[FFML] A thought on the future of the FFML

[Will Lathan]

I agree wholeheartedly to this!  Too many threads have received the spam hammer.  

My thoughts on HTML range somewhere between Mythril Moth's and Brian Randall's.  While it is unfair to keep the list text-only (even printed books occasionally resort to italics and bold), the story should be able to stand on its own, w/o excessive coding.  

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 26, 2013, at 10:32 PM, Andrew Petalik <apetalik at gmail.com> wrote:

> At 900+ active addresses, our problem isn't the technical limitations
> of the server. It's finding ways to get the lurkers to come out and
> participate.
> 
> If we can promote discussion and get people active, this place won't
> seem like such a ghost town.
> 
> In the past, there was a big drive to quash anything that sounded like
> spam, which I believe drove a lot a lot of people and discouraged
> people from sharing their ideas, even if they were stupid and spamish.
> I've seen some interesting stories spring from this silly spam
> conversations of the past.
> 
> Way back when, were there not contests and challenges to get people to
> post things? Perhaps that might work now?
> 
> Throwing ideas out there.
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 10:18 PM, Dennis Carr
> <dennisthetiger at chez-vrolet.net> wrote:
>> 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
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Here lies Andrew,
> I think he's hungry.
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