IML: Suggested changes to the Imperial Mailing List

[Kenyon Wills <imperialist1960@xxxxxxxxx>]

i find it a bit troubling having to
> sort through a couple hundred emails only to find 8
> or 10 that actually apply to my year 

==============

We've had this topic come up about once every 18
months in one form or another since as far back as I
can remember.

A couple of things to point out:
================================
1.  People can pick up techniques for their car even
if the post refers to a different year, and other "not
your year" folks have some tremendous depth that can
help in many situations.  

2.  1959-1975 are virtually the same car when it comes
to the engine and transmission.  So too with many
other eras that don't look the same on the outside. 
How-to-Divide?????: by body? by VIN? by engine size?
by air-filter application?  Not as easy as it sounds. 
Stuff works as it is right now...  

3.  Scanning the posts before reading and deleting the
ones that you don't want to read saves tremendous
time, and if you're not doing this, you're probably
reading some stuff that isn't worth the energy, but
that's your choice.

4.  We have a "Digest" version that collapses messages
into a tighter format - see club website where you
signed on to get that.

5.  Unlike so many other places, there is a sense (to
me, anyway) of human community here.  Text-based,
impersonal email as a medium is tough enough to deal
with.  I have derived tremendous benefit from reading
posts from Jim Martin (1939), Dick Benjamin (1967/68,
1982), Brad Hogg (1976-78, 1990, 1951), and all sorts
of other folks that have really worthwhile knowledge
to share.  They would not be accessible to me if I
were just on a 1960-63 list.  

6.  It's always OK to voice suggestions here.  One of
the problems that I have with some suggestions, and
I'm speaking very generally, and not to Jesse in
particular, is that this place is both free of charge
and already actively managed by volunteers that have
committed to hundreds or thousands of personal hours
of work each for our common benefit.  Some folks
actually don't delete anything - they've chosen to
read everything and keep an eye open for monkey
business so that the rest of us don't have to!  And
they do it for FREE on a volunteer basis.  That's a
good thing in my book, and worth more mention than it
gets here in my opinion.  

-We've been around for about 10 years now, and major
format changes just aren't in the cards, considering
that the system already works and that it's manned by
occasionally grouchy people who take suggestions like
that as uninformed about what's going on behind the
scenes.  We aren't other places, and other places
aren't us.  Most of the work is done out of sight - we
don't admonish anyone in public (ever seen anyone get
hollered at regarding "mistakes"/notice that things
run smoothly and folks play by the rules/don't make
"mistakes" more than once, usually?), and each time
that you see a new member added, remember that they
were screened by hand, and there is manual processing
being done all the time alongside the automated
process, unlike some of the other places on the web
that are all business and not very personal at all.
  

If you, dear reader, would like to see change, please
join the volunteer group, help manage this 700+ person
list from the inside, and learn what is involved in
running what we already have going.    

The energy spent sifting seems to be worth the time,
based on the relatively constant 600-700 person
membership, despite people coming and going as they
see fit.



Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.


-----------------  http://www.imperialclub.com  -----------------
This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please 
reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be 
shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the
Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm