[Paddlewise] Thoughts on a new mandate for WaveLength

        Greetings Paddlers -

        John Winters wrote [on WaveLength]:

>The shift of people and the nature of their posts may change WaveLength but
>I don't think it will necessarily hurt it.

        Agreed.

        This whole debacle might in fact be an opportunity for an evolutionary 
        change in the function and content of the WaveLength mailing list.

        First of all, it does not make much sense to me to have two
        separate mailing lists with such high redundancy in their respective
        mandates *.  How long will people continue to want to maintain
        their presence and keep up with [potentially the same] mail from
        two identical lists?  Geez, the topics can be redundant enough
        in the SAME mailing list, don't ya find?  Knowing what's been
        covered in one forum but not the other is going to be a make-work 
        project for subscribers in data tracking.  Could be a real headache.
        
        Anyway, the deed is done and we have two mailing lists.  How can we
        make the best of this wealth of information processing power?

        One strategy might be to diversify in the following way:

        PaddleWise becomes the 'mainstream' paddling mailing list, moderated as
        necessary but unaffiliated.   All current WaveLength subscribers join
        PaddleWise to discuss any and all topics related to paddling. 

        WaveLength becomes an auxilliary mailing list, focusing on conservation 
        issues related to the marine, lacustrine and riverine environments (ie
        the paddling environment).  Paddlers who are interested in staying
        informed (and informing others) of important environmental impacts or
        developments stay subscribed to the WaveLength list.

        WaveLength (the mailing list) becomes more closely affiliated with
        Wave~Length Paddling Magazine, which posts regular news bits,
environmental
        updates and "action alerts", along with relevant articles from the
        magazine (safety, survival, destinations, health and first aid, etc)
        for open discussion and which could be carried over into PaddleWise for
        more general consumption.

        WaveLength might become a little more 'newsy' and/or event-driven, and
        probably have less traffic than PaddleWise.  Signal-to-noise ratio is
        enhanced in both forums.

        During the transition phase, perhaps the INFO text and trailers in both 
        lists could be modified to point people to the other list for certain
        information.

        So that's what i've been thinking about, especially over the last two
        marathon days, assembling the Feb/Mar issue with Alan (and noting a lot
        of time-critical environmental concerns in the Pacific Northwest that
        may be of interest to some out there).
  
        How about you?  Comments?  Suggestions?  Other ideas?

        Thanks!
        Howard        


        * To compare list mandates, send the commands
                INFO WAVELENGTH
                INFO PADDLEWISE
          to Majordomo_at_lists.intelenet.net.

        

        
        

        
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