Hello,
I am a bit surprised that anyone on this list told Ian Russell that
discussion wasn't tolerated on this list... I would strongly recommend
you do look at the archives for October (I think) on the discussion we
had about the various merits of posting to the list and of replying to
the original sender.
The consensus seemed to be that there are some queries where it is
more appropriate to reply directly to the sender and others which
would merit wider discussion, for example, a call for suppliers or
service might be better directed to the person requesting the
information whereas opinions sought on a new policy or set of
standards might warrant open discussion. We are all sensible people
here and just because the medium is email shouldn't mean we cannot
discern between the two. I also think there is a big difference
between 'chit-chat' and proper discussion... I will not be asking
anyone what they want for Christmas but I might be interested in
knowing whether anyone still themes their December activities with a
Christmassy or Wintery theme...
It is a better function, in my opinion, to have to manually insert the
GEM list address if you want to post to the whole group as it does
make you undergo that extra step in decision making, i.e. do I really
want to post this to everyone?
I don't think a wiki would be an appropriate substitution for what
this list does although members could always set up their own and
forward details to the group to see if they find it of use. As
someone has already mentioned, the archives are easily accessible and
are one of the most valuable resources freely available to museum
professionals within and without education. I strongly urge you to
use them.
You can indeed suspend your subscription to the list if you are away
for a period of time. You do this by managing your subscription on
the www.jiscmail.ac.uk website (where you subscribed initially).
However if you are only out of the office for a few days, it is a less
handy thing to do and I don't think it is too onerous on people to
delete the out of office messages they receive after they post.
A final method of keeping up with the GEM list, without the worry of
managing your inbox, is to just browse messages online. You can now
sort them by subject title and by date. I have found this a useful
function on another list I am on which generates so much traffic that
I have chosen to dip in and out of that group as and when.
Wishing us all the best,
Tehmina
2008/12/3 David WAlmsley <[log in to unmask]>:
> Sorry to clog up the inbox again.
>
> But, after my last message I received lots of out-of-office replies. Easily
> deleted, of course, because of the subject notification message. No problem
> for me.
>
> But, wasn't the protocol that if we were going to be out of the office that
> we somehow temporarily suspend from the list. I remember being castigated
> for failing to do this not so long ago (fairly so). I'm assuming that that
> practice no longer applies?
>
> David Walmsley
>
>
>
>
--
Tehmina Goskar, MA AMA
[log in to unmask]
Historical and Museum Research
Web Communication and Learning Development
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