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From: George Huxtable (no email)
Date: Mon May 01 2006 - 09:55:48 EDT
There seems to have been some confusion recently, in which messages seem to have been posted to Frank Reed's "Navlist" when they
were in response to a thread "Buying a sextant"on "Nav-l".
Such problems seem likely to worsen while we have two competitive mailing lists, with identical (or nearly so) topics.
For years, there have been two parallel lists, one on sextants, the other (Nav-l) on non-radio navigation, which have happily
coexisted, because the topics they cover differ just sufficiently to meet the needs of two communities. If it's about stylistic
concerns, type identification, authenticity, provenance, price, the concerns mainly of a collector, we would go to the sextants
list. For technical matters, we go to Nav-l. Many are members of both. That works well.
But now there are two navigation lists, almost undistinguishable in content. The only difference I can see is that, as I recall, air
navigation seemed to have been omitted, for some reason, from the stated coverage of the new arrival. They both meet, and are
intended to meet, the needs of the same comminuty. This seems to me to be an unstable situation. In the long term, one will grow and
the other will wither and be abandoned. Which, I have no idea. In the interim, there will be nothing but confusion. Members will
join both to ensure they miss nothing; threads will appear on one list or another; cross-postings will occur to ensure that a
message, or topic, reaches the whole community; threads raised on one list will be answered on another; the lists will get archived
quite separately. And to what end, I ask? Why do we need competition when we could have community?
I have no "religious" objections to the new list, though I have expressed my doubts as to whether Frank, for all his energy and
initiative, is the right character for its stewardship. There seems no doubt that the Nav-l list has suffered from serious
intermittent delivery failures, and Dan has shown signs that he now recognises these and is doing something to tackle them. That
would be the best outcome.
Frank tells us, about Navlist, " I don't think GH has signed up though most everyone else has." I will wait a while longer yet, to
see what happens. It's interesting to note that, even though "most everyone" has signed up, Nav-l remains as active as ever; perhaps
more so than before. It must be that many of those who are signed up to both are maintaining their allegiance, and making their
postings, to Nav-l. Perhaps, for those like me who haven't shifted, some subscriber to both lists will appraise the traffic on the
new list, in terms of quantity and quality, as compared with the present Nav-l.
George.
==============
contact George Huxtable at
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
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