us
have never created a group or tried to get one going.  I want to
thank Frank Reed for taking the initiative and his time to provide a
possible solution.  Now we need to determine if we should all move to
it and embrace it and move forward, or someone else should propose a
different solution - and do the work of getting that solution going.
Until somebody else can provide as much as Frank has provided, I do
not think there is much to recommend hanging on to the NAV-L list,
and I think there is a lot to recommend us moving to the NavList on
Google Groups.

Comments?  Proposals?  Solutions?  They are all welcomed of course.

Dan Allen

   

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