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March 17, 2004
arguments which i entered into today and did not win
- whether or not we should put an animated .gif on the top page of our intranet. i took the position that we should not, for a variety of extremely lucid usability reasons. i lost.
- whether or not the discussion email list at xdu should be replaced by forums. i took the position that it should. so far, i am losing.
- whether or not pointy-toed shoes are appropriate for all foot and body shapes and sizes. i took the position that they are not. stalemate pending further investigation.
Posted by lisa at March 17, 2004 04:12 PM | TrackBack
Comments
1. animated gif! nooooo!!!
2. I need to understand better what it is you guys want for a web forum.
3. I look like an idiot in pointy shoes. Like the wicked witch of the west.
So I agree with you on 2 out of 3, and have no opinion as yet on the third :)
Posted by: Sarah on March 17, 2004 07:37 PM
i think that opponents to the web forum on the list have done a poor job of conceiving what you and jason want to do (me included, but not cooper who's objection is so totally sui generis).
there's also this really, really vainglorious part of me that enjoys ranting and reading other peoples rants and feeling like there's a wide and appreciative silent readership for same. in so many ways, i hate myself.
but, i would caution against anything that will let dookies (who have enough of a problem fitting into the station as it is) selectively monitor what propaganda gets sent their way. i'm all for free-form radio and liberty and the american way, but, damn, our dookie djs live in their own world. i had one dookie trainee who brought a sleeve full of cds from home to play during the training session. i kept telling him, in the nicest, most euphemistic ways, that that's totally against the spirit and rules of the radio station ("we have this great big library; it's like a public treasure and a resource, blah blah")BUT HE DIDN'T get it. it would be nice to see more of them integrate into the station and take its policies and ideals to heart (and healthy for the station as well, of course).
but i suppose long, off-putting, ranting and cruel snarks is not the best way to integrate the dookies, so maybe i'm wrong from the start.
also, maybe if so many of us didn't call them that.
i dunno.
Posted by: rick! on March 17, 2004 10:27 PM
well, we never stated what problems we were attempting to solve. i think the only two problems are
a) the archive accessibility issue (i personally find our web archive opaque and difficult, but it may be something i need to get over). one aspect of this is helping people keep track of announcements. the lists could be used better to help with this, but we've been trying for years (or at least, i tried for years) to get the board to understand the basics of communicating effectively over email, to no avail. i have to say that joe has used the list to better effect than most GM's of the past.
b) allowing people to filter more easily, and not forcing them to make a blanket decision as to whether they will participate in online discussions or not. some people are clever with their email filtering, and tend not to be very understanding of people who aren't. people who don't "get" or use filtering are probably not going to change; if they wanted to spend time to learn how to use an email client effectively they would have already done so.
personally, i enjoy your rants. if anyone were to compile a book called "The best curmudgeonly rants of WXDU", you'd be right up there with cooper and ross, except A LOT funnier.
god, i wonder if i would make it into such a book? i hope so...
Posted by: lisa on March 17, 2004 10:40 PM
ok, so a) your comment won't post right away because i have to approve it first and b) you might get a server error but your comment probably posted anyway and c) previewing doesn't work so i've removed the preview button.