Subject: [FFML] Re: Why the FFML is really dying (was Re: Re: About all these fic requests/searches...)
From: "The Eternal Lost Lurker" <lurkerdrome@sbcglobal.net>
Date: 6/15/2006, 10:35 AM
To: "David McMillan" <skyefire@skyefire.org>, <ffml@anifics.com>

Why not reincarnate the FFML as a web forum? conceptart.org is a
giant message board with sections and subsections. The ML can be used
for news or updates or the like by the admins.

Ick.  Maybe I'm alone in this, but I *really* don't like most webforum
setups.

I haven't weighed in on THIS particular issue, but I'd just like to take a
moment to echo the dissenting opinion against moving this to a webforum.

Part of what I personally like about the FFML is the "passive radar" aspects
of a mailing list. If you're subscribed to it, then the list traffic will be
in your inbox whether you want it or not (and if you don't, then unsubbing
is easy); you don't have to actively seek it out, just let it come to you,
and then reply to whatever you want to reply to. You can take your entire
mail queue, print it out, take it into the bathroom, read it on the pot,
wipe your ass with it when you're done, then go back to the computer and
write up a C&C on it, and all of this REGARDLESS of whether or not you're
presently even connected to the Internet at all.

A web forum, by contrast, requires active involved participation by all
members, and a commitment to remaining connected to the Internet--which
might be unfeasible while reading fanfiction for any of a number of
reasons--as well as the actual effort involved of logging into the forum and
browsing it for something you want to read and comment on.

I'm a lazy bastard. I love reading DB's "Avenging" series, and Nowack's "One
Hundred Days".

If they didn't land in my inbox every time there was a fresh installment, I
frankly doubt I'd keep up with them, because I'm too lazy to go hunting for
updates. Assuming I even knew about them in the first place.

I *KNOW* I'm not alone in this regard.

So, yeah, this is me, dissenting on the whole "web forum" idea.

================================
This message brought to you by the
Bay Area Association of Liquor Pirates:
"We're Here, We're Queer, And We're
STEALIN' YER BEER!!"
              ~~*~~
The Eternal Lost Lurker
www.lurkerdrome.com



             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'