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Dear all,
Below are the replies that came in to me about the use of the list. To summarise - the general feeling seems to not favour the kinds of enquiries that could be easily answered using on-line bibliographies/library research etc, and that they should only be tolerated if the project is stated, and a summary of findings is returned to the list. Some people favour reviving the discussion board - although judging by the small number of people who replied, it's not clear that the discussion board would be used much.
Any more comments please send to me. The AM committe will discuss policy on this at our next meeting at the end of April.
Best wishes
Beckie
1. Re. the use of the list, your explanation that people share findings and state what purposes the information is requested for sounds very reasonable.
2.
I'm glad to hear from your side that the list has NOT been used for queries
before - and I think it definitely shouldn't in the future. One very simple
consideration for this is: a mailing list is completely unpractical for
group discussions! Sure, the list offers a forum, since many people can be
reached - but interaction is very tricky. Just imagine the possible
confusions, cross-overs, possible deleting (even falsifying) of email
content and risk of unmanagable email length once too many people get
involved in one discussion thread. The reason why all news/debate groups
(e.g. h-net, the millions of blogs out there) work on the basis of online
platforms is that discussions work far better through posting, not through
mailing. (I would have imagined that anthropologists know a little more
about communications procedures in our online age!). Therefore - YES, a
discussion board is the way to go.
3.
I am not interested in diverse kinds of
discussions through this list, since my mail box is already more than
full.. (I just manage to look at the announcements). Also I think that
many of these questions, as appeared recently, maybe dont need to be
discussed within this big audience (and could be solved by a simple google
search). However, I appreciate very much the information you send around,
and I hope that there will be some kind of extra discussion board
(revival) or an additional list (as David suggested) for the ones looking
for discussions and exchange.
If this all would be handled within the alrady existing list, I would have
to think of subscribing, which would be a pity..
4, I primarily use the list to stay abreast of events and calls for papers and
jobs listings. I wouldn't mind a discussion based list as well, but I would
likely subscribe to the digest of the discussion whereas I would still
check the announcements very regularly.
5. I would prefer to have the AM list for announcements, and have a
parallel list for queries and exchanges. I think its important to have
both as part of AM, yet separate for the benefit of those who only want
the announcements.
I would also like to suggest sending a reminder about the AM database
(although, I must admit, using it is a pain: when I wanted to update my
details I was kicked out of the system, had to email to have my account
restored, so its.. complicated. But the idea in itself is great): its a
good way to find people in your area of interest/query. [NB - THE CONTACTS DATABASE IS STILL OUT OF ACTION - SO THIS IS NOT AN OPTION FOR NOW - BECKIE]
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