[FFML] A thought on the future of the FFML

[Dennis Carr]

On Mon, 24 Jun 2013 11:25:54 -0500
"Mythril Moth" <mythrilmoth at mythrilmoth.net> wrote:

> 
> The recent post by Gary Kleppe, and responses to that post,
> concerning the ever-waning post population of the FFML has gotten me
> thinking.

Time for the list owner to pop in and reply. =)  I've been working of
late, and it's been a bit busy, but I just took some time to read
through the thread. 

First and foremost, well, I'm biased.  I run the machine that serves the
list.  I'm not shutting it down. 

To the effect of dwindling membership, since I took up hosting the list
six years ago (we're just a few days short of that mark, in fact), the
member list was over 3,000 addresses long.  Somewhere between half and
two-thirds of the list were eliminated once the listserv software
figured out that those addresses had been closed.  I think after about
two months of Mailman clearing those out, about 1200 remained.  At last
check, five minutes ago, our membership is 915.  This is, to note,
about 100 fewer than when I first signed onto FFML myself back in 1997.

This said, it really is my opinion that this list should continue to
exist in some form, even in the face of web fora and such.  Sure, this
was probably the best thing before the advent of web fora, but...well,
this is still a good source, all considered, and there's one reason: we
still get and give feedback in some form or another.  It still seems, to
me, to be a good way to do this.  

So from my perspective, as long as I can help it, I am going to
continue to host the list. 

However, this does not mean that there cannot be something aside from
that, some sort of companion.  Hell, the brief official page I have up
for it hasn't actually changed since I set this up.  (I just haven't
had the time to get that done - if it wasn't work, it was the past two
years of school - and more recently, a new job.)  At the VERY least, we
need some work done.  Something more than just white paint, I think. 

I'd pretty much like a few ideas, if anything, and if you can help with
development or implementation, let me know off-list.  I'll mull over
things with the admins. 

-Dennis