Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 13:04:44 -0700
Reply-To: wilden1@JUNO.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Re: Organizing Vanagon Maintenance Information
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Lots of list members have Web Sites with valuable info on them.
There is also a lot more from sites that are not list members.
You can link to anybody's site without their permission but you can't
take their info and put it on your site without their permission.
Looks like somebody should collect this list of links and evaluate the
content as part of the process of separating the pepper from the flydung.
Stan Wilder
On Tue, 27 May 2003 09:17:20 -0700 Jeffrey Earl <jefferrata@YAHOO.COM>
writes:
> Stan wrote: "We speculated that 80% of the archives
> are trivia and the remaining content is duplicated
> many times, by many contributors."
>
> Stan is correct that the majority of the content here
> on the Vanagon.com mailing list is of fleeting value.
> Hell, half the stuff I've posted is just silly chatter
> and certainly not worthy of being archived for
> posterity. But aside from this chatter, what remains
> is incredibly valuable info for the Vanagon owner, and
> deserves to be properly cataloged and organized rather
> than so easily lost in the mists of time as it is now.
>
> I see two ways to go about this:
>
> TECH REPORTS
> The previously cited Syncro.org Tech Links
> www.syncro.org/Links.shtml seems to be organized along
> these lines. Individual 'reports' written by
> knowledgable members are offered on a variety of
> topics and strive to summarize all one needs to know
> about, say, shock absorbers. A brief introduction, an
> overview of recommended products available, followed
> by an outline of procedures for changing your shocks.
> This is arguably the most user-friendly route to go,
> for its concise and comprehensive nature, but would
> require contributions from numerous resident experts,
> and would constitute a 'static' archive, with no
> provision for the organic and free-flowing 'threads'
> which are often so valuable when fixing your van.
>
> ONLINE FORUM
> Not to hijack this list, but another Vanagon site I've
> found helpful is www.westfalia.org. This familiar
> InfoPop Forum structure is organized along the same
> content outline as the venerable Bentley manual, but
> strives to cover information specifically NOT included
> in the Bentley. In fact, the moderator frequently
> chides wayward members who post questions in the wrong
> forum, duplicate previous posts, or ask questions
> already clearly covered in the Bentley. The result is
> a well-organized 'dynamic' archive of members' Vanagon
> experiences and suggestions.
> But unlike the Vanagon.com mailing list, Westfalia.org
> has significantly less traffic and activity from
> members, hence less immediately helpful information.
> One can wait weeks for an answer, if at all, whereas
> the collective and connected brain-power of
> Vanagon.com often garners a helpful reply within
> minutes. The forum also seems to be increasingly
> populated by newbies who do not bother to read the
> simple site guidelines, asking the same tired old
> questions, and posting 'new' topics already covered
> elsewhere. Such a forum structure would require a
> moderator or gatekeeper to keep new posts in their
> correct places, a time-consuming and daunting task
> indeed.
>
>
> Perhaps a combination of these two structures would be
> beneficial: Tech Reports for a variety of topics, with
> accompanying forum-style topics of ongoing and
> immediate conversation, with little need to
> keyword-search. This would offer what I perceive as
> the better organization of some other sites, while
> retaining the immediate and conversational aspect of
> Vanagon.com upon which we have come to depend.
>
> "OK, I'll leave it at that since I've already gone on
> for far too long about something I don't know a whole
> lot about ..."
>
> Jeffrey Earl
> 1983 diesel Westfalia "Vanasazi"
>
>
>
>
>
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