Dear Terry and Rhodes,
Thanks for raising the different format issues. It didn't occur to me that
problems may arise in different email programs. The solution is Eudora
Light, a magnificent, entirely serviceable free email program from Qualcomm.
Those who are interested can learn more about this at
<http://www.eudora.com>
There are more expensive programs, and Eudora itself offers a professional
version, but the free light version -- for either Mac or Windows -- does
everything most of us need.
No need to preserve Word formatting. I write all my lengthy notes in Word
with tabs, special features, diagrams, etc., and then copy and paste into
the body of an email document as ASCII. Works perfectly, no problems. It
also avoids not only the difficulties of working in an email format without
spellcheck and editing functions, but it avoids the scattered, chunky look
one can easy get working direct in email.
Attachments and Web offer two minor problems. Attachments often create
problems when used in conjunction with listserv technology. Many listserv
groups forbid their use, as do some systems administrators. For this, we
should query Dave Durling and DRS. Web, on the other hand, requires that we
go out of the group to find an answer somewhere else. It seems odd to me.
The virtue of the listserv technology is inquiry, conjecture and response
in a linked stream. To respond elsewhere would be like leaving a
conversation in a cafe at dinner to write a reply down at the bakery, then
returning to say, "Well, I've given thought to your ideas and I've left a
note in an envelope at the bakery." I'd also be reluctant to post responses
on a Web site to conversations elsewhere, at least on any Web site other
than a dedicated archive.
For me, the point of a listserv group is interaction. My thinking is that
this interaction can include short notes, opinions, and quick responses
such as this along with lengthy comments and considered discourse. (One of
my arguments with journals these days is that there is no longer a
tradition of the short responses and short research notes. In the course of
a research project, I had occasion to read some journals of the 1930s and
1940s, to discover some wonderful short articles on recent research that
would not be common in today's journals, with their emphasis on a certain
fairly common style and length.
Ken
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