Barry, Ev'body,

Yesterday I received two interesting and entertaining replies to my public post on the "Favorite TV Shows" thread, when I replied by email to them, among other things asking why they didn't post publicly, one replied that it was "normally too much hassle". I think what is happening is that people who receive their traffic from this board via email find it more convenient to just reply to an individual email, rather than go to the website, find the thread and reply there. But this defeats what is for me an important part of this phenomenon known as waccobb.net, the public conversation. When I wax pithy and witty (yeah I know, delusions of grandeur) I want the whole world to enjoy it!

I try not to get ANY email from waccobb.net. I'm not subscribed to any categories. The only emails I get from here are Barry's "The Daily Digest" and private replies (or as in the case above email replies) to my web posts, and email copies of my webposts if I'm replying privately. I don't really want any of them, except that I'm an obsessive compulsive archivist of my email communications (for what purpose? Don't really have a clue. Posterity?) so the copies of my posts make it easier to copy/paste to Word.

I read everything I can ON THE WEBSITE, and I find that to be quick, convenient and hassle free. So much email flows through my hotmail junk and inboxes from all the political lists and organizations that I'm subscribed to, that the traffic from wacco would be so prohibitive I'd seriously consider unsubscribing, and I'd definitely only receive daily digests, never individual posts.

So what I'm guessing is that people who are used to getting everything by email, see going on the website as an extra chore, rather than the time saving, convenient means of monitoring waccobb traffic using the "New Posts" button. But in doing so, they limit their participation in the public conversation. That's unfortunate in my book.

The only obstacle to "checking the traffic on the website and not by getting emails" method that I can see, is that if someone has a really slow connection speed, so that opening the pages on the internet is so slow as to be a waste of time. In that case I can totally (like!) understand wanting to only receive email digests or I suppose (but don't quite get) individual emails.

For those with decent connection speed who are still getting waccobb messages via email, I really, really recommend you try ignoring those emails for a few days, check the website once or twice a day using the "New Posts" button and see if you like it. I doubt once you give it a chance you'll go back. And once you're used to reading the wonderful world of waccobb on the website, you can unsubscribe from all categories and free up your email inbox big time! And best of all, once you’re used to reading waccobb on the website, your public replies, if you so desire, will go to everyone, not just the author of the specific post that you’re responding to.

As I wrote one of my correspondents, let your geek flag fly!

"If you want to find the most efficient way to do something, ask a lazy person how they'd do it."

"Mad" Miles

P.S. I sent this to Barry first, and he had some cogent comments to make in response. I'll leave it to him to put them out to this board.