Forum Deficiencies in rec.aviation.soaring

This forum is great for general discussion, opinions on nearly
everything germane to it's topic and otherwise (unfortunately), and
various other uses.

However, it does not allow for any presentation of attachments,
graphics, or other useful information. I am likely in a small
minority, but when I visit this newsgroup what I could offer would
most often include pictures, or papers, or other information both
technical and otherwise- none of which is possible to present here.
There is a world of information that is not presented on conventional
websites- linking to which seems to be the only way to go beyond
simple messages which are here presently. You can't even share a
simple equation. At this stage of development in IT and e-publishing,
it seems rather archaic. Especially for a group of people who enjoy
great technological innovation and implementation.

Eventually, Usenet groups will either evolve into a more useful format
or some other forum will take over. How can this be accelerated, or is
anyone interested in moving to another forum? I've been using the
Internet since the very early 1990's, and this forum seems quite
antiquated given the fact that 2011 is nigh.

Best Regards,

Gary Osoba

"Gary Osoba" wrote in message
...

However, it does not allow for any presentation of attachments,
graphics, or other useful information.

Not strictly true. You can insert a link to anywhere on the Internet. A link
can take folks to pictures, documents, etc. etc.. etc.

Since there still are some folks working with dialup or other restricted
bandwidth, that gives them the opportunity to decide for themselves what they
want to download..

Vaughn

On Dec 8, 5:31*pm, "vaughn" wrote:
"Gary Osoba" wrote in message

...



However, it does not allow for any presentation of attachments,
graphics, or other useful information.

Not strictly true. *You can insert a link to anywhere on the Internet. *A link
can take folks to pictures, documents, etc. etc.. etc.

Since there still are some folks working with dialup or other restricted
bandwidth, that gives them the opportunity to decide for themselves what they
want to download..

Vaughn

As a USNET newsgroup there is little incentive for/chance of
evolution. Large scale hosted service groups can offer more features
(including Google Groups for non USENET groups) and I would argue
that dedicated Forums hosted in vBulletin or simmilar still offer more
capabilities for closely knit communities (and the organizer while
dependent on the software provider is less at the whim of them as say
a group organizer on Google Groups or simmilar). If you want something
better than r.a.s. you might want to advocate for the SSA to host some
forums.

Even with text only and other restrictions I quite like r.a.s. as is.
Maybe because it is relatively light weight.

Darryl

On Dec 8, 5:45*pm, Darryl Ramm wrote:
On Dec 8, 5:31*pm, "vaughn" wrote:





"Gary Osoba" wrote in message

...

However, it does not allow for any presentation of attachments,
graphics, or other useful information.

Not strictly true. *You can insert a link to anywhere on the Internet.. *A link
can take folks to pictures, documents, etc. etc.. etc.

Since there still are some folks working with dialup or other restricted
bandwidth, that gives them the opportunity to decide for themselves what they
want to download..

Vaughn

As a USNET newsgroup there is little incentive for/chance of
evolution. Large scale hosted service groups can offer more features
(including Google Groups for non USENET *groups) and I would argue
that dedicated Forums hosted in vBulletin or simmilar still offer more
capabilities for closely knit communities (and the organizer while
dependent on the software provider is less at the whim of them as say
a group organizer on Google Groups or simmilar). If you want something
better than r.a.s. you might want to advocate for the SSA to host some
forums.

Even with text only and other restrictions I quite like r.a.s. as is.
Maybe because it is relatively light weight.

Darryl- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

..... what he said.
I'm on a bunch of forums. Some allow embedding YouTube vids, most
allow embedding pictures. All seem to require considerable work to
maintain, and I don't get the impression that they are without cost.

Grider Pirate wrote:
I'm on a bunch of forums. Some allow embedding YouTube vids, most
allow embedding pictures. All seem to require considerable work to
maintain, and I don't get the impression that they are without cost.

The glider community could carve out a happy home on some existing web
forums that provide multi-media communication. A couple possibilities:

http://www.purpleboard.net/forums/index.php

http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/

Obviously AOPA and EAA have online forums, but they require membership in
those organizations.

One can also easily create forums on Yahoo Groups and Google Groups, though
I think Yahoo has some technical advantages over Google.

There are good options that don't require investing extra time and
continuing administration.

On Dec 8, 10:19*pm, Jim Logajan wrote:
Grider Pirate wrote:
*I'm on a bunch of forums. *Some allow embedding YouTube vids, most
allow embedding pictures. All seem to require considerable work to
maintain, and I don't get the impression that they are without cost.

The glider community could carve out a happy home on some existing web
forums that provide multi-media communication. A couple possibilities:

http://www.purpleboard.net/forums/index.php

http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/

Obviously AOPA and EAA have online forums, but they require membership in
those organizations.

One can also easily create forums on Yahoo Groups and Google Groups, though
I think Yahoo has some technical advantages over Google.

There are good options that don't require investing extra time and
continuing administration.

But who is going to run it - third party bulletin boards can do
whatever they want to "our" content and if they run into financial or
serious technical problems then it might all be gone tomorrow. There
are forum service providers that will host traditional forum/BB
software for you, but then you are at their mercy in terms of
operations and reliability etc.

Yahoo groups often seems to have performance problems and Yahoo seems
about to lay off folks from that group. And Yahoo Groups and Google
Groups do things that break stuff or decide to turn off parts of a
service (as Google has done recently) and you may be screwed. I've
seen two separate soaring related efforts to move stuff from a web
site one Google Groups/Sites just to have the bit of this turned off
by Google. Google and Yahoo are motivated by advertising revenue
their groups generates not the needs of the group users (if they did
lots of broken things in Yahoo and Google groups would have been fixed
ages ago).

I don't see how any option except for something say backed by the SSA
would work - initially for SSA focused communication but then maybe
expanding out more generally for USA focused stuff. But I don't see it
necessarily being justified for the cost and effort required by the
SSA.


Darryl

Moving to a new forum would cost valuable information. as one of the
big things about RAS is its longevity. If you've got a question, you
can search through posts going back to about 1993. Lots of things have
been discussed in that time, and there's a lot of good information.
Admittedly, some stupid stuff, too - but on the whole I find RAS as it
is quite useful.

-John

On Dec 8, 6:32*pm, Gary Osoba wrote:
This forum is great for general discussion, opinions on nearly
everything germane to it's topic and otherwise (unfortunately), and
various other uses.

However, it does not allow for any presentation of attachments,
graphics, or other useful information. I am likely in a small
minority, but when I visit this newsgroup what I could offer would
most often include pictures, or papers, or other information both
technical and otherwise- none of which is possible to present here.
There is a world of information that is not presented on conventional
websites- *linking to which seems to be the only way to go beyond
simple messages which are here presently. You can't even share a
simple equation. At this stage of development in IT and e-publishing,
it seems rather archaic. Especially for a group of people who enjoy
great technological innovation and implementation.

Eventually, Usenet groups will either evolve into a more useful format
or some other forum will take over. How can this be accelerated, or is
anyone interested in moving to another forum? I've been using the
Internet since the very early 1990's, and this forum seems quite
antiquated given the fact that 2011 is nigh.

Best Regards,

Gary Osoba

Gary,

Not sure if you are in the minority, but Rand and I felt the same
way. Take a look at http://soaringcafe.com/

We have been working on our new site for the past month to address
this specific deficiency. Our new site is clearly in its infancy but
everyone will get the idea. Yes, there are some pages with place
holder information, etc; but we are gaining ground fast. We should
have all the Welcome pages fleshed out by the weekend. We are
currently building the Condordia Project pages and these will start
rolling out in January. We are eager to here everyone’s thoughts and
hopefully to start seeing your posts.

Regards,
Bill Elliott and Rand Baldwin

And, do not forget that RAS is the only truly international forum that we
glider aficionados have in common. Although I admit that maybe 90% of the
posts seem to come from the US. Why is that, by the way?


Societies like Facebook and LinkedIn are the only others I can think of, but
they are cumbersome to use in their current form.



Anyway, most European countries have fine local soaring discussion forums.
But to keep an international perspective, I find myself monitoring one or
two of those, plus RAS.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"



Lars Peder

DG.600 EE, Denmark





"jcarlyle" wrote in message
...
,,,,
- but on the whole I find RAS as it
is quite useful.

-John

On Dec 9, 6:50*am, WE wrote:
On Dec 8, 6:32*pm, Gary Osoba wrote:



This forum is great for general discussion, opinions on nearly
everything germane to it's topic and otherwise (unfortunately), and
various other uses.

However, it does not allow for any presentation of attachments,
graphics, or other useful information. I am likely in a small
minority, but when I visit this newsgroup what I could offer would
most often include pictures, or papers, or other information both
technical and otherwise- none of which is possible to present here.
There is a world of information that is not presented on conventional
websites- *linking to which seems to be the only way to go beyond
simple messages which are here presently. You can't even share a
simple equation. At this stage of development in IT and e-publishing,
it seems rather archaic. Especially for a group of people who enjoy
great technological innovation and implementation.

Eventually, Usenet groups will either evolve into a more useful format
or some other forum will take over. How can this be accelerated, or is
anyone interested in moving to another forum? I've been using the
Internet since the very early 1990's, and this forum seems quite
antiquated given the fact that 2011 is nigh.

Best Regards,

Gary Osoba

Gary,

Not sure if you are in the minority, but Rand and I felt the same
way. *Take a look athttp://soaringcafe.com/

We have been working on our new site for the past month to address
this specific deficiency. *Our new site is clearly in its infancy but
everyone will get the idea. *Yes, there are some pages with place
holder information, etc; but we are gaining ground fast. *We should
have all the Welcome pages fleshed out by the weekend. *We are
currently building the Condordia Project pages and these will start
rolling out in January. *We are eager to here everyone’s thoughts and
hopefully to start seeing your posts.

Regards,
Bill Elliott and Rand Baldwin

Great site. Looking forward to seeing more information about
Concordia.
Craig